Lynn’s Dakotamart Grocery Stores keep small towns fed, then bring it all home with OSAS

Starting in 1968 with one grocery store in Faith, South Dakota, Lynn Feist created an enduring company that now serves western and central South Dakota with 10 grocery stores as well as liquor and convenience shops. Headquartered in Rapid City, the secret of Lynn’s Inc.’s success is simple. “We’ve survived by using our experience and putting good stores in markets of 500 to 10,000 people,” says Rodney Messmer, Administrative Manager of Lynn’s, Inc. “That’s our niche.”

Though they have thrived by staying away from big box markets, Lynn’s is a significant regional economic powerhouse. With over 500 employees, they are the largest independent purchaser from the regional Nash Finch distribution hub. Lynn’s Inc. benefits from a unique strategy of letting individual store owners make buying and management decisions to serve their respective markets. “This lets the store in Pierre respond to their own hunting and fishing season needs, lets our Sturgis store get ready for the motorcycle rally, and lets our Custer store prepare for tourist season the way they know best” says Messmer. In addition to the Pierre, Custer and Sturgis locations they also have stores in Lead, Ft. Thompson, Belle Fourche, Hot Springs, Faith, Martin and a Dollar Giant and liquor store in Rapid City. But when the receipts, payroll, and invoices arrive at the central office for processing, Lynn’s relies on OPEN SYSTEMS Accounting Software (OSAS) from Open Systems to do the heavy accounting.

Distributed decision-making, centralized accounting

“We do all of the ‘final stage’ accounting in our Rapid City office,” says Messmer. Each store does their own recording of invoices, payroll, and receipts, and sends it to headquarters. From there, Lynn’s staff of three accountants processes all of the payables with four workstations and a central server.

“We do profit and loss statements, all accounts payable and payroll checks, and bank reconciliation through OSAS,” says Messmer. “The stores may order directly, but the invoices are all paid centrally.”

Customization is key

Lynn’s has been using OSAS for their back-end accounting since 1986, so it’s no surprise that the original reason for purchasing the software is still a major reason Lynn’s still uses it. “I’ve made my own enhancements to the software,” says Messmer, who has a computer programming degree. “I like the fact that I’m still able to do that.” From its inception in 1976, OSAS has shipped with free source code and an open architecture that allows changes in the program. “Sometimes it’s adding a field, or changing the header on a report,” says Messmer. “Little tweaks here and there, not major stuff.”

Over the years, Messmer has reported his adjustments back to Open Systems, and in kind some of his suggestions were made part of new versions of OSAS. “I don’t have to do some of my enhancements anymore, because it’s part of the software now,” says Messmer. “Over the last 27 years, the list of things that I have to do has gotten a lot shorter.”

A “forgiving” accounting program

Messmer finds that training staff members in OSAS is easy, and he encourages his employees to try new things. “OSAS is very forgiving,” says Messmer. “I tell my new staff members that if you’re entering numbers, or picking account or employee numbers or whatever, take a shot at it. You can always back out, and you’re not going to screw anything up.”

With both graphical and text-based options, Lynn’s employees have chosen to stick with the classic textbased interface. They find that the keyboard-driven entry is the fastest way to get their considerable load of work done.

Lynn’s and Open Systems move forward together

Just as Lynn’s has honed their focus over the years into a successful business model, OSAS continues to move forward to satisfy new and long-term users alike. Lynn’s plans to implement the OSAS Fixed Assets application and to take advantage of new features such as general ledger period locking. “We have that issue all the time with people putting things unknowingly into periods we’re already done with,” says Messmer. “That’s a great feature.”

For more than a quarter century, Open Systems and Lynn’s have enjoyed a relationship of growth and change. “I’m glad that Open Systems is still around today, and that they’ve upgraded their software over the years and stayed current,” says Messmer. “We feel like we made a good decision twenty-some years ago.”