How International Slab Sales escaped spreadsheet budgeting with IDU-Concept.

International Slab Sales (ISS) turned to IDU-Concept to escape a spreadsheet-bound finance function. A leading supplier of premium imported stone and engineered surfaces, ISS was founded in 2000 and has grown into a trusted name with more than 130 people across multiple branches nationwide and a diverse customer base. The company owns three distinct brands — Rudi's Choice, Eezi Quartz, and LUTUM — and holds the exclusive Southern African distribution rights for both Caesarstone and Infinity Surfaces.

Running a multi-branch operation means financial data flows in from every direction — and for ISS, pulling that information together was a significant drain on the finance function. Consolidating budgets across multiple cost centres relied on spreadsheets, a process that was slow, error-prone, and difficult to keep accurate as figures changed. Each cycle meant chasing inputs, reconciling versions, and absorbing the risk of human error compounding across branches.

The second pressure was structural. Managers outside finance had little ability to find or interpret the financial data relevant to their areas. Rather than working with the numbers directly, they depended on finance to surface what they needed — creating a bottleneck that slowed decision-making and left operational leaders one step removed from the information that should have been guiding them.

ISS implemented IDU-Concept in 2013. The finance and budgeting modules replaced the spreadsheet cycle with structured, line-item budgets — moving the business away from broad percentage adjustments and towards granular accountability across every cost centre. Consolidation, which had previously absorbed considerable time and carried real risk of error, became a reliable, repeatable process.

The change that registered most clearly across the business, though, was what happened when managers outside finance sat down with the numbers. IDU-Concept gave them direct access to financial data through an interface that required neither deep financial literacy nor patience with laboured navigation.

"What attracted me to IDU from the beginning was the way it puts across financial information to non-financial people. It made it so much simpler for them to understand the information, without having to go through multiple clicks to get to what they were looking for." — Clint du Plessis, Finance Manager, ISS

That directness carried through to the leadership level as well.

"From a management point of view, it has given us confidence that the information we are looking at is accurate, timely and detailed enough for decision-making." — Andrew Dua, Director at ISS

The operational picture at ISS shifted across four areas. Budgets are completed faster and with greater accuracy, and management reports are generated without the cycle of consolidation effort that previously consumed the finance team. Cost-centre consolidation — once a slow, error-prone exercise spread across multiple spreadsheet versions — now runs cleanly and reliably. Non-financial managers across the business have direct access to the financial data relevant to their areas, without routing requests through finance or navigating complexity to reach what they need. And the move to detailed line-item budgeting has brought a level of granularity and accountability that broad percentage-based adjustments never could — giving both managers and the finance team a sharper basis for planning and scrutiny.

"Working with ISS has been a great example of how collaboration drives success. By adopting IDU-Concept, ISS has been able to unlock efficiency and empower their teams, and we are proud to be part of that transformation." — Mark Sayle, Account Manager, IDU

"The support team at IDU are fantastic. I would classify myself as a power user today thanks to them. The system might look daunting at first, but you very quickly realise how straightforward and easy it is to use." — Clint du Plessis, Finance Manager, ISS

"IDU has made it much simpler for non-financial people to put a budget together and access the information they need. It's intuitive, powerful and something I would 100 percent recommend." — Clint du Plessis, Finance Manager, ISS