Don't Mess With Success: Why This Accounting Veteran Has Implemented FloQast at Three Different Companies

Hiring an industry veteran has its benefits.

Welltok, a SaaS consumer health activation platform, was banking on this when it introduced veteran Director of Financial Systems, Judith Mageras, in 2018. Headquartered in Denver, the company entrusted Mageras with looking into the company’s existing accounting and finance processes and pinpointing areas for improvement.

Singling out the financial close as a prime candidate to be streamlined, Mageras’s experience implementing close management software meant she was in an ideal situation to lead the overhaul. Having already implemented FloQast at two past employers, she didn’t jump to conclusions when looking for software to suit Welltok’s needs.

She did her due diligence. She shopped around. Mageras had boxes that a new software needed to check, with the most important being the ability to seamlessly integrate with Sage Intacct. The team was heavily reliant on Intacct and Mageras already knew FloQast could handle that integration, but she wanted to make sure she wasn’t missing out on a better fit for Welltok.

As it turns out, she wasn’t.

“We took an in-depth look at BlackLine,” she said. “We implemented [BlackLine] when I was with another company, but we scrapped it and went to FloQast because of the ease of use. The fact that you can purchase an application that will be fully live within days is such a tremendous benefit for companies that need to remain nimble.”

The ability to keep up with a nimble and forward-thinking accounting team with barely any time required to learn a new system was crucial for Welltok. Mageras recognized that the team wouldn’t always have time to engage IT if — or when — it needed to make changes to the close software. She couldn’t guarantee that software other than FloQast would be as user-friendly and keep up with her team. The flexibility provided by FloQast was also a box that needed to be checked.

“We have timelines that shift and priorities that are competing, so to be able to get something in place that meets your needs, that can grow with the company and continue to evolve as our business needs changes, that’s something that not all [FloQast] competitors possess,” said Mageras. “I feel like it’s really easy to get locked into a certain configuration in some systems and FloQast doesn’t have that limitation.”

After implementing FloQast, Welltok’s accounting team immediately saw a positive impact. The manual way they used to execute their close lacked the transparency that could make the process inefficient. FloQast allows everyone to see where team members are in the close process.

“We have better controls in place and I think it brings a level of accountability to accounting teams that you don’t have when you’re chasing after the information,” said Mageras.

Welltok’s accounting team now has the time and capacity to take on more and Mageras experiences of choosing FloQast again and again and again have only made her respect the product more.

“I’ve seen the tremendous benefit of FloQast at several organizations of various sizes and complexities,” she said. “I’m a massive fan of the gains in efficiency it can bring to an otherwise manual process.”