Central Pro Supply drives higher margins and improves visibility across teams with Phocas

Central Pro Supply is a leading distributor of irrigation and landscape supplies with locations across the US and Canada. For years, the business struggled with complex reporting tools, low user adoption and time-consuming financial processes that made it difficult to understand performance across departments.

Central Pro Supply runs its business on Infor CloudSuite Distribution (CSD) and initially used its native reporting tools. As the team looked to extend those capabilities with deeper analysis and more flexible performance tracking, they evaluated a range of options. Phocas stood out for its ease of use, speed and ability to give every team member access to actionable insights, making it the ideal layer on top of Infor.

We spoke with Holly Horner, Director of Information Systems, about how Central Pro Supply is using Phocas Analytics, Financial Statements and Rebates alongside Infor CSD to empower sales, finance and operational teams to be more autonomous in their analysis. When these tools are connected to an ERP, they help teams measure performance, improve accountability and uncover margin opportunities that previously required manual workarounds to surface.

Holly is one of Phocas’ most enthusiastic champions inside the business and appreciates how the software makes data accessible for everyone - from seasoned branch managers to new members of the sales team.

Creating a data-driven culture across the business

When Central Pro Supply implemented Phocas, they standardized dashboards across the organization so every employee - regardless of role - starts with the same three KPIs: total sales, margin dollars and margin percentage; benchmarked against last year.

“Giving everyone the same starting point means people are having the same conversations about performance.

“It also makes it easier for each department to drill into the metrics that matter to them from the core data – they will then want to see margins by product or margins by branch,”says Holly.

Dashboards were then customized for sales, branch operations, AR, AP, purchasing, and finance. Adoption was immediate.

“We even joke that we need a ‘Phocas jar’ - someone drops in a quarter every time the platform comes up in conversation,” she says.

Putting data to work in sales

Phocas has become an essential tool for Central Pro Supply’s field sales team. Reps now use dashboards to track customer behavior, uncover missed opportunities and prepare for conversations with buyers.

Salespeople can access metrics that provide more information about their customers’ buying patterns, such as customers who purchased during the early part of the season but have not repurchased or accounts with declining purchases within specific product categories.

“Our sales team sells sprinklers - these aren’t data analysts,” says Holly. “But they’re able to walk into a customer meeting with insights the customer doesn’t have. That’s incredibly powerful.”

One sales rep recently shared that Phocas helped him identify customers who ordered during last year’s extreme weather events, giving him a precise call list to start the season.

Improving accountability and clarity for AR, AP and operations

Every operational department uses Phocas for visibility and prioritization of daily tasks. The Accounts Receivable team tracks daily call lists, outstanding balances and payment trends directly in Phocas, helping them understand their impact on cashflow and stay ahead of delinquencies.

“People in different parts of the business want data, but they shouldn’t have to learn SQL or dig through complicated reports,” says Holly. “Phocas gives them what they need in a format that makes sense.”

Purchasing and inventory teams monitor stock levels, evaluate supplier performance, and understand shifting demand across locations.

Streamlining financial reporting

Before using Phocas Financial Statements, Central Pro Supply relied on a system of more than 70 interconnected spreadsheets, which burdened the finance team with broken formulas and inaccuracies. Now, financial statements for each branch are delivered through a single source of truth.

“Everything is seamless - the look and feel is the same as Analytics and managers can view their specific statements in real time,” says Holly. "This has significantly reduced month-end reporting time and improved confidence in the numbers across the organization."

Maximizing margins with rebate visibility

Rebate management has been transformative within the company. Previously, rebate earnings were difficult to track, and the company often didn’t know if they hit tiers until cheques arrived months later.

“With Phocas, we can track every rebate program to the penny,” says Holly. “We’ve even renegotiated some tiers because we finally had the visibility we needed.”

The team can now:

• Adjust purchasing strategies in real time

• Identify which manufacturers are most profitable

• Avoid missed rebates

• Ensure overall margin is accurate

“Previously we missed thousands of dollars in rebates simply because the information wasn’t easy to access,” Holly explains. “Now we don’t leave money on the table.”