California Apparel News

New names could mean new opportunities for the more than 100-year-old financial management consulting and tech company Smyyth.

Last month, the New Jersey–based company announced it changed its name to Smyyth from the bulkier moniker Smyth Family of Companies. And last year, the company announced Carixa would be the new name for its finance-management system.

Smyyth executives have been traveling the world to spread word on the Carixa system. According to the company, Carixa can slash the time and overhead costs manufacturers and brands spend on many of their back-office tasks. Carixa automates many of the accounts-receivable tasks, which many companies still do manually.

On June 11, Smyyth executives Karen McCann, Yesinne Alvarez and Brian Hoppaugh produced a Carixa seminar at the Manhattan Beach Marriott hotel in Manhattan Beach, Calif., that was attended by representatives of several companies, including apparel manufacturers Hurley and 7 For All Mankind.

When the program was released as Carixa in 2009, it was a user-friendly, web-based platform that used Microsoft SQL server database technology, McCann explained. At its most basic, the program automates the accounts-receivable tasks with 10 modules, which include credit management, customer management, collection management, deduction management and cash application.

Carixa also offers the Retriever module, which uses web-crawling technology to access FedEx and UPS websites and internal databases. Retriever can download data needed to match and reconcile accounts of delivery. This module cuts time in gathering proofs of delivery and other documents, which can help match and reconcile accounts between a company and its partners.

Carixa’s Credit Management module helps forecast the risk of dealing with a retail partner with tools such as Smyyth Payment Quality Index (PQI). Similar to a credit-scoring service, the PQI can help forecast how customers will pay by aggregating payment-history information from other companies. The Smyyth Cash Flow Ratio can help evaluate a company’s short-term liquidity. This program also keeps an audit trail for companies’ credit activity with each other.

“We’re sharing our universe of trade-payment information based on 42 different industry trade groups,” McCann said. “We have literally millions of lines of trade available to [our customers] on a monthly basis.”

Carixa works with all accounting/ERP systems, such as SAP, Oracle and Mas 90. Carixa’s Credit Management module accesses business credit reports and trade-payment experiences to show how a company and its peers are being paid by retailers. “Either you are being paid a whole lot better or a whole lot worse than everybody else,” McCann said. “And that is good information.”

With its Reconciliation module, Carixa matches SKU, line items, documents and purchase orders in a user-friendly way that is easy to view, McCann said. The module takes human error out of records keeping and can help resolve disputes between manufacturers and retailers.

The presentation included a series of case studies involving Smyyth’s clients, including a global company that was using several different software systems to manage its accounts receivables, Hoppaugh said. Smyyth consolidated all the information into a single reporting package.

“It was the first time the client was able to see their total exposure across all [divisions],” McCann said.

Another Carixa module can help in dealing with the tax man. The Carixa STX module collects and manages sales- and use-tax certificates. Better records management can equip companies with improved knowledge of some of their tax responsibilities and perhaps avoid some tax audits, according to a Smyyth statement.

“We want to be the place where you centralize information,” Alvarez said.

Sophisticated financial systems are increasingly a must-have for mid- and large-size companies, said Ronald S. Friedman, principal with accounting firm Stonefield Josephson Inc. “Small companies do fine with Quicken,” Friedman said, referring to a well-regarded financial-management program. “My retail clients have no problem with Quicken. But once a manufacturer makes more than $10 million to $20 million, they need a more sophisticated computer system because they demand more information from a management standpoint. They want to know everything about inventory, accounts payable, accounts receivable and the general ledger.”

There has been a growing market for financial-management software over the past 25 years, Friedman said, adding that the software systems can be expensive—sometimes costing up to $500,000. Also, many apparel companies look for a perfect mix where a financial-management program is perfectly integrated with the company’s other software, such as ERP (enterprise resource planning). The strength of most software lies either with the financial-management tools or with other tasks important to apparel companies, according to Friedman. “You can’t hit perfection in everything,” he said.