Flexible, risk-free, and fast year-end reporting for multi-site construction business

Learn how VantagePoint reduced manual year-end workload by 75%.

Background  

PPC is the largest supplier of construction materials in southern Africa and, with the company operating across six countries, futureproofing operations and making them more efficient was vital. They engaged VantagePoint with the aim to improve their reporting process ahead of year end which was fast approaching.   

Challenge  

1. The finance team’s year end reporting was heavily reliant on manual processes which were not only time consuming but extremely error prone due to having to read several handwritten edits.  
2. Their previous annual reporting consisted of nearly 30 PDF versions created from the initial drafts and audit fees were becoming difficult to control.  
3. The company was growing, which meant needs were growing, they recognised that this current manual way of working was no longer reliable or sustainable and were aiming to automate their manual tasks while improving governance.   

Solution  

To support PPC’s goal of improving governance and automating tasks, we helped modernise and streamline their financial reporting process by implementing a solution that enabled them to centralise work, version control and collaborate in a more efficient fashion.    

Process   

Step 1 – Business process mapping 

We started off by ensuring our consultants understood the existing manual reporting process and its associated challenges from end to end.  

 Step 2 – Discovery and analysis 

Our consultants analysed the specific requirements of PPC’s business and created a target state of finance reporting and what that would look like. 

 Step 3 – Selecting a reporting solution 

Given the ambition to go-live with the annual reporting solution before year end, a clear timeline was agreed with the PPC team. Based on those requirements, our consultants then shortlisted three best-in-class solutions for PPC to select from, giving them a survey to guarantee they chose the reporting solution that aligned with their requirements. 

 Step 4 – Implementation and training 

We began implementation with a focus on a “train the trainer” approach to ensure the users were fully self-sufficient post go-live.  

Outcome   

PPC now have a streamlined reporting process enabling collaboration that was previously unimaginable. The team can work together easily in real time, they can link data from a single source to every instance where that data point needs to appear. If they need to change numbers or text at the source, the information will update easily.  

 Some other results PPC have seen since working with VantagePoint are:  

• The ability to meet deadlines comfortably while reducing their revision related workload by 75%  

• The chance to file well within their 2021 reporting deadline as opposed to the previous year where they had countless drafts and numerous versions to work from  
• The ability to widen their scope and allow auditors and external service providers access to the platform thanks to the platform’s intuitive permission settings.