Customer Stories
Aspect Energy Cuts Global Close Time by 20 Days with FloQast
Aspect Energy, a leader in energy investment and exploration, operates across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. With a diverse portfolio and operations spanning multiple continents, the company faced significant challenges in its month-end Close process. Aspect Energy’s monthly Close times ranged from 15 to 45 days, creating delays in financial reporting and decision-making. Seeking a solution to streamline their processes and enhance team visibility, Aspect Energy turned to FloQast.
Key Highlights:
Why FloQast:
- Easy-to-learn and use checklists drive faster time-to-value
- User-friendly dashboards enable better communication and collaboration
- Self-serve training tools and best practices ensure immediate productivity
Results Achieved:
- Reduced days-to-close by 20 days
- Faster access to time-sensitive financial information for executive leaders
- Reallocated time savings to more strategic accounting initiatives
Identifying the Challenges
Aspect Energy’s month-end Close process was inefficient and lengthy, causing delays in financial reporting and decision-making. Accounting Manager Danielle Brakebill, CPA, recognized these challenges and saw FloQast as the ideal solution.
“We were using SharePoint and incomplete task lists, which were very inefficient and slow,” Brakebill said. “We needed a better and faster way to track roles and responsibilities, report on progress, and speed up the process.”
Danielle Brakebill, Accounting Manager
Challenges Faced:
- Close times averaging 15 to 45 days
- Inefficient and incomplete task lists managed via SharePoint
- Lack of visibility and accountability across global teams
These inefficiencies underscored the need for a streamlined and more effective solution to manage Aspect’s month-end Close process.
Selecting FloQast as the Solution
Aspect Energy needed a solution that could reduce their days-to-close, streamline task management, and improve team visibility. After evaluating various options, FloQast was chosen for its user-friendly tools and seamless integration capabilities.
“I recommended FloQast because I’d seen it work so well in other companies. As we looked into ways to improve our operations, I kept coming back to my experience with FloQast and thought it could really be an asset to us.”
Danielle Brakebill, Accounting Manager
Why FloQast Was Chosen:
- Easy-to-learn and use checklists that drive faster time-to-value
- User-friendly dashboards that enhance communication and collaboration
- Self-serve training tools and best practices ensuring immediate productivity
FloQast was the clear choice for Aspect Energy, aligning perfectly with their goals of efficiency and improved visibility.
Implementation and Integration
The implementation of FloQast was critical for ensuring a smooth transition and maximizing the benefits of the new system. Accounting Manager Danielle Brakebill and IT Program Manager Ryan Page led this effort, with support from accounting and advisory firm CFGI.
“The communication and collaboration benefits were obvious with FloQast’s integrated task lists and dashboards. The user experience made it seem like a social media platform for accounting workflow, it was very easy to understand and use.”
Ryan Page, IT Program Manager
Implementation Process:
- Seamless integration with Aspect’s ERP, P2 BOLO
- Efficient setup of checklists and dashboards
- Successful utilization of FloQademy tutorials and FloVerse user community for training
“The attention to detail, responsiveness, and useability of FloQast made this one of my all-time favorite implementations. It was definitely the smoothest, and I think I’ll still be saying that 10 years from now.”
Ryan Page, IT Program Manager
Achieving Enhanced Visibility and Efficiency
The introduction of FloQast brought about substantial improvements in visibility and efficiency during Aspect Energy’s month-end Close process.
Improvements Seen:
- U.S. monthly Close reduced to 10 days, from 12-15 days
- International quarterly Close reduced to under 30 days, from 45+ days
- Enhanced team productivity and morale due to streamlined workflows
“Our U.S. monthly Close is now down to 10 days, from a high of 12 or 15, and our international quarterly close is under 30 days, down from 45 plus,” said Brakebill. “And we expect to shorten those times even more in the coming months.”
Danielle Brakebill, Accounting Manager
FloQast’s enhanced visibility and efficiency tools have transformed Aspect Energy’s Close process, enabling faster and more accurate financial reporting.
Mindset Change and Strategic Focus
Beyond functional improvements, FloQast fostered a positive change in mindset within Aspect Energy’s accounting team, encouraging proactive problem-solving and strategic focus.
“Using FloQast, people start thinking about the Close. Proactively suggesting solutions that we could implement – for redesigning the process, for having more accurate figures, more efficiency.”
Danielle Brakebill, Accounting Manager
Mindset Improvements:
- Team members working smarter with more awareness of progress and bottlenecks
- Faster insights for company leadership, aiding in quicker decision-making
- Reallocated time savings to more strategic accounting initiatives
The mindset shift brought about by FloQast’s tools has enabled Aspect Energy’s accounting team to engage more deeply with their work, driving continuous improvements and strategic focus.
Conclusion
Reflecting on the transformation, Danielle Brakebill, Accounting Manager at Aspect Energy, noted the profound impact of FloQast: “The biggest win with FloQast is the timeliness and time savings. From reconciliations to information requests, to working with our outside auditors, everything has been streamlined and it’s made a huge difference in team productivity and team morale.”
Aspect Energy’s journey with FloQast illustrates the transformative potential of modern financial technology. By embracing automation, collaboration, and real-time insights, Aspect Energy not only streamlined their Close process but also elevated their financial operations to new heights. FloQast catalyzed success, enabling Aspect Energy to navigate financial management with confidence and precision.
