PGA Strengthens Business Training for Golf Pros 

by Grant Hewson
General Manager, Accomplish
23 February 2009

Golf professionals in New Zealand are about to get an important helping hand to improve their business and financial management skills.

The Professional Golfers' Association of New Zealand (or PGA), which has about 350 members,  has worked with accounting software provider, Accomplish Ltd, to support the PGA's training programme for golf professionals.

This arrangement includes Accomplish providing PGA members with copies of its popular CashManager software, and helping to train them on how to use that tool to improve their financial management capabilities.

"We see this as a very important benefit for our members, particularly in these recessionary times when any self employed person needs to keep better track of their business finances," says the PGA's acting chief executive, board member Murray Clark, of Auckland.

"We're delighted that Accomplish has become a partner.  I'm an accountant myself and I find their software very easy to use.   We've been working closely with them to ensure the program can readily handle all the things we think golf professionals can use, keeping track of everyday expenses and revenue, as well as providing instant access to financial management reports at the push of a button, processing GST returns automatically, and producing year end accounts for tax requirements."

Murray explains that the PGA's three year trainee progamme covers all aspects of golf and topics like running a retail golf shop.  "But many of our members are primarily golf enthusiasts rather than business people," he says.  "So we do want to help them improve their business skills to ensure their sustainable success in their chosen field."

Last year was the first time the PGA gave business development exposure to their trainees using CashManager, and Accomplish sponsored a "CashManager Cup" for the trainees' final golf game and year-end function in December.

This year the software is being provided to a new intake of 25 aspiring golf professionals.   Training assignments are also planned for second and third year trainees.
 
Murray adds:  "Golf clubs will also benefit from this new development.  We've also been working with Accomplish to ensure their CashManager software can efficiently handle all of a golf club's accounting needs."

"Anyone who has ever served as a secretary or treasurer of a golf club knows that handling membership subscriptions and renewals requires a lot of manhours and painstaking work.  With our help, Accomplish has added a lot of improvements to the 2009 edition of their software, which can now process invoices for subscription renewals automatically before the individual membership expiry date.  That new feature by itself will save golf club administrators a lot of headaches, time and money," Murray says.

Grant Hewson, general manager of Accomplish, says the company and its software development team has enjoyed working with the PGA to make its software as user-friendly and as useful as possible for both golf pros and golf clubs.

"Throughout our 20 year history we've worked alongside our 25,000 small to medium business enterprise clients around New Zealand and Australia, continually improving our product to better meet their diverse and ever-expanding needs.  We're there to serve and support our clients in a partnership approach."

Grant adds that Accomplish and the PGA plan to include golf club administrators in a series of regional demonstration and training sessions,  though details have yet to be finalised.  Golf clubs will be advised of sessions in their regions within the next few months.