Echo Engineering & Production Supplies provides engineered rubber and plastic components to thousands of customers in the automotive, manufacturing, heavy machinery and lighting industries.

Based in Indianapolis, the manufacturing company was founded in 1966 to provide solutions for masking, sealing, fastening, connecting and noise/vibration/harshness reduction.  

Echo is sensitive to inflationary pressures related to material and freight costs, but had previously been making blind financial decisions due to a lack of data. Now that it uses Datarails to “consolidate multiple sources of data into one source of truth,” the manufacturer was able to dive deep on customer margins and make more informed pricing decisions, which has increased the company’s revenue despite the inflationary environment.

In addition, Echo Engineering saves 24 hours a month with Datarails, due to the increased automation of its financial reporting and planning.

The problem: Lack of timely financial data

Before implementing Datarails, Echo Engineering struggled with not having timely financial data or sufficient granularity in its financial reporting. Any analysis the company was able to do was time-consuming and ad hoc, and there were disparate Excel-based views, with no clarity on which was most accurate. 

“The thing that attracted me to the Datarails solution most was its flexibility.”

—Keith Deaton, CFO
Echo Engineering & Production Supplies

In addition, it took the finance team five days a month to work on post-close analytics – which not only made the data less timely when it was ready but also meant that one workweek each month was spent compiling and finalizing the post-close data instead of providing more value-added analysis.

That gap, in turn, led to blind decision-making that was not sufficiently informed by the financials of the business.

“We did not have granularity and dimensionality in our financial reporting, which led us to make blind decisions,” said Keith Deaton, CFO for Echo Engineering & Production Supplies.”And we did not have timely data to operate with, most often.”

As a result, Deaton kicked off the search for a financial planning and analysis platform that would serve as a “growth enabler,” making it possible for the company to reach its goals of increased earnings and organic growth with the help of robust budgeting, forecasting, scenario planning and results analysis processes.

What he found was Datarails. 

The solution: Consolidate data from multiple sources, import Excel models

Echo Engineering uses Datarails to consolidate data from multiple sources and map the data to a common chart of accounts, and has imported its existing Excel models to continue using them within the platform.

“The solution has allowed us to, one, consolidate multiple sources of data into one source of truth and, two, give us timely access to data to drive decision-making in the business,” said Deaton.

In one year, Echo has also used Datarails to set up a monthly P&L book supporting monthly results analysis and reforecast processes, as well as launch several different types of reporting.

“The solution has allowed us to consolidate multiple sources of data into one source of truth.”

—Keith Deaton, CFO
Echo Engineering & Production Supplies

The P&L data includes a summary performance view; a detailed month-to-date, quarter-to-date and year-to-date P&L analysis; and trended actual, forecast and budget P&L views. The new reporting includes:

  • Departmental spend reporting, with the reports sent to department owners to drive accountability
  • Manufacturing productivity reporting showing variable cost flex analysis to ensure appropriate cost controls
  • Balance sheet, working capital and operating cash flow reporting, including key working capital metrics

Deaton said Datarails’ flexibility is one of the things he likes most about the financial planning and analysis platform.

“The thing that attracted me to the Datarails solution most was its flexibility,” said Deaton. “You’re able to import existing Excel models into the solution and use what works best from your current Excel operating environment in the four walls of Datarails.”

The impact: 6-8% price realization ‘that drops directly to our bottom line’

As a manufacturer sensitive to inflationary pressures related to material cost and freight cost, especially from Asia, Echo Engineering needed to be able to dive deep on customer margins.

“We’ve shrunk our post-close analytic time from roughly five days to two days.”

—Keith Deaton, CFO
Echo Engineering & Production Supplies

Once the company consolidated its data with Datarails, it was able to access customer margin analytics and use that information to make targeted price increases as well as identify and resolve payment gaps among customers. Making those changes has netted Echo a “revenue increase to our total business” despite the inflationary environment and provided up to 8 percent of the company’s baseline revenue, said Deaton. 

“We’re seeing 6-8 percent of incremental price realization that drops directly to our bottom line, that helps us offset that freight and material inflationary pressure that we’re feeling across the entire business,” said Deaton. 

Use of Datarails has enabled Echo to custom-engineer sales targets and carry out customer- and product-level analysis quickly – something the company would have needed several weeks to do previously, or would not have done at all.

The strategic pricing changes were made possible not only because of the data consolidation and accelerated analysis provided by Datarails, but also because the finance team had more time and bandwidth for analysis due to the increased automation of its reporting and planning processes.

Saving 3 days a month on post-close analytics

Since implementing Datarails, Echo Engineering has saved three days a month on post-close analytics, due to the increased automation of its financial reporting and planning.

“We’ve shrunk our post-close analytic time from roughly five days to two days,” said Deaton. “So that’s reduced our analysis time related to post-close analytics from roughly, I’d say, 40 to 60 hours per week across our team down to, I’d say, 10 to 15 hours a week – just through those repeatable processes and reporting capabilities that we stood up in Datarails.”

“We, as a finance and FP&A team, have a lot more time to actually drive into results and do relevant analytics to help the company’s decision-making process.”

—Keith Deaton, CFO
Echo Engineering & Production Supplies

The effort saved on post-close analytics has freed up time for the finance team to start reviewing price realization levels with sales and marketing, which resulted in identifying and resolving those payment gaps that ended up boosting company revenue. 

“We had little, if any, commercial finance capabilities as a finance organization prior to finding that additional time that the Datarails solution has freed up for us,” he said. “So we’re much better partners to our sales organization, and as sales go, so does our business. So we’re in a much better support position for that function.”

The time saved through automation and streamlined financial processes has ultimately helped “get to the next level as a finance organization” and prompted the company to make more informed strategic decisions, said Deaton. “We, as a finance and FP&A team, have a lot more time to actually drive into results and do relevant analytics to help the company’s decision-making process.”