Case Study - Case Study: E-Commerce

Client Background

Exciting, unique, high-growth company providing a peer-to-peer platform which connects buyers and sellers to facilitate the exchange of authenticated, collectible goods.

So how does all of this work? Sellers list their items on the Company’s platform, while buyers can create their own list of desired items. If a seller lists an item desired by the buyer, the two parties are immediately connected and the sale is processed. The seller then packages and ships the item to the Company for authentication before it is sent to the buyer. While this is all a simple and seamless experience to the consumers, it is in fact supported by the Company’s robust technology and operations platforms behind the scenes. Reconciliation, a crucial element of financial control, is one part of the intricate puzzle.

Process Overview

Rapidly gaining popularity and use from people all around the world, the Company knew they needed a reconciliation solution that could keep up with their high volume of transactions and grow with them into the future. Must-haves were that the solution could deal with the complexities of working with foreign currencies, multiple payment providers, multi-step matching reconciliations, service fees, returns and refunds.

From a strategic perspective, it was also important to the team to find not just a vendor but a long-term partner – reasonably priced, scalable, and in line with modern technology trends of secure data hosting and ability to perform with high transaction volumes.

With the introduction of ReconArt’s automated reconciliation process, the Company’s accounting team reduced the amount of time spent reconciling and simultaneously created a fully auditable and transparent process by leveraging ReconArt’s robust reporting capabilities.

Implementation

The Company came well prepared for their implementation with established documentation scenarios and continued their refinement throughout implementation with ReconArt’s help. The project included phased implementation milestones, allowing the team to gradually go live while setting up additional processes without interruption to the established ones.

“Since changing our monthly reconciliations from manual to automated via ReconArt, we’ve shortened our closing period by an average of 10 days, which is crucial in presenting investors with the financials as quickly as possible. By converting to ReconArt, we’ve eliminated the time spent in extremely cumbersome data files by forgoing the long running formulas and letting ReconArt’s logic handle the data. With the automation of the reconciliation process, we’ve eliminated nearly all of the user errors and increased the accuracy of the financials. ReconArt was there every step of the way to assist in implementation, which was extremely helpful.” –Senior Staff Accountant at the Company.

With ReconArt’s Train-The-Trainer implementation approach, the Company was able to successfully set up a comprehensive reconciliation process that allowed them to be fully self-sufficient. The team is currently working towards increasing the frequency of their reconciliations from monthly to bi-weekly to drive further efficiencies and take full advantage of on-going automation.

“Early in the implementation, the Company made it a priority to designate an internal ReconArt Administrator who would learn all aspects of ReconArt. The team’s knowledge of the existing process and expected outcome, as well as willingness to learn, helped make the implementation truly a collaborative effort. The Company have set themselves up for long-term success in their reconciliation and financial control process.” – Blade Ronetz, ReconArt Product Specialist

Benefits achieved with ReconArt

• Reduced amount of time spent on reconciliations
• Streamlined and fully auditable reconciliation process; created a ‘live view’ into cash flow
• Increased overall visibility of reconciliations
• True ownership of the solution. Ability and knowledge to effectively maintain and add processes to ReconArt after go-live with Train-The-Trainer implementation approach.