BROEN-LAB A/S cuts their consolidation time in half
50%
Time saved on monthly financial consolidation
1-2
working days gained each quarter
The short story of BROEN-LAB A/S
BROEN-LAB makes lab equipment and Emergency Shower Systems (ESS). The company has 5 subsidiaries.
BROEN-LAB A/S was establisheds by Poul Broen and his son in 1948 on the danish island Funen. The Corporate Group grew and contains today strong brands and have a worldwide reach.
Challenges with excel made BROEN-LAB A/S automize their financial consolidation
In February 2019, BROEN-LAB A/S started using Konsolidator for their financial consolidation and reporting. The company has since cut the time of their financial consolidation process in half. As a result, the financial team at BROEN-LAB A/S has gained 1-2 working days which they can use for further analysis and presentation of the financial figures to management.
“We used too much time on the financial consolidation before. We used two to three days on the financial consolidation and now, we are just using one day. And I trust that the numbers are correct.” – Xin Zhuo, CFO.
According to Xin Zhuo, the financial team now has more time to understand and explain the financial figures. They are more certain of the explanations of each financial number because of full audit trail Konsolidator provides and because of the additional time they have gained to follow up on any questions. Automating the consolidation process has also increased the quality of the financial data at BROEN-LAB A/S. Konsolidator generates always accurate financial figures for their monthly accounts, and as a result, the team can be confident in the accuracy of the financial data.
Before converting to Konsolidator, BROEN-LAB A/S was using Excel for the group’s financial consolidation. But using Excel caused some problems for the financial team. The team struggled with the fact that a simple formula error or a typing error could destroy the entire sheet.
BROEN-LAB A/S also handles many currencies in their accounting, so adjusting the exchange rates has also been a challenge in order to get the correct numbers. It was almost impossible for the financial team to reconcile the accounts. Additionally, the team struggled to get a good overview of or make sense of cash flow in Excel. These challenges together with the time factor made BROEN-LAB A/S look for a tool that could automate the consolidation process and make it simpler.
Konsolidator has created the overview needed
With Konsolidator, BROEN-LAB A/S now has a full audit trail which makes all entries traceable. On top of this, the financial team at BROEN-LAB A/S now has a clear overview of the cash flow, and it is possible for the financial team to easily reconcile the accounts. For Xin Zhuo, the greatest advantage of using Konsolidator instead of Excel is the elimination of intercompany transactions and exchange rate adjustments. The equity of the subsidiaries is properly consolidated into the parent company with Konsolidator.
“To adjust the exchange rates and to make intercompany eliminations is not a problem anymore because it is all done automatically in Konsolidator. Because of this, we are confident that the numbers are correct. The system also provides us with a complete overview.” – Xin Zhuo
Fitted into a digital strategy
Emergency Shower System for the eyes.
One of the main reasons that BROEN-LAB A/S decided to work with Konsolidator is because Konsolidator’s cloud-based software fits into a broader digital transformation that the corporate group is undergoing. As a result of this, it was important for BROEN-LAB A/S to find a cloud-based tool that was easy to navigate in order to help the financial team automate their workflow.
”Our ERP system is also in the cloud and we are working on digitizing various processes within our workflow for instance approval of invoices so we are well on our way of the digital journey.” – Xin Zhuo.