Case Study: Finance Transformation for Scale: Faster Close, Cleaner Reporting, Clearer Operating Model

Introduction

In a high-volume, high-velocity, low-margin business, the finance function cannot afford to be slow. Every day the books stay open is a day leadership is flying without instruments. For a growing restaurant distribution company, that was the reality. Their accounting and operational systems had not kept pace with the business, and the gap was being filled by something no CFO wants to depend on: human heroics and Excel. Altum Strategy Group was brought in to change that — and over three years, we did.

The Challenge

The company had grown significantly, but its financial infrastructure had not grown with it. Reporting relied on manual effort across fragmented, siloed systems; at least ten separate applications that could not talk to each other and could not provide the unified view that leadership needed to run the business. Getting a clear picture of financial health required considerable manual intervention every reporting cycle.

The consequences were predictable. The monthly close took 30+ days. Operational visibility was inconsistent. Headcount planning across locations was difficult to execute with confidence. Leadership could not easily identify where operations were overperforming, where they were underperforming, or where attention was most needed. The finance function was consuming capacity that the business needed for growth.

The core challenges were:

• A 30+ day monthly close driven by manual processes and disconnected systems
• Ten siloed applications generating cost and complexity without delivering integrated visibility
• No unified view of finance and operational data, making executive reporting slow and incomplete
• Limited ability to track KPIs across locations or hold operational leaders accountable to consistent metrics
• An HR environment that could not efficiently support a workforce of approximately 5,000 employees across multiple employment types

The Solution

Altum approached the engagement in phases across three years, sequencing the work to deliver value at each stage while building toward a fully integrated finance and operational backbone. The transformation covered three interconnected areas:

1. ERP Selection and Finance Transformation

• Altum led the software selection process to identify the right modern ERP for the company’s growth journey, evaluating options against both current requirements and future scale
• Implementation removed ten siloed applications from the technology stack, unifying accounting and operational processes onto a single platform and significantly reducing both cost and complexity
• Finance transformation proceeded in two stages: the core system implementation brought the close cycle from 30 days to 10 days; subsequent process optimization and workflow enhancements brought it further to 5 days, where it remains today

2. Operational Transformation and Analytics

• Year two extended the transformation to operations, beginning with data pipelining work to understand what data existed, wh
  ere it lived, and which systems needed to be retained or replaced
• Ordering, inventory management, and cost accounting were brought into the unified environment, giving the business visibility into its highest-cost areas outside of people
• Altum layered analytics on top of the finance and operational backbone, commingling financial and operational data for the first time — producing executive dashboards, business unit dashboards, and operational dashboards that gave leaders a real-time pulse on performance at every level of the organization
• KPIs were defined and embedded into the operating cadence, allowing leadership to focus attention on the areas that most needed it

3. HR System Implementation

• In parallel with the finance and operational work, Altum implemented a modern HR system scaled to support approximately 5,000 employees across hourly, part-time, and salaried employment types
• The new HR stack enabled structured investment in staff retention, upskilling, and training — directly improving the employee experience and the quality of customer service

The Results

The transformation delivered outcomes across finance, operations, and the customer experience:

• Monthly close reduced from 30+ days to 5 days, a result the client has sustained
• Ten siloed applications eliminated, reducing cost and consolidating the technology environment onto a single accounting and operational platform
• Executive, business unit, and operational dashboards delivered real-time visibility into performance across locations for the first time
• Operational leadership gained the tools to manage KPIs consistently and direct attention where the business needed it most
• Staff turnover reduced and retention improved following the HR system implementation
• Customer satisfaction scores grew significantly, with revenue following — a direct result of teams freed from manual work and refocused on customer outcomes

Conclusion

In a low-margin business, operational discipline is the competitive edge. This engagement demonstrated what happens when finance and operations are properly connected: leadership can see clearly, close quickly, and act on what the numbers are telling them. The human heroics stop, and the business can grow.

For CFOs and CEOs navigating similar challenges — fragmented systems, slow reporting, limited operational visibility — Altum Strategy Group brings the experience and the discipline to build the financial and operational infrastructure that scale actually requires.