I don’t think anything could have gone better for us. We achieved exactly what we wanted and more. My team loves it.

Summary

Stonegate Group was using a semi-automated reconciliation process for its transactions meaning finance personnel had to manually work the data to reconcile complex items. Invoiced bookings, cash write-offs and most bank transactions also had to be manually recorded before being matched.

As Stonegate processes thousands of transactions per day the business required a seamless way to reduce workload and error.

Our previous system wasn’t straightforward. Simplicity and ease were the main drivers, Aurum offers both.

Dave Ross, Chief Financial Officer
Stonegate Group

A targeted approach

Aurum impressed Stonegate with its automated reconciliation tool. The partnership began, with three key areas targeted for improvement.

Banking

This involves thousands of transactions per day including reconciling cash at tills and withdrawals from ATMs

Treasury

Reconciling a smaller number of high value transactions such as tranfers between accounts and bulk booking receipts

Control

Ensuring accurate reconciliation of the bookings sales ledger to customer receipts

Making it simple was the main thing. The drag and drop on the dashboard and the way you can use your data in seconds… that was huge.

Dave Ross, Chief Financial Officer
Stonegate Group

Solution

Aurum took a phased approach.

Phase one covered banking and cashier reconciliation, including the automatic reconciliation of multiple bank accounts, integration of a SWIFT module that verifies statements are complete before import, and a balance checker. Aurum liaised with the finance team and a third-party reseller to ensure the smooth implementation of Aurum’s automated software. Data is now downloaded and imported from the finance systems and the bank, and automatically reconciled using separate matching rules for each account. Users can download new journals throughout the day, ensuring everything is 100% up-to-date as they work.

Phase two saw Aurum work with the Treasury team. Now corporate-level bank statements are automatically imported into Aurum, and a journal file is created to allocate transactions to the correct supplier / customer account using a lookup file. CODA is automatically downloaded, imported and reconciled. Ad-hoc reconciliations can be journaled, and new rules can be added for the continuous improvement of processes.

Phase three covered the control team. In a simplified process, a team member imports a file containing all new invoiced bookings. Aurum generates journals, posts into CODA, and ensures all information is imported and reconciled.

Prior to rollout, Aurum visited Stonegate’s offices to train users in-person. Post-implementation support was supplied over the next few weeks, with ongoing support available to a small team of key users.

Stonegate made this project a success. They wanted it, they wanted to work with us, they gave us suggestions and listened to ours, and they got their team on board and got them excited. That enthusiasm for a simplified end-to-end process meant everyone soon understood Aurum was the right solution for them. Complex hospitality businesses really value our three-way matching capabilities — crucial in matching processes involving bank and other finance system records, and where there are net settlements in the bank.

Tim Andrews, Chief Solutions Architect
Aurum Solutions

Result

Stonegate swiftly bought into Aurum’s technology and philosophy, ensuring a high-energy, low-complexity install. Their automatic match rate has risen almost 50% to 85%.

As Dave Ross, Chief Financial Officer, Stonegate Group, explained: “With Aurum we felt it was a very natural relationship. Every scenario that we could think of, Aurum had been there and done it and had a solution for it. Now we can see our data and we know where we are. Reconciliation is easier, data is more visible, and insights are simpler to find.”

I don’t think anything could have gone better for us. We achieved exactly what we wanted and more. My team loves it.

Dave Ross, Chief Financial Officer
Stonegate Group

About Stonegate Group

Stonegate Group is the largest pub company in the UK. Its portfolio is comprised of over 4,500 sites, split across the managed division and leased and tenanted businesses.