Streamlined budgeting provides greater operational efficiency for commercial shipping

Located in The Bahamas, Arawak Port Development (APD) was created in 2009 to relocate commercial shipping companies from downtown Nassau to Arawak Cay a few miles away. Along with the move, APD streamlined both shipment and customs processing operations, and has since been named the most productive port among 24 in the region by the Florida Shipowners Group. In addition, APD was rated first in an efficiency study of 12 gateway ports conducted by the Caribbean Development Bank.

APD is a critical enterprise for The Bahamian Government and its citizens, with all ocean freight passing over their bulkhead at the Nassau Container Port (NCP). In 2012, APD joined The Bahamas International Securities Exchange in a public-private partnership with the Government of The Bahamas in an IPO that raised $10M Bahamian Dollars (the U.S. Dollar and Bahamian Dollar are equivalent), and offered an unprecedented 20% of its shares exclusively to Bahamian citizens.

Operational efficiency drives APD’s financial success. After going public in 2012, they needed to start producing a range of financial statements that would satisfy the quarterly and annual filing requirements of the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, provide sufficient information to external auditors, and enable the APD Board of Directors to better manage the growth of the organization.

Software to manage critical growth

APD wanted to ramp up the level of detail in their planning, while also weaning the management team away from budgeting for items that had a low likelihood of occurring. Because they’re is a critical economic hub for the country of The Bahamas, there was no room for error.

The software installer for APD’s Sage ERP system recommended Centage to address these budgeting and financial reporting needs.

After implementation, APD loaded the current year’s budget into Centage in a dry run to ensure they’d be able to close the books efficiently by their fiscal year-end. APD was essentially a startup, and was able to easily load all of the prior years’ actuals into Centage with no loss of data.

Simplified what-if scenario planning speeds up decision-making

“When someone has a question, I’m able to drill down and get details on the spot, versus saying ‘let me get back to you’. I can add notes and attach files to document assumptions and refer to them when needed.” – Dion Bethell, Vice President & CFO, Arawak Port Development

Centage’s driver-led budgeting is a critical element in creating an actionable budget that can be managed at a very detailed level. APD’s property lease expense owed to The Bahamian Government varies each month because of the fluctuating number of shipping containers that are at the facility. The containers are measured in twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs. The lease expense is based on TEU volume, and can now be calculated systemically without error.

Centage gave APD the components he needed to create a sound, realistic budget. The ability to easily update variables and to complete what-if analyses were substantial improvements over what was done in the past.

Robust reporting improves ability to meet annual filing requirements

Audited financial statements and department-level views give each area what they need to be successful

Publishing financial statements is no longer the chore it was before APD adopted Centage’s analytics module. APD has been able to replicate the exact layouts required for their public quarterly filings with The Bahamas International Securities Exchange. Data and statistics populate condensed financial statements. Audited financial statements and department-level views give each area what they need to be successful.

Financial statements are due within 45 days of each quarter-end, and within 90 days of year-end. Instead of providing a mere two to three days for their auditors to review the financial statements and respond to them before publication, APD now completes the full range of statements, including the management discussion and analysis, within 30 days. This enables his team to research and double-check data and ratios, while still giving the auditors a full two weeks for their review.

A repeatable budget and forecasting process saves time and increases confidence in projections

“One of the beautiful things about Centage is that once you set it up the first time and you roll your budget over, it’s much easier the following year since you don’t have to spend as much time because you know that the drivers are correct.”

APD’s ability to answer management and board questions about the budget and financial statements saves everyone time and promotes responsibility.

Being able to do line item budgeting encourages department heads to come to their budgeting meetings with explicit explanations for the funds requested, which, in turn, speeds up what used to be a lengthy budgeting process.

Once completed and approved, APD exports the final budget from Centage and imports it into their Sage ERP with Centage’s seamless data integration tool. APD now easily creates different metrics, ratios, and trends, and often runs various scenarios to ensure they don’t miss an opportunity to become even more efficient and profitable for their shareholders.

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