Centage > Case Studies > Streamlined Planning and Analytics Saves Time and Provides Greater Visibility into the Future

Streamlined Planning and Analytics Saves Time and Provides Greater Visibility into the Future

Customer Company Size

Mid-size Company

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Planning Maestro

Tech Stack

QuickBooks
Excel

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Cost Savings

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Use Cases

Demand Planning & Forecasting
Asset Lifecycle Management

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

About The Customer

Amwaste, LLC is a full-service waste and recycling company with operations in Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. The company was founded in April of 2010 and began serving in the Birmingham market with its roll off (demolition removal services) and landfill operations. Since then, it has expanded its service offerings to include everything from residential garbage collection to recycling to portable toilets and holding tanks. Amwaste is a collection of multiple entities, organized by state and landfill, each requiring its own budget and forecast. Additionally, an overall budget and forecast is needed for the parent company, Matter Management Enterprises. The company has over 400 employees and uses NetSuite for its General Ledger.

The Challenge

Amwaste, LLC, a full-service waste and recycling company, was facing challenges in managing its budgeting process due to its complex organizational structure. The company is a collection of multiple entities, each requiring its own budget and forecast. Additionally, an overall budget and forecast is needed for the parent company, Matter Management Enterprises. Each service offered by Amwaste has unique business drivers that shape the companies. For instance, in the residential pickup business, revenue is driven by the number of homes under contract or serviced, while expenses are driven by days in the month. Roll-off customers are charged based on the number of services provided, while commercial front load customers are charged a fixed monthly fee, but the longer the month, the higher the labor costs. Initially, Amwaste had just three entities, each of which had its own QuickBooks database and budget. To create an annual budget, Amwaste’s CFO, David Carlisle, pulled data from the three QuickBooks databases and manually re-entered it into three separate Excel spreadsheets. Once the spreadsheets were completed he rolled them up to a single budget for the company.

The Solution

As the company began to grow, Mr. Carlisle wanted a more streamlined and accurate way to manage the overall budgeting process. He was familiar with Planning Maestro, a robust FP&A platform, as he purchased it for a former employer. He was eager to bring the same benefits to Amwaste. Mr. Carlisle particularly likes the advanced reporting features part of the platform, which provide accurate and reliable graphical representations of Amwaste’s financial data, and integrates with its GL. Using Planning Maestro, Mr. Carlisle was able to create a five-year rolling forecast, with a particular focus on the 18-month horizon. Once monthly actuals come in, he easily updates the forecasts for each entity, enabling him to monitor each company’s health, as well as the overall financial picture for Matter Management Enterprises. For complex sales proposals, such as responding to an RFP from a municipality, Mr. Carlisle will first build a budget in Planning Maestro using all of the correct drivers and actual costs. The result is a more accurate proposal, a critical criteria for long-term contracts.

Operational Impact

Amwaste now has a five-year rolling forecast, with a particular focus on the 18-month horizon, providing greater visibility into the future.
Monthly forecasts are now easily updated once monthly actuals come in, enabling the monitoring of each company’s health, as well as the overall financial picture for Matter Management Enterprises.
Complex sales proposals are now more accurate, a critical criteria for long-term contracts.
The process of creating next year’s budget for each entity is now just a matter of tweaking based on contract status, making business planning easier.
Quarterly reports for banks and investors can now be created in an hour, a significant time saving compared to the days it took when using QuickBooks.

Quantitative Benefit

The time taken to create quarterly reports for banks and investors has been reduced from days to just an hour.
The process of updating monthly forecasts for each entity now takes about an hour.
The time taken to create complex sales proposals has been significantly reduced.