QUICK READ:

  • Founded in 1898, Abernathy Company is a family-owned business that manufactures and sells professional-grade cleaning products for commercial and residential needs. It also provides industrial cleaning services and warehousing leases and services.
  • The company moved from Chempax to NetSuite ERP because NetSuite supports areas such as payroll, HR, CRM, and ecommerce.
  • Abernathy uses NetSuite for ERP, manufacturing, payroll, HR, CRM, and ecommerce. It also has a Shopify website that’s integrated with NetSuite.
  • Using NetSuite SuitePeople Payroll and NetSuite SuitePeople HR, the company cut payroll processing from a day and a half to less than an hour.
  • Overall, Abernathy estimates it has reduced labor hours by at least 10% since implementing NetSuite SuitePeople.
  • The company is implementing NetSuite SuitePeople Workforce Management for labor time tracking.


About Abernathy Company

The family-owned Abernathy Company started as a laundry business in 1898. It’s first diversification was to start making its own soap to save money. Through the years it expanded into the production of chemical products such as detergents, degreasers, and other cleaning solutions. Today, it sells products for janitorial needs, pet care, jewelry cleaning, and auto detailing.

The business also offers cleaning services to mills and industrial companies, restaurants, and other businesses. Another major portion of Abernathy Company’s business is logistics/warehousing services and leasing more than 500,000 square feet of warehouse space to other companies in Texarkana, Arkansas.

Manufacturing more than 2,000 SKUs in Texarkana, Abernathy has grown to $20 million in annual revenue and 67 employees. The company sells online through various sites and through a small sales team.

Consolidating Business Functions Brings Big Benefits

Prior to implementing NetSuite in 2017, Abernathy used Chempax, a system specifically designed for manufacturers. However, there were many business functions Chempax did not support, such as payroll, HR, marketing, and ecommerce.

Instead of continuing with spreadsheets and disconnected systems that required a lot of manual work, the general manager at that time sought a more consolidated system. NetSuite ERP not only brought multiple functions under one umbrella but improved access to information and reporting.

“I like the reporting in NetSuite a lot better than what we had in Chempax,” Controller Mike Cherry said. “You almost had to know how to do SQL programming to get any report done before. The stuff in NetSuite is intuitive for getting reports done.”

Now, most of Abernathy key business functions are managed in either NetSuite or a complementary system integrated with the ERP, greatly reducing the time it takes to compile reports and process payroll. The simplicity and intuitive nature of NetSuite ERP lets the company’s controller and other members of the management team quickly see real-time information and reports. They can also access this data anywhere since NetSuite is cloud-based.

Faster, Easier HR and Payroll Processing

Prior to adding the NetSuite SuitePeople Payroll module in 2019 and NetSuite SuitePeople HR module in early 2020, Abernathy used Peachtree Accounting to manage payroll. Once NetSuite SuitePeople was in place, the controller handed off payroll duties to another team member because hours and costs are now much easier to track. When the pandemic hit, Abernathy had to track hours missed due to COVID-19 separately for payroll tax records and employee retention tax credits, and NetSuite SuitePeople Payroll made that straightforward.

Payroll tasks that used to consume about a day and a half are now done in less than an hour.

"We were able to easily document all the employee hours for those COVID years. Documents needed for our Employee Retention Tax Credit application would have been a nightmare if we didn’t have NetSuite SuitePeople." –Lylyn Mitchell, Director of Special Projects


With payroll linked to the HR system, earnings, deductions, and tax liabilities are automatically calculated and hit the correct accounts as they flow to the general ledger. Payroll and HR reports as well as HR KPIs are readily available with the right role access.

NetSuite SuitePeople HR also helps with hiring because Abernathy can easily manage its workforce and add employees as needed.

Abernathy Group started as a laundry business in 1898 and has since moved into cleaning products manufacturing, commercial cleaning services, and logistics/warehousing services.

Speed + Accuracy + Visibility

NetSuite has lightened the workload for Abernathy’s controller and accounting department. Role-based permissions mean employees can find the information they need—but not anything beyond their scope—instead of one person handling all of those requests. Controller Mike Cherry has seen additional time savings from the fact that NetSuite gives him the confidence to delegate tasks, something he lacked with the prior system.

Financial reports are faster to create and more accurate, and the cloud-based nature of the system means employees can access the system from anywhere.

I appreciate the ability to drill down into transactions and share requested information quickly. Plus, there’s no telling how many requests never even reach me because users can access the data themselves. –Mike Cherry, Controller

Easy access to this real-time data is driving faster, more informed business decisions. For example, the company monitors actual spending versus budget each month, as well as other key performance metrics. If managers see actuals or other KPIs such as gross margin, accounts receivable, and overdue accounts that don’t align with the budget, they can immediately start asking questions and resolve problems to bring that part of the operation back in line. The sooner these questions are asked, the sooner issues are addressed.

"Data flows automatically into the GL. Financial reports and key performance metrics are calculated automatically, in real time. With all the data from the system, we’re able to analyze and identify needed process improvements, resulting in faster decision-making and cost savings." –Lylyn Mitchell, Director of Special Projects


Overall, the company estimates NetSuite ERP has cut down total labor hours by at least 10%.

Driving More Value from the Suite

The company will soon replace its time-tracking system with NetSuite SuitePeople Workforce Management. NetSuite SuitePeople Workforce Management will help the team improve work scheduling and address issues faster since it is part of the unified suite rather than a third-party system.

Abernathy continues to explore new ways to leverage the platform and centralize more business functions. The manufacturer used Blue Ridge for demand planning but ended its subscription this year and plans to evaluate how NetSuite Demand Planning and Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) can help improve its processes. After 125 years of entrepreneurship and growth, Abernathy’s future is still full of promise.

Ready to reduce overtime costs and spend a lot less time resolving scheduling conflicts and fixing inaccurate timecards? Find out how NetSuite SuitePeople Workforce Management makes like much easier for managers.