Customer Stories
Newport Group Makes Close Management Simple and Fast with FloQast
Amy Vallandigham, VP Finance with Newport Group, recently shared her team’s experience implementing and using FloQast’s close management software to streamline their monthly close.
She explained how the software brought together a fragmented process and eliminated the time (and the resulting headaches) previously spent fixing reconciliation problems.
Watch the video of our full conversation above, or read the edited transcript below.
Tell us about Newport Group.
Newport Group is a retirement, insurance, and consulting company. We have 25 employees across three different locations in three different states. It’s comprised of AR, GL, accounts payable, and FP&A. Our ERP is NetSuite and we use Microsoft CRM, which links into NetSuite. We also have some homegrown systems that we use.
What was Newport Group’s close process before FloQast?
I’ve been at Newport for about a year and a half. When I came in, I realized how fragmented our close process was. We had done a lot of acquisitions, and every finance location was doing their close their own specific way, with their own spreadsheets. I never knew where we stood on the close.
Did Newport Group evaluate other solutions?
We did. But the biggest reason we chose FloQast was the ease of implementation, and it looked really user-friendly. I just gave you my spreadsheets with the email addresses—the people that are responsible—and you did all the work for me. Training was probably unnecessary because the system’s so easy to use.
What benefits has Newport Group experienced with FloQast?
For me personally, knowing where my staff stands on the close process has been really helpful. One of the things that I found in the past is that, when something would change in NetSuite, I wouldn’t know. The reconciliations would be off. So when it was time to give them to the auditors, they wouldn’t agree. And we’d have to go research multiple months to figure it out.
I love the fact that by hitting “refresh,” FloQast allows you to know automatically if something’s off. You also get the emails for the current month when something’s off, which is nice.
Would you recommend FloQast?
Yes, I do recommend FloQast to other companies. I’d say it’s really easy to manage a close when you have people in different locations.
