Brinton Business Ventures operates in the vending machine, micro-market snack supply, food truck, and catering industries. Based in Seattle, Washington, the company has been supplying companies with refreshments and snacks across America for 48 years. Chief Financial Officer Keith Cripe leads a dedicated finance team of seven professionals.
The Challenge
Before implementing Datarails, the finance team faced significant challenges in their reporting processes.
Generating monthly reports required extracting data from the general ledger and manually re-entering it into separate spreadsheets to create the desired report formats. This manual process was time-consuming and prone to errors. Additionally, when operational teams wanted specific account details getting answers required further manual searches through journal entries.
“Before, I would have to take the report from the general ledger and re-key it into different spreadsheets. Now, I can just pull it straight into the report format I want, eliminating all that re-keying.”
The Solution
Keith recognized Datarails’ potential to streamline their financial reporting. The drill-down feature stood out, allowing the team to delve into expenses and access detailed underlying data effortlessly. This capability enabled the preparation of monthly reports directly from the general ledger without the need for redundant data entry. The intuitive formula-building and data visualization features further enhanced the reporting process.
“I now set up the current month’s reports in a few minutes, versus the three to four days it took previously.”
Keith Cripe
CFO
The Results
Financial reporting and analysis for the Brinton team has never been easier.
Operational managers now have direct access to detailed account information, reducing their reliance on the finance team for data inquiries. His autonomy allows the finance team to focus more on analyzing numbers and collaborating with operations and sales teams to make strategic decisions.
“Instead of being buried in preparing numbers, I now have much more time to analyze them and collaborate with operations and sales teams on strategic decisions.”
Keith Cripe
CFO
Key Benefits and Results Achieved
- Time Efficiency: Report preparation takes minutes rather than days.
- Enhanced Decision-Making: The finance team has access to up-to-date data, allowing quicker and more informed decisions.
- Data Consolidation: The team benefits from unified data from multiple sources in a single platform.
- User-Friendly Interface: Datarails offers intuitive formula-building and data visualization.
- Future Implementation: Set the foundation for adopting additional Datarails capabilities, such as dashboards for enhanced management visibility.
“The team saves a day or two each month by not having to answer repetitive questions about account details. Now, our managers can drill down and find the answers themselves.”
Keith Cripe
CFO
Conclusion
“Now, I’m not just crunching numbers—I’m making sense of them. More time analyzing, less time chasing data.”
Keith Cripe
CFO