Kelsey Walker, Account Manager at Zero-Max, has been on a mission to take on the role of technology disruption agent since joining the company four years ago.
My main focus is implementing new technologies and working on automation.
Kelsey WalkerAccount Manager
The Challenge
Zero-Max was previously using an Excel add-in for financial reporting. They were having a lot of problems with it and needed a cost-effective replacement to better handle their financial reporting needs without complexities. At the same time, they wanted to avoid the high costs associated with larger full-scale FP&A platforms.
Kelsey and her two team members oversee all the accounting functions at the firm – including AR/AP, financial close, sales tax, payroll, and more.
She was on a mission to bring automation to financial reporting, including the need to go paperless.
Solution and Benefits for the Zero-Max Team Powered by Datarails
Kelsey described her old tool as “finicky”. She had a hard time connecting the company’s complex data with this outdated add-on. It was very slow, and when she tried uploading files into it, more often than not, it wouldn’t connect and crash.
We jumped on Datarails because we liked a lot of the functionality it offered and how fast it is to connect our layers of data.
With Datarails, the Zero-Max finance team immediately saw these benefits:
- Improved Connectivity
Unlike their previous solution, Datarails offers seamless and reliable connectivity, allowing users to refresh data quickly without cumbersome processes. - User-Friendly Formulas
The formulas are intuitive and easy to understand. This reduced the learning curve for other users. - Drill-Down Capability
The ability to quickly and easily drill down into financial data has been a significant improvement, according to Kelsey. - Deeper Analysis
The ability to do in-depth ad-hoc analysis will help the team perform deeper analysis and reporting. - Customizable Data Buckets
Creation of custom data categories that don’t exist in their ERP offers unprecedented and flexible reporting options. - Less Tedious Reporting
Datarails’ abilities save Kelsey and the entire finance function at Zero-Max countless hours – previously spent on tedious reports such as their margin and mix reports. - Data Visualization
Though not there yet, step two for Walker is to take full advantage of the tool’s dashboards and widgets to make their data easily visible to all stakeholders.
It’s always there and open, you can just hit refresh anytime. It’s very fast, easy, and reliable.
Kelsey WalkerAccount Manager
Conclusion
Kelsey adds that her vision for the usage of the tool is in line with the growth of the business and the success of the finance team in delivering to the company’s strategy. She says, “Anything that’s tedious, anything that’s taking you more than 5 minutes, and you’re doing it again and again, let’s talk about it and automate it.”
