How Major Retail Department Store Chain Accelerated Financial Close & Enhanced Reporting Accuracy Through Process Optimization

About The Client

Industry: Retail & E-Commerce

Scope: The Major Retail Department Store Chain is a leading global department store retailer known for its high-quality fashion, beauty, and luxury goods. The client operates an extensive network of brick-and-mortar stores and a robust e-commerce platform, offering a premium shopping experience. The company focuses on customer service excellence, data-driven merchandising, and operational efficiency to drive profitability and growth.

Client Challenges

• The Client's financial close process was inefficient, taking 6-7 days due to manual data consolidation and fragmented reporting, delaying critical financial insights
• The company's financial reporting lacked integration across planning scenarios, making it difficult to compare actuals to budget and forecast data, leading to inconsistencies in decision-making
• KPI tracking and variance analysis were not standardized, resulting in different teams using varying financial metrics and creating discrepancies in reporting
• Headcount and capitalized labor costs were not tracked in a consolidated manner, making it challenging to analyze budget variances and workforce planning effectively
• These challenges increased the finance team's workload and delayed reporting, making it difficult for leadership to gain real-time visibility into financial performance

Key Project Elements & Deliverables

Systems & Tools Used: Microsoft Excel for financial analysis and reporting, Oracle Panther for extracting cost center P&Ls and consolidating financial data

Timeline: 2-month engagement with a focus on optimizing financial close processes, automating key reports, and improving financial visibility

Data Integration: Consolidated cost center P&Ls from Oracle Panther into Excel to enhance accuracy and efficiency

Key Deliverables: 

• Streamlined month-end close process, reducing the timeline from 6-7 days to 5 days
• Integrated multiple planning scenarios to improve financial visibility
• Automated KPI tracking and variance analysis to ensure consistency across finance teams
• Developed headcount and capitalized labor tracking model

Project Objectives & Business Needs

Key Project Objectives: 

• Optimize the month-end close process by consolidating financial reports into a unified framework, reducing the timeline from 6-7 days to 5 days
• Improve financial planning and forecasting by integrating multiple plan scenarios, enabling leadership to make more data-driven decisions

Business Needs: 

• Streamline financial close process to reduce time required for month-end reporting
• Improve efficiency in financial data consolidation
• Enhance financial reporting capabilities to integrate multiple planning scenarios
• Support strategic decision-making with better financial insights
  

Solution Outline:

The project focused on streamlining the financial close process, improving reporting accuracy, and automating key financial workflows:

1. Financial Close Optimization: Reduced the monthly close process from 6-7 days to 5 days by consolidating key financial reports and improving data accuracy
2. Enhanced Reporting Structure: Integrated multiple planning scenarios, including annual budgets and biannual forecasts, allowing leadership to make more informed strategic decisions
3. KPI & Variance Automation: Automated KPI tracking and variance analysis, ensuring all teams used a standardized reporting methodology, reducing discrepancies in financial metrics
4. Workforce Cost Transparency: Developed headcount and capitalized labor tracking models, improving visibility into budget variances and workforce planning across internal and external resources

Solutions & outcomes

Solution Outline
The project strategy was multi-faceted that included prioritizing integration timing, creating a robust integration roadmap, developing a close calendar checklist and uniform account reconciliations, centralizing key accounting functions, investing in new positions, and correcting the ERP set-up.

Project Outcome Summary
The project delivered significant improvements in AP efficiency, cost savings, and cash flow management through system implementation and process optimization. By implementing Stampli, automating workflows, optimizing payment terms, and transitioning vendors to ACH, the client achieved faster invoice processing, reduced costs, and improved working capital position. These enhancements provided better visibility into AP metrics and freed up staff time for higher-value activities, ultimately supporting the company's cash management objectives.