About the Client
Scene to Believe is Australia’s premier event photography and experiences provider.
Each year, they deliver:
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Santa activation across more than 180 shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand, creating unforgettable Christmas memories.
- Graduation photography
for some of the country’s most prestigious tertiary institutions.
- Corporate and bespoke events from in-store activations to large-scale conferences and festivals.
With such diverse service lines, Scene to Believe is not just a photography company — it’s a complex event management operation involving thousands of seasonal staff, vast logistics networks, and highly customised client agreements.
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The Challenge: A Seasonal Business with Complex Demands
Despite its success, Scene to Believe’s systems were struggling to keep up with the pace and scale of operations. Their existing environment included:
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Microsoft Dynamics –
overly complex and costly, with limited usability for day-to-day staff.
- MYOB –
handling accounts in both Australia and New Zealand but disconnected from other systems.
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Spreadsheets & Airtable –
used to manage purchasing, rostering, project tasks, CRM, and inventory, creating multiple sources of truth.
- Specialised tools –
Triprism for photography, Ramp RFID for inventory, Freshdesk for bookings, and Kronos for seasonal staff management.
This patchwork approach created several pain points:
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Manual financial processes –
invoices, bills, and reconciliations were processed manually, leading to inefficiencies and reporting delays.
- Poor project visibility –
during peak periods, up to 300 concurrent projects were being tracked in spreadsheets with no structured workflow.
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Clunky sales-to-operations handover –
quotes and contracts lacked consistency, and operational teams often missed critical information.
- Inventory control issues –
managing rentals (e.g., gowns, Santa suits, photo frames) relied heavily on manual spreadsheets, with limited visibility of missing or unreturned items.
- Limited reporting – executives lacked reliable, consolidated reporting across financials, sales, and operations.
Our Solution: A Finance-First Odoo Implementation
WAO Group was brought in to consolidate and transform Scene to Believe’s systems using Odoo. As accountants first, our focus was on building a compliant and reliable financial backbone, then layering in operational modules.
Stage 1: Establishing the Financial Core
Migrated from MYOB to Odoo Accounting, with NAB bank feeds, automated imports, and multi-currency readiness.
- Structured purchase approvals to replace spreadsheet-driven PO processes, ensuring accountability across bulk orders and supplier categories.
- Analytic accounting and budgets implemented for cost-centre visibility, enabling management to track financial performance across regions and business lines.
- Expense management streamlined through Odoo, covering both employee expenses and seasonal cash reimbursements.
Stage 2: Enabling Sales & CRM Efficiency
CRM overhaul – all website enquiries (graduation, Santa, corporate) now feed directly into Odoo, eliminating manual data entry.
- Quoting & contracting templates
designed for consistency, including online approvals via Odoo Sign.
- Sales to operations handover
standardised, ensuring warehouse, logistics, and tech teams have full visibility of event requirements.
Stage 3: Project Standardisation
Built project templates tailored to seasonal workflows:
Pre-sale → Configuration → Pick & Pack → Training → Staff Allocation → Bump In → Operations → Bump Out. - Enabled project visibility across departments, replacing fragmented Airtable processes.
- Supported scalability during peak season, when the business manages 300+ concurrent projects.
Stage 4: Inventory & Rentals Integration
Integrated Ramp RFID with Odoo, enabling real-time tracking of gowns, Santa suits, and photography assets.
- Implemented rules for rental assets to ensure accountability before and after events.
- Built warehouse location structures for both in-house and 3PL operations.
The Implementation Journey: Navigating Real-World Complexities
No ERP project of this scale is without challenges. For Scene to Believe, three stood out:
1. Data Migration
Consolidating MYOB, spreadsheets, and Airtable into a single Odoo database required meticulous mapping. Chart of Accounts, supplier categories, and customer hierarchies all needed alignment to ensure reporting accuracy.
2. Seasonal Constraints
Rollouts had to be carefully staged to avoid peak Christmas and graduation seasons. This required tight project management and clear milestones to prevent disruption to live operations.
3. Change Management
Many staff were used to spreadsheets and siloed tools. Adoption required targeted training plans, staged onboarding, and demonstrating the tangible benefits of Odoo in daily workflows.
By addressing these challenges early, WAO ensured that Odoo wasn’t just another system — it became the single source of truth for financial and operational data.
The Results: A Business Ready to Scale
Since implementing Odoo, Scene to Believe has achieved:
- Real-time financial visibility
CFO-level insights (BAS, aged receivables, cost centres, budgets) now available at the click of a button.
- Efficiency gains – automated approvals, structured project workflows, and CRM integration have replaced countless manual processes.
- Improved inventory control – RFID integration ensures assets are tracked, reducing losses and improving turnaround times.
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Stronger decision-making – with consolidated data, leadership can make faster, more informed strategic decisions.
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Scalability – the finance-first ERP foundation means Scene to Believe can grow and expand service lines without adding system complexity.
Why WAO Group
Most Odoo partners position accounting as just another module. WAO Group is different. Founded by accountants, we see accounting as the cornerstone of every ERP implementation.
For Scene to Believe, this meant their Odoo implementation wasn’t just technically sound — it was financially compliant, audit-ready, and built for scalability.
Our message is simple: ERP by accountants, for business leaders.
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