NexLAN: Like No Other Accounting Business Partner
Who are we?
Now in our 25th year, NexLAN is a 12-person company in the cornfields of Illinois about 100 miles outside of Chicago—from where we support more than 300 accounting clients across 35 states plus Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Japan, Australia and Africa.
Importantly, we’re a “real” company with a physical office that dedicated employees all show up to, and not “dudes in pajamas spread all across the country.” This means you get fast responses because nobody’s waiting overnight for replies from colleagues in distant time zones or from overbooked outside contractors who juggle vendors. And you benefit from a stronger knowledge base because a lot of cross-pollination of ideas and expertise happens in the office as we support each other.
Making the 2020 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the US not as a startup—but 23 years in—speaks to the consistent trust we’ve built in the industry and the growing number of resulting referrals. Trust in your technology partner is imperative when it involves the accounting and ERP system that runs your critical day-to-day business functions and finances. See our core values in The NexLAN Client Bill of Rights.
And, while 99% of our work is performed remotely, we’re not too shy to show our faces and a little bit about ourselves here: Meet our team.
What do we do?
We do accounting software support—Acumatica and AccountMate—and only accounting software support.
OK, we also provide the accounting software itself and do “solutions which directly integrate with the accounting systems” such as EDI, credit card processing, automated e-mailing solutions, wireless bar code scanning, UPS/FedEx integration and business intelligence.
But we don’t sell servers or PCs or anti-virus software or phone systems or online backup solutions, or set up hardware or install firewalls—all those are best done by local IT support personnel.
And we’re not CPAs, but we speak accounting fluently so we understand the GL impact of the configurations and transactions.
One area of possible overlap with your local IT is that we are experts in Microsoft SQL Server installation, care and feeding. If your local IT support gang is skilled in this area, then we defer to them; but, if not, we’re happy to coordinate support in this area.
How do we do it?
We almost never have to be “boots on the ground” to your installation, as we connect remotely—via Remote Desktop, GoToMeeting, etc.—to your systems. We’re available for onsite training or consulting if you’d like, but we’ve never met the majority of our clients face-to-face.
Our business hours are 7am to 5pm Central US time and it’s not unusual we have to install updates or modifications off-hours.
What’s it gonna cost you?
We provide *free* telephone and e-mail support. So never hesitate to contact us with questions! An event does become billable if we have to connect to your system remotely though—only when you need it, as we don’t lock you into a service contract.
Don’t worry, you only pay for the time required—we bill in quarter hour (15-minute) increments with no minimum—and we keep you updated via e-mail as tasks progress and we invoice weekly with complete technical details—so you’re well aware of costs and project status as we progress.
For projects like system implementation or customization, we’re happy to provide a not-to-exceed quote up front.
Keep your money in your pocket
It’s our job to talk you out of things you don’t need, like unnecessary custom programming, so you can direct your money to the things that will help your business grow.
We plan projects up front to minimize your long-term cost—for example, if we’re doing custom programming, we do it in a way that won’t become a costly re-programming nightmare every time you need to update the software in coming years.
Partnering with NexLAN at-a-glance
1. We’re strong in mid-tier
The majority of our clients are $5M to $500M in size. They need software that does both accounting and ERP, with 5 to 100+ concurrent users.
They’re wholesale distributors and manufacturers with big inventories and/or multiple locations and entities. Most of them have unique, mission-critical requirements in their business that their software must support. The weirder the requirements, the more NexLAN excels at helping them with a flexible system!
We understand the financial side of your business process workflow, business analysis, and inventory management.
“Morning Kevin,
I just wanted to mention that we continue to be struck by the level of responsiveness and information you folks provide. We are working through a positive pay issue and were digging around in your support materials. We have found so many pieces of useful information about capabilities and even useful basic overall configuration guidelines that we weren’t aware of after using AccountMate for almost ten years working with another reseller. I think with your help we are going to be able to get our system fine-tuned to a level we haven’t reached before and eliminate some nagging little issues we thought we just had to live with.
Please let your folks know we appreciate their efforts on our behalf!”
–Director of Technology at an outdoor digital billboard company. July 6, 2023
2. We’re on it
We’re good and we know our stuff. We do what we say we’ll do, with no drama. We implement and update your system without disrupting your business. We support our clients with free telephone and email conversations.
We’re fast—there’s no grass growing under our feet! Our team is efficient and works really well together, turning most things around in a day or two. Implementation of a new system is typically a 60-day to 90-day affair for medium sized enterprises, not months and years. We provide Emergency Contact Numbers for our entire staff, in case a critical issue arises off-hours.
3. Our clients stick with us
We have the highest long-term client retention rate in the business. Many of our clients found us after becoming frustrated with their previous reseller. We’ll bury you in references so you can hear from our clients yourself; just ask for a list. Here are a few testimonials to get you started.
Our service level doesn’t let up after your initial purchase. If you need help posting a receivable, or you have a glitch in your software, or your person who knew how to run a critical report left, or you have an idea for changing something in your inventory management—for all of that and more, we’re here to help.
Bottom line: When you work with a good support organization like NexLAN, it removes friction from your system!
Industry Leadership
Selection of your implementation and support partner is at least as important as selection of the accounting system itself (see our Selecting a Business Partner). Your business is in good hands with our consistent, high-quality expertise and service. We keep your accounting system running well to remove friction from your workflow. And we keep it aligned with your company’s changing needs over the years so you can best serve your customers well and profitably.
1. AccountMate awards
National Sales for Software Maintenance Agreements 2022-2014; National Sales for SQL Product 2021-2018/2016/2013; National Sales for LAN 2021/2010/2008; Central Region Outstanding Sales Achievement 2012-2009, 2005/2004; President’s Award 2007.
2. Industry awards and certifications
2022-2021 Accounting Today VAR 100; 2020 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the US; Progressive Accountant Bob Scott’s Insight’s VAR Stars 2022-2012, 2009; Accounting Today/Technology Pacesetter 2009-2005; Accounting Today/Technology Killer VAR 2005; Microsoft Certified Partner 2010-1998, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner 2010-2008; President/CEO Kevin Stroud nominated to Ernst & Young “Illinois Entrepreneur of the Year” 2004.
3. Corporate responsibility
NexLAN believes in being an active member of the community. We are strong supporters of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Danville Area and the Danville Boys & Girls Club.
4. Employment opportunities
We are often looking for talented, dedicated individuals to join our team. We list our current employment opportunities through the Vermilion Advantage Corporation Job Board, where you may apply for positions with NexLAN and many other employers.
NexLAN also has a paid intern program for new and recently graduated programmers and developers—if that’s you then don’t hesitate to contact us directly to inquire. It’s our way of meeting, and helping to develop, local technical talent. Top interns are first in line for consideration when there’s an employee opening in our growing technical team.
