From seven Xero instances and 200 spreadsheets to one global platform: how Lifecykel built for international growth with NetSuite and Annexa

CASE STUDY

Key outcomes:

• Inventory reporting reduced from 6-8 hours to 10 minutes
• Account reconciliation reduced from up to one month to days
• Many spreadsheets eliminated across departments
• Financial consolidation brought into one centralised system
• End-to-end manufacturing visibility from raw materials through to finished products
• Transparent and efficient batch and serial number tracking
• A technology foundation capable of supporting international expansion and US retail
• Greater integration across Shopify, Amazon marketplace and ShipBob

The customer: Lifecykel

Founded in 2015, Lifecykel is a global biotechnology company specialising in premium functional mushroom extracts.The business began by repurposing coffee waste to grow mushrooms as part of a sustainable, closed-loop production model. Today, Lifecykel distributes to more than 120 countries, including Australia, the US and UK, with a range of mushroom-based products spanning supplements and home-growing kits.

Its operations have become increasingly international and complex. Extract production runs from a company-owned facility in the US, with drums shipped into Australia and bottling outsourced in both markets. Sales extend across Shopify, Amazon and Walmart.

As the company moved from startup to global player, its existing finance and operational systems were increasingly unable to keep pace.

The challenge: outgrowing Xero and spreadsheets

Lifecykel had reached the point where its technology environment was becoming a constraint on further growth. Each department required a separate Xero instance. As the business expanded internationally, that had grown to seven or eight instances, while information that could not be accommodated within those systems was managed through spreadsheets.

Nelli Penzes, Finance Manager, Lifecykel, explains, "every single entity we had, we had to have a Xero for, so that was seven or eight instances, and then everything the system couldn't hold was tracked in a spreadsheet somewhere."

Around 200 shared spreadsheets sat behind the business. Purchase orders could be raised through spreadsheets without numbering, reporting had to be produced entity by entity, and reconciliation and consolidation were handled separately.

Inventory and manufacturing presented an even greater challenge. As Lifecykel's product line and manufacturing operations scaled across countries, the company needed visibility over raw materials, work in progress and finished products, as well as the ability to track batch and serial numbers.

As Lifecykel's CFO Jonathon Meredith-Smith explained, "We needed an inventory platform. Initially, the team looked at a system to integrate with Xero, but it quickly became clear that our manufacturing process was too complex. We were managing the entire end-to-end process, and we needed to track everything, including batch numbers, serial numbers."

Why traceability became a business-critical issue

The shift was about more than making finance processes faster. For Lifecykel, traceability had become a requirement for further expansion.

Major retailers require businesses to be able to trace products through to the shelf, while food safety certification under HACCP, alongside organic and non-GMO certification, requires the ability to undertake a mock recall.

Lifecykel's existing environment could not provide that level of visibility. "In Xero, stock would just appear, with no way to trace it back to when it was made or where the raw material came from," explains Nelli Penzes.

The business needed a platform capable of managing supply chain, manufacturing, inventory, quality control and multi-entity financial consolidation within a more unified environment.

Shift to NetSuite and Annexa

Lifecykel initially investigated adding an inventory platform to Xero. However, the complexity of its manufacturing operations meant this would not solve the broader problem. The decision was made to move from Xero to Oracle NetSuite ERP. With experience supporting businesses including True Protein, Life Space and Aesop, Annexa was selected as Lifecykel's NetSuite implementation partner.

The implementation required substantially more than moving financial data from one accounting platform to another. Manufacturing represented the largest component of the project because this information had not existed within Xero. Items and bills of materials therefore had to be built from the ground up.

For finance, trial balances from Xero were mapped account by account to the new chart of accounts, with the team completing several practice uploads before go live. Inventory also had to be rebuilt to a greater level of detail, incorporating each product, quantity, batch number and best-before date.

Keeping the business trading during migration

One of the challenges was moving systems while Lifecykel's ecommerce and logistics operations continued.

The team ran approximately five days of overlap during go live. An accurate chart of accounts and inventory position were critical, particularly because Shopify orders and third-party logistics operations could not simply be paused.

Annexa supported the transition with a consultant on the ground in the US for go live and another two consultants on call in Australia.

The partnership extended beyond the initial implementation into Lifecykel's ongoing growth.

"Annexa's team is very knowledgeable, and up to speed with the latest industry developments. Through our implementation and now into our growth in the future, they have been a very open and transparent partner to work with. We're confident that we'll continue to work together to grow the business," said Jonathon Meredith-Smith.

The transformation: one global-ready platform

The adoption of NetSuite allowed Lifecykel to replace Xero and many of its spreadsheets with a unified, centralised, global-ready cloud ERP stack.

The transformation has delivered greater clarity across budgeting, forecasting and reporting. Financial information across countries and currencies can now be consolidated automatically, providing real-time visibility of the company's global financial position.

Where reconciling accounts could previously take up to a month, the finance team can now close the books in a matter of days.

Reporting has also shifted into the central system rather than requiring the team to reconcile entities through a separate tool or rebuild a consolidated balance sheet externally.

The impact has extended well beyond finance. "It was clear we were deep in the weeds," said Jonathon. "But with NetSuite, we are no longer busy with manual day-to-day processes. We're having a lot more detailed, targeted, and strategic conversations across customer service, logistics, manufacturing, and sales teams because we've got all of our data at our fingertips."

Connecting Lifecykel's technology stack

Annexa's work also helped Lifecykel connect NetSuite with key systems including Shopify, Amazon marketplace and ShipBob through Celigo iPaaS.

This has helped remove data silos and establish NetSuite as the central source of truth, while allowing information to flow between systems.

The connected platform has also created a foundation for Lifecykel to continue adopting new sales channels, including Shopify B2B in Australia and the US.

"NetSuite is now doing the heavy lifting, with Shopify feeding into it, making NetSuite the new source of truth. Before, Shopify was where we relied on our inventory data, but now I can access detailed data directly from NetSuite and generate instant reports like gross profit by product or inventory turnover," said Jonathon Meredith-Smith.

From hours to minutes: the operational impact

Digitising Lifecykel's manufacturing processes has given the business visibility from raw materials through work in progress to finished products across multiple regions. When production scaled tenfold, NetSuite supported the increased volume while providing the operational visibility needed across the company's growing network.

Real-time visibility across warehouses now enables Lifecykel to identify potential shortages and surpluses more quickly. Batch and serial number tracking provides product traceability and makes potential recalls more manageable.

Weekly inventory reporting, which previously took six to eight hours, can now be completed in just 10 minutes. The result is huge efficiency gains, less time spent extracting and reconciling information and greater capacity for teams to focus on higher-value work.

The greater control and traceability provided by the new platform have been particularly important as Lifecykel expands. Entering major retailers requires stringent quality controls, the ability to manage product recalls and the infrastructure to handle inventory at significantly greater scale.

NetSuite's batch and lot traceability enables Lifecykel to trace products upstream and downstream, addressing a capability that its previous Xero-based environment could not provide.

The move has therefore given Lifecykel not simply a new finance system, but infrastructure designed to support its next stage of international growth.

Transformation lessons 

Lifecykel's experience also highlights the importance of treating ERP implementation as a business transformation rather than simply a technology project.

The company phased aspects of its rollout rather than attempting to use every capability immediately. "Don't try to use everything on day one," stressed Nelli Penzes.

Lifecykel held work orders back until its manufacturing team was ready for them, months after go live. This allowed the company to establish its core finance and inventory environment before introducing more advanced manufacturing processes.

The implementation also required active involvement from Lifecykel's own team, particularly around business decisions during the early stages and testing later in the project.

The future: creating the data foundation for AI

With its core business information brought together, Lifecykel is also beginning to explore the next stage of technology adoption.

The company is in the beta program for Erstan, Annexa's agentic AI platform built for NetSuite. Nelli Penzes and Lifecykel's CFO will trial three agents once their program begins, while the company is also watching NetSuite's own AI releases.

Annexa's Solution Architect Will Goodbourn stresses getting the underlying data environment right is fundamental before businesses start introducing AI agents. "An AI tool's only really as good as the data underneath it. If your numbers are in five different places and they don't agree, then you can't really run an agent on that," he said.

For Lifecykel, the journey from multiple Xero instances and hundreds of spreadsheets to a centralised ERP platform has therefore created not only greater visibility today, but a foundation for further international growth, new sales channels and future technology adoption.

For more information

Watch the full webinar on demand
Life after Xero with Lifecykel: Building a finance function for scale
https://info.annexa.com.au/webinar-life-after-xero-with-life-cykel-building-a-finance-function-for-scale

Read the webinar recap
Inside Lifecykel's move from Xero to NetSuite
https://annexa.com.au/blog/webinar-recap-inside-lifecykels-move-from-xero-to-netsuite/

Read the full Lifecykel case study
https://annexa.com.au/case-study/life-cykel/

Xero versus NetSuite: complete comparison infographic
https://info.annexa.com.au/xero-netsuite-comparison-infographic

About Annexa

Annexa is a high-performing NetSuite solution provider and AI systems integration partner supporting mid-market and enterprise organisations across Australia and New Zealand. The company brings deep experience across AI, finance, multi-entity operations, supply chain, eCommerce and advanced integration, delivering connected AI-powered ERP solutions that improve visibility, lift performance and create scalable foundations for growth. Find out more visit https://annexa.com.au/