Zerorez, a leading carpet cleaning company with 18 corporate-owned locations and over 70 franchise locations across the United States, Canada and the UK, faced challenges in managing financial planning and analysis (FP&A) across their extensive network. To streamline reporting and forecasting, Zerorez needed a robust FP&A tool capable of multi-dimensional management.
Challenge
Managing financial data for 18 corporate-owned locations, along with additional entities, required repetitive and manual data entry when using Excel. Any updates or changes needed to be manually replicated across all locations, creating inefficiencies and increasing the risk of errors. Additionally, consolidating data from various entities into one comprehensive report was time-consuming and prone to inaccuracies.
As Spencer Clegg, Director of FP&A at Zerorez, explained, "When you're doing financial planning and analysis for 18 different locations, it can get very repetitive...(with Abacum) you just do it once and let it replicate."
Solution
Abacum offered a centralized platform that significantly reduced manual data entry by allowing users to create a single formula or template that automatically applies to multiple locations. The web-based interface also addressed version control challenges common with Excel, allowing Zerorez to streamline their reporting and forecasting processes.
The benefit that you have of using a tool like Abacum is all of your data is there and it's being synced.
Abacum also enabled Zerorez to build consistent reporting structures that could be shared across all locations, allowing the core business to leverage insights and share best practices with franchisees, even though their financials are managed independently.
Results
Spencer and his team saw, at least, 4 big results from Zerorez's partnership with Abacum:
Reduced repetitive tasks by automating multi-location data updates.
Increased reporting accuracy through centralized data management.
Simplified financial planning across corporate-owned locations and franchises.
Enhanced collaboration between corporate and franchise locations by enabling knowledge transfer based on accurate, up-to-date financial data.
Conclusion
By implementing Abacum, Zerorez transformed its multi-location financial planning process, moving from repetitive, error-prone Excel tasks to a streamlined, centralized solution. The shift not only saved time and improved data accuracy but also provided peace of mind, knowing that data is consistent and reliable across all corporate-owned and franchise locations.
This allowed Zerorez to focus on strategic planning rather than manual data consolidation.
Industry
B2C
Headcount
200 - 400
Location
Utah
