OUTMIN X DEVOUR BAKERY

How a Local Bakery Owner Found Relief From Accounting Headaches

Yvonne Murphy is the indomitable owner behind Devour Bakery, an artisan bakery and café in Ballinrobe. She found much-needed relief with Oumin’s automated accounting solution. We talked to Yvonne about how she went from being doubtful to grateful after choosing Outmin's AI-powered software platform. Outmin not only saves her nearly €35,000 per year but, most importantly, reclaims back lost admin time.

Challenge

From civil servant to the powerhouse behind a successful 50-seater bakery & café

Working for the Garda PULSE unit in Castlebar was a secure job that Yvonne never planned on moving away from. Following a family health scare and a prolonged sick leave, the entrepreneurial mother of three realised she needed to take action.

Yvonne had previously trained to be a pastry chef. This was her dormant superpower, and soon it would become the family lifeline.

“I went back to making cakes to try to supplement our income and the losses. It was about 2010, three kids under three and a half. I was just trying to keep the whole show on the road,” says Yvonne.

Juggling her civil servant job and her own business from home wasn’t easy but she persevered. Soon enough, the fruits of her labour became increasingly apparent, and her decision to ultimately leave her previous job came to fruition.

“I built up a good customer base, supplying bread, tarts, and baked goods to local shops. I took a career break from the civil service. I felt there was an opportunity and a risk at the same time.”

In 2012, she rented her first production unit, and in 2014 a second one, also opening a small café. In 2017, Yvonne knocked the walls in between the two units and expanded it into a 50-seater café. Now, she’s exclusively servicing her own business.

However, as success came quickly, it became necessary to manage various administrative tasks such as handling finances, keeping accounting records, managing payroll, and filing tax returns.

Amidst the numbers battle, Yvonne (and family) struggled to stay afloat

“I absolutely hated and dreaded year-end because the accountant used to just drive me crazy every January. You give him everything and then the questions would come back, and they would be absolutely ridiculous.
You’d have to go find the receipt, scan it, send it on. It could be just for the most basic stuff. It drove me crazy. Between company accounts and personal accounts, my husband and I wouldn’t speak for six weeks. You know, it was just the breaking of our marriage.”

Yvonne was facing a problem that many hospitality business owners and operators struggle with.

She had an expensive accounting team who would often overwhelm her with even more work.

She was wasting so much time with paperwork and manual data entry.
She struggled to maintain a clear and timely picture of Devour Bakery’s financial health. As Yvonne puts it, “It was like putting the bucket under the leak a year and a half later.”

Although she had hired accounting professionals and accounting software to save extra time, she ended up running much of the financial processes and routine tasks herself.

“I’d be quite meticulous. I’d spend hours and hours and hours making sure everything was right, making sure everything was reconciled. So that I could get a figure at the end of the month to know whether I was up or down. Because I always wanted to know.”

If hospitality owners are doing all of this, how can they focus on growing their food and beverage business and providing the best experience for their customers?

For many hospitality operators like Yvonne, the overwhelm from financial management becomes unsustainable.

Solution

From scepticism to a no-brainer decision

When Yvonne heard about accounting automation software and service from Outmin, she was sceptical. She knew something needed to change, but she was afraid of relinquishing control of her financial records. Could a Fintech startup (disrupting the accounting industry) with artificial intelligence and data science do it all?

Her strategy was firing question after question to the team. No stone left unturned

“All the questions I had were answered. And the first couple of phone calls, I used to sit there very cynically. So I came up with more stuff to throw at them. And everything was being answered with confidence and ease. It was a no-brainer in the end that this has to happen, you know?”

And what exactly pushed Yvonne over the edge to turn her financial accounting over to Outmin’s accounting process automation?

“I think it was the realisation that this is going to save me so much time. And also when you put the cost on it. All the hours, the systems you have, be it QuickBooks or be it Sage, your payroll system, your accountancy fees at the end of the year for a person who doesn’t really give you what they should be giving you. When you add all that up, it’s an absolute no-brainer.”

Outmin’s automated accounting solution empowers Yvonne to take fearless action

Fuelled by Yvonne’s determination and rigour, the transition process to Outmin’s accounting technology was smooth.

Outmin gave her exactly what she needed – an accounting tool with a full accounting department that:

Manages Yvonne’s accounts, payroll, Profit & Loss
Automates manual tasks like bookkeeping and invoice tracking
Takes care of tax and compliance, like filing her VAT every 2 months
Takes care of Year End reporting (6 weeks without talking to her husband? Not anymore)
Seamlessly connects with her bank accounts, hospitality tech, Point-of-Sales systems, supplier portals, and delivery providers
Besides financial integrations, connects with people management and time and attendance systems
Provides her with a timely report that gives her a crystal clear picture of her finances (cash flow, outstanding invoices, profit and loss…)
Automates invoice and receipt submission directly into Outmin’s mobile app. Easy-peasy.

And above all, Outmin gives Yvonne peace of mind.

“Outmin is supporting me as a management accountant on a weekly, daily basis. I never feel as if I can’t contact them, be it Christine in my payroll or be it Raymond in my accounts. It can be as fast and easy as texting your friend. You have a relationship with someone who knows your finances in and out.”

Result

Yvonne is saving time and money (and enjoying Paris!)

“Outmin has given me the confidence first to be able to know whether I’m doing right or wrong”

With the power of machine learning and Large Language Models (LLM), Yvonne has real data and powerful insights that can help her make informed decisions on the future of her business.

No more guessing. Financial clarity is at her fingertips.

She’s also reduced repetitive tasks and saved a lot of time. And doing things she wasn’t able to do before.

“What Outmin has given me is time. There were probably 8 years of my kids’ lives where I never picked them up from school. Without Outmin, I’d have 15 emails from an accountant the first week of January. Fast forward a few years, and you have Outmin. This year, for example, I took off to Paris on the 12th of January, and I didn’t come back until the 15th.”

How cool is that?

With Outmin, Yvonne is also saving a lot of money. Take her word for it:

You could be saving yourself about €35,000 a year.

The hospitality industry needs automation in accounting to solve its financial headaches, and we’re here to serve you.

Are you also ready for a transformation that will bring you more time and money?

Book a Demo

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Outmin has helped us dramatically reduce costs and we now get simple weekly and monthly financial reports. They’ve solved one of our biggest business problems while saving us money.

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