The Challenge:
Hannes Geyer, International Financial Consultant at UAL Group, quickly realized that their financial reporting setup was not sustainable.
The company relied heavily on manual Excel-based processes to consolidate financial data from different entities. This led to several issues:
- Inconsistent financial reporting: Due to the diverse nature of UAL Group’s operations, each business unit uses different financial accounting systems, reporting in various currencies, and employing distinct charts of accounts. This made group-level consolidation time-consuming and prone to errors.
- Manual work and errors: The group’s consolidated reporting was entirely manual, relying on Excel spreadsheets. There was no reliable way to verify if the Excel reports accurately reflected the data in the financial systems
- Limited visibility and analysis: Financial reports provided only a high-level overview, with no ability to drill down into detailed transactions or assess the accuracy of underlying financial data. Geyer explains, “We had to keep going back to the individual entities for detail when we wanted to do more analysis- not available in the reports.”
- Time-consuming and inefficient reporting process: The manual consolidation process took several days, delaying decision-making and increasing the risk of outdated information.
The Solution:
Hannes found the ideal solution in Datarails. Datarails offered the ability to continue working with the anchor of Excel, plus powerful dashboarding, flexible reporting capabilities, and a single source of truth for all their disparate systems– the Datarails difference.
He adds that the ability to be independent and self-serve using Datarails was a huge selling point.
Results and Benefits Achieved
- Improved accuracy and consistency: Datarails provided a single source of truth for financial reporting.
“The big benefit is automation and consistency. There’s one version of the truth that everybody looks at.”
Hannes Geyer
International Financial Consultant at UAL Group
- Time savings: The group financial reporting process was significantly accelerated.
“We decreased our monthly reporting process by 3 or 4 days. We can now report faster.”
Hannes Geyer
International Financial Consultant at UAL Group
- More in-depth analysis: The drill-down functionality allowed for deeper insights for numerous stakeholders. Hannes adds: “Our group financial director loves the drill-down capability because he can look at our group management report and all the entities in the group. You can see a line there that says consultancy fees.
“We can finally see what sits behind the numbers”
Hannes Geyer
International Financial Consultant at UAL Group
- Improved Operational decision-making: By integrating non-financial metrics with financial data, the team created dashboards that help optimize linear operations. They have 3 high-level Operations team members taking a look at the dashboards weekly, helping them make quicker informed decisions.
- Faster query resolution: The ability to easily access detailed information quickly has reduced the need to consult individual financial teams, especially beneficial given the geographical spread of the company.
