I found that Acctivate really filled the need for a small business, but still had the capabilities of a larger program.”
Amber Hall, Owner
When was the last time you had a cup of coffee that made a difference in the world?
Craig and Amber Hall, owners of Equator Coffee Roasters, created their business to ensure just that – with every step of their processes thoughtful of social and environmental issues.
“By purchasing our coffee, you are not just satisfying your desire for a good cup of Joe,” Amber Hall said. “You are making a difference in the local economy and the life of farmers and their families, helping them to have a better life.”
Known for their high quality products, Equator Coffee Roasters is an organic coffee roasting company located in Canada, who roasts coffee that is environmentally friendly and fair trade certified.
“We have had our entire facility certified organic and we also remain very connected to our community,” she said.
Hall said that the company attributes much of their success to their continuous dedication to serving their customers well.
“We take our customer’s orders and we produce them within 24-hours and ship it out right away, so they are always ensured fresh product.”
Large software capabilities for small businesses
When Hall began searching for new inventory software for their business, she said her needs were focused on inventory management and the need to track the coffee from the bag of coffee all the way back to the farm where it was grown.
“We were much less accurate with things, we did not record roasting as it was done, it was all done after the fact,” Hall said.
Hall started looking for different options in software and found Acctivate. Hall explained that affordability was the deciding factor that encouraged her to go with Acctivate:
I found that Acctivate really filled the need for a small business, but still had the capabilities of a larger program. It turned out to be a good fit for our company,”
The roasting process
When we go to roast the coffee, we use the batch process manufacturing module and we have created product codes for that roasted coffee,” Hall said.
Batch process manufacturing
The bill of materials functionality of the batch process manufacturing module is a flexible feature for the company.
We have a blend called Algonquin Dark that is made up of three different coffees, so the bill of materials feature allows the system to know what three coffees they are and what proportions.”
After the roasting is done, they enter the output weight of the coffee.
It’s an easy to use feature for what you are trying to make and then you just have to put in your weight and your lot numbers and then it calculates the rest for you.
Track and Trace
The lot and serial number module is used to help track their coffee back to the farmer that grew it.
So if we ever had to do a recall, we would know exactly which coffee it was.”
Kitting
Hall said they use the kitting feature to convert their coffee that is sitting in a bin to packaged product, which allows them to only make what it is that they are going to sell.
When we sell that product, it takes those items out of inventory. It takes the weight of the roasted coffee and bag out of inventory.
Our inventory is all kept in weight of coffee and number of bags, but as we sell it, the kit pulls out what exactly is being used.
The system does what it’s supposed to do, and does it effectively.”