Furniture, Appliance Store Seeks VAR's POS Expertise

To Tina Lynch, owner of Kent Furniture & Appliance, The Information Advantage and Cougar Mountain have been valuable partners in growing her furniture and appliance store. The Information Advantage is a Kent, WA-based VAR owned by Kay Cook, who has 10 years of experience as the owner of a bookkeeping service bureau using Cougar Mountain software. Kent Furniture & Appliance originally purchased Cougar Mountain General Ledger software in an early DOS version. The store now relies on The Information Advantage and Cougar Mountain for point of sale (POS) software and integrated accounting and inventory solutions.

After the store shifted its retail focus from television to appliances, Lynch became more reliant on Cougar Mountain Accounting. "We needed Cougar Mountain's serialized inventory capability for tracking our appliances by serial number," says Lynch. "We rely on The Information Advantage to keep our system upgraded and networked properly." Using modules installed and customized by Cook, the retailer tracks daily sales, inventory movement, customer history, and cash flow. "Tools that are essential to operating a business," Lynch notes.

Cook installed Cougar Mountain Point of Sale software and customized Kent Furniture's POS invoices to meet the needs of appliance sales. Cook sits in on every server and network upgrade, installing Cougar Mountain and making sure it runs properly at every station. She brings clients a depth of knowledge in accounting, Washington state tax procedures, and general business procedures. For instance, Washington requires that income be reported as retail, wholesale, or exempt. Cook has modified the Cougar Mountain profit center reporting feature to segment those sales, a modification that has become standard in every install. She adds value that is practically invisible to her clients -- but not to Lynch and Kent Furniture & Appliance.