M+M, Inc. began in 2005 by specializing in importing a variety of European firearms and related accessories. In 2014, through a collaborative effort, a design for a new type of rifle began to take shape. Relying on the founder’s engineering and aerospace manufacturing knowledge and experience importing high-quality AK style rifles, a new rifle design emerged, utilizing technologies and materials not previously used in the manufacture of firearms of this type. This approach led to a design embracing a minimalistic approach to the number of parts used in creating a complete firearm. The new rifle, designated the M10X™, is a revolutionary modular platform for accurately and reliably delivering a 7.62×39 round.
Regardless of the company’s evolution, M+M remains true to the values that they brought to the business from its inception: Accuracy-Quality-Reliability-Integrity™. These are also qualities they expect from their suppliers – including software.
Mike Meier, President and Founder of M+M, recalls, “When we started hearing about automation software for our Federal Firearms License Bound-Book, we started investigating options. One stood out from the rest because of their manufacturing and firearms industry knowledge. As a result, we selected Easy Bound Book® Lite by Business Automation Specialists of Minnesota (BASM).”
M+M transferred their ATF records to Easy Bound Book Lite with help from BASM, and started using it for their Bound Book record keeping. Shortly after, the company attended the industry’s biggest trade show. Upon return to the office the following Monday morning, they were greeted by an ATF Industry Operations Investigator waiting to do an inspection. Mike stated, “While that was bad timing and quite a surprise, the audit went perfectly thanks to having all of our records in Easy Bound Book. We passed with flying colors and no issues.”
As manufacturing started to pick up, Mike knew that their entry level accounting software, QuickBooks, wouldn’t be able to keep up, and that they needed an integrated accounting, manufacturing and bound-book solution. Luckily, Easy Bound Book offers three versions, one of which is fully integrated into Microsoft Dynamics NAV, which was the only viable option for M+M and their manufacturing needs.
“We gained a lot of features, that we didn’t have in QuickBooks, by moving to NAV. NAV eliminated many manual processes and work-arounds. In fact, NAV was able to mirror our processes, systems and procedures – so it works the way we do.”
Moving to NAV improves the timeliness and visibility of information available to M+M. Due to the manual tracking and record keeping needed while using QuickBooks, having accurate information that was visible to the whole organization wasn’t possible at the click of a button. Unique business processes like pre-payments and consignments inventory required workarounds in QuickBooks. Intermediate accounts had to be created due to limited business and integration functionality. Now with all systems integrated into NAV, information is available across the organization in one location. The company is now able to move to a web-based sales process as a result. The time savings, easy access to real-time information, and streamlined processes have impacted every facet of the business. The company, with BASM’s help, converted to a cloud based version of Easy Bound Book integrated with Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP so they wouldn’t have to manage internal servers and the IT staff required.
“We are thrilled with the functionality of NAV and the fully integrated version of EasyBoundBook,” stated Mike. “NAV is uniquely suited to companies like ours that use many subcontractors. It is important to us that we have accurate costing of our products. NAV tracks all the subcontractor costs and applies them to our cost of product. EasyBoundBook Integrated keeps track of all our purchased and manufactured products, outgoing products, incoming products, and records the acquisition and disposition records automatically. We have three FFL licenses, and now all the transactions that need to be recorded between them happen automatically too. Because the systems are so seamlessly integrated, we can get our Federal Excise Tax report out of NAV, thanks to Easy Bound Book’s FET Report. I really can’t imagine a better solution for a firearms manufacturer than NAV with EasyBoundBook Integrated and software specialists who truly understand automation and the firearms industry.”