Francis helps Åben streamline their budgeting, forecasting and reporting processes

ÅBEN Brewery

ÅBEN launched its first beer, Brew 61, in 2017, a name that reflects the number of attempts it took to perfect the recipe. Since then, they have been busy. ÅBEN has expanded its presence by opening new bars in Aarhus, Roskilde, Copenhagen, and Copenhagen Airport. Also, ÅBEN is behind the beer festival KALAS and O Days music festival.

In 2023, ÅBEN partnered with Francis to streamline their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes across all its business areas, now handled through eight separate entities.

Challenges

Two years ago, Mia Lysemose joined ÅBEN as the finance manager when the company faced rapid growth and made significant CAPEX investments in new production facilities.

Originally, ÅBEN had developed an Excel model for budgeting and forecasting. The primary focus was cash flow monitoring, recognizing that the CAPEX investments would substantially affect their liquidity.

However, the Excel model became too big and complicated, leading to a few problems:

Ownership and changes over time: Mia was responsible for the financial model but needed to be more straightforward. Many people had worked on it over time, each making changes. This led to the model slowly drifting away from how it was initially set up, making it difficult to track down why the numbers sometimes didn't make sense.

Complexity leads to 'excel paralysis': The Excel model was big and complicated. It had everything - tabs for each part of the business, data imports, and different forecasting scenarios. Every time they added a new feature to ÅBEN, it had to be added to the model. This meant further financial details and tweaking the system for overlaps with our other businesses. The team also had to update the model regularly for the banks and creditors. But with each update, there was a bigger chance of making a mistake because of all the complex formulas they had to adjust.

"Our Excel model was very manual, and updating it was frustrating. I'm done with that Excel model," says the Finance Manager in ÅBEN, Mia Lysemose.

Lack of integration with the ERP system: Manual data entry for actuals meant there was no assurance of their accuracy. Furthermore, when developing models for new entities, an efficient method is needed to guarantee that all items from the chart of accounts are comprehensively included.

Solution

As ÅBEN began to expand its finance team, upgrading modern financial tools became a priority. By the fall of 2023, it was time to update their budgeting software.

"Every accountant seems to push for using PowerBI and similar tools, but they can feel outdated and too focused on reporting. At ÅBEN, we're looking for web-based, up-to-date tools. Francis fits the bill perfectly, assisting with both the actual budgeting process AND providing a user-friendly reporting format," tells Mia Lysemose and adds:

"We assessed various FP&A platforms and conducted demos with several providers. We chose Francis because it's modern, user-friendly, and handles consolidations exceptionally well."

The finance team has developed a single financial model within Francis for all eight entities. Each entity has its tab, mapped with its specific chart of accounts, enabling automatic import of actual figures. Moreover, an additional charge is dedicated to consolidating all the data while removing inter-company transactions. The entire model consists of just nine tabs since functions like versioning and data imports are integrated within the platform.

Onboarding

During onboarding, Francis held weekly check-ins with ÅBEN conducted over a month. Mia, ÅBEN's finance manager, highlighted the check-ins as an excellent method for learning the tool. The sessions focused on addressing the particular obstacles the team encountered while ensuring they were making consistent progress.

We initiated the onboarding process by constructing a model for ÅBEN's most straightforward entity. The first model served as a proof-of-concept that the finance team could reference going forward. This process entailed:

• Developing the P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

• Linking these financial statements to the appropriate chart of accounts.

• Implementing control checks for the balance sheet and cash flow statement.

After successfully implementing a proof-of-concept for the first entity, ÅBEN could continue independently. The finance team used the initial model as a reference point for guidance in case any questions arose.

"I was surprised by how straightforward it was. In my mind, I had made it out to be a complex challenge. But once you sit down with it, it's quite manageable. For instance, when I needed to consolidate our balance sheet, I decided to work from home to avoid interruptions. And there I was, just an hour later, thinking, 'Is that it?" says Mia Lysemose and continues:

I've contacted support two or three times, primarily for issues where the control checks indicated errors. But I've also felt a sense of accomplishment in resolving the problems that the control checks brought to my attention."

Results

The ÅBEN finance team has identified six key benefits gained from utilizing Francis:

Resource savings: In the past, the finance team dedicated an immense amount of time updating their model to meet their specific requirements. For instance, they would spend one to two days each month on report preparation, which involved adjusting figures and time frames for budget and forecast versions across all entities. Now, with Francis, these reports can be generated instantly.

"The resource drain was indescribable. In my previous Excel model, I'd sometimes grapple with an issue for days before eventually bringing in our accountant. With Francis, that's no longer the case," tells Mia Lysemose.

Ensure correctness: With native data connections and built-in versioning, the finance team now trusts the numbers. This allows them to provide management and stakeholders with all the necessary information more swiftly and with greater confidence.

“I feel much more secure updating my model in Francis than in Excel. Since it is connected to our ERP and I’ve set up control checks, I’m assured that it’s set up correctly, which is a huge relief," says Mia Lysemose.

Flexibility: Besides the primary model that includes financial statements for the eight entities and consolidation, there is also significant potential for tailored analysis. Since Francis functions like a spreadsheet, the finance team can effortlessly compute custom KPIs and enhance their model with additional research.

"Our stakeholders have different reporting needs, so I'm genuinely enthusiastic about the adaptability that Francis offers, allowing us to tailor our model exactly as we need," mentions Finance Manager in Åben, Mia Lysemose.

Improved collaboration: Before adopting Francis, the finance team had to create an Excel template for bar managers and manually incorporate their input into the primary model. With Francis, bar managers can now have direct access to their most recent figures through the platform, reducing the resources required from the finance department. Additionally, by assigning collaborators as viewers, the finance team can maintain control and prevent unauthorized alterations.

Enhanced insights: The new model allows the finance team to inform budgeting decisions with historical data. For instance, in formulating the 2024 budget, they chose not to project values from 2023 but instead to use actual data from Q3 2023 as a reliable benchmark. Concurrently, they now can contrast fixed budgets with ongoing forecasts and display the variances through charts that update in real-time.

Scalability: With their new FP&A system, ÅBEN can quickly set up new entities as they grow and easily add new ideas or opportunities from the management team.

Get more insight into how Francis' platform can help your company streamline its budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes here.