Seamless Integration & Improved Personnel Planning Cuts Annual Budgeting Process Time in Half
Can you tell us a little about your organization?
The Wildlife Gallery is the largest tannery for the taxidermy industry in the United States offering skinning, tanning and expediting from our Alaska operation to the lower 48. We also are one of the largest taxidermy studios in the United States offering world class taxidermy, trophy room design and fine woodwork services all throughout the United States. We are based in Blanchard, MI and have 145 employees. We pride ourselves on providing an ‘industry-changing experience’ by producing exceptional quality and
craftsmanship with new and creative ideas, while maintaining the highest level of customer service.
What were some of the budgeting challenges you were facing? Why did you begin your search for a new solution?
I have been with the company for over 20 years and have seen my fair share of financial tools – from Excel, QuickBooks and then NetSuite, all of which proved to not be ideal when it came to our annual budgeting process. In addition to the cumbersome nature of using spreadsheets for budgeting, QuickBooks and NetSuite didn’t have the budgeting functionality we needed. The annual process of consolidating spreadsheets and uploading them into our ERP system for reporting was becoming too time consuming and error prone. It was just a very manual process.
What were you looking for in a budgeting and planning solution?
We began to look for a more sophisticated solution that would integrate with NetSuite and provide us with a faster, more streamlined process. I was really looking for something to simplify my budgeting. And I did a lot of research and ended up coming across Centage.
What are the biggest benefits you are seeing with Centage’s Planning Maestro?
By moving to Planning Maestro we have been able to cut our annual budgeting process in half. My budgeting process is now about a month-long, maybe less – so it’s a pretty significant time savings. And when I go into the budget year after year the model is there and it’s easy to go and update for the coming year.
Planning Maestro also integrates seamlessly with NetSuite, our current ERP solution, automatically and securely bringing in our GL data to create the annual budget which eliminates the potential for data entry errors and duplicated information. With just a few clicks, I can import our Chart of Accounts and structures into Planning Maestro which ensures that all accounts are accurately reflected.
In addition, I have found Planning Maestro to be especially helpful when it comes to personnel planning in our annual budget as it’s an area of the business that requires a lot of detail – from employee’s salary and taxes to benefits. As far as personnel goes, it’s easy to go in and update changes in pay rates, tax withholdings – it’s all pretty simple.
Using Planning Maestro as a budgeting tool has been the biggest deal for me – it has just cut down so much on the time I spend building our annual budget because everything is automated, and the formulas are built – and everything carries over year to year. It’s a phenomenal tool for budgeting.
Centage provides modern FP&A software solutions that empower Finance teams to lead the way to a stronger, more agile business. Our cloud platform, Planning Maestro, makes sophisticated budgeting, planning, and forecasting easy and accessible. Intuitive automation accelerates workflows and improves accuracy, enabling Finance leaders to deliver reliable information and meaningful insights at the speed of today’s business. For more information on how to modernize your FP&A process, view our product demonstration video, or call 800-366-5111.
