Fueling faster finance: Replacing manual work with connected systems
The challenge
A regional convenience and fuel station powerhouse was not dealing with one broken financial process. It was dealing with dozens of manual steps that had accumulated over time.
Treasury and accounting relied on bank portals, spreadsheets, and manual handoffs to complete essential work. A high volume of payments was initiated through decentralized bank portals, requiring treasury to constantly log in/out of various portals to create, approve, track, and troubleshoot payment activity. Cash forecasting for these payments were handled in a siloed spreadsheet while retroactive payment reporting was often at the mercy of bank portal functionality.
Debt management was similarly manual. More than 200 debt schedules were maintained in spreadsheets, creating a time-consuming process for settlements, updates, accounting, and audit support.
Preparing board materials and internal reports also took hours each month. At the same time, accounting entries and reconciliations slowed the financial close because the underlying systems were not fully connected.
The company was also paying more than $7 million in annual bank fees. With limited visibility into the services and volumes behind those charges, treasury could not easily determine where savings might be available.
The approach
Clearsulting built a single roadmap for treasury and accounting rather than treating them as separate transformation projects.
Kyriba and BlackLine were implemented together, with the design focused on reducing manual work across payments, accounting, cash management, debt, and reconciliation.
First, Clearsulting connected Kyriba to all key financial institutions to automate cash visibility and enable a centralized workflow for treasury payments. Then we integrated Kyriba with Oracle to support touchless payment and accounting processes. This allowed information to move between systems without the manual rekeying and handoffs that had slowed the existing process.
We also connected Kyriba and BlackLine so bank balances could flow automatically into month-end reconciliations. Treasury and accounting could work from the same source of information, reducing duplicate effort and improving consistency.
Debt schedules were moved from spreadsheets into a controlled, audit-friendly environment, where accounting activity could be generated automatically. Reporting was also redesigned so board materials could be produced directly from Kyriba.
Alongside the technology work, Clearsulting analyzed the company’s bank fees and identified opportunities to reduce annual spending.
The results
The improvements immediately changed teams’ daily and monthly work.
- 100% visibility to bank balances and transactions
- A 50% reduction in accounting-entry posting time
- A 20% annual reduction in bank fees
- More than 200 debt schedules moved out of Excel
- More than eight hours saved each month on reporting for the Board of Directors
- 100% automation between Kyriba and BlackLine for sourcing bank balances to support month-end account reconciliations
By removing manual steps, the organization shortened processing time and reduced the risk that came with spreadsheet-based and portal-based work. Treasury gained better control over liquidity, payments, and debt while accounting received more consistent information for entries and reconciliations.
Clearsulting’s role extended across the full design. We connected treasury, accounting, technology, and bank fee advisory in one program so the improvements reinforced one another rather than creating another set of disconnected tools.
Replace manual handoffs with connected finance
When bank statements, payments, debt schedules, journal entries, and reconciliations sit in different systems, teams spend too much time moving information instead of using it.
Connect with our team today to learn how Clearsulting can connect Kyriba, BlackLine, and your ERP to speed up processing, strengthen controls, and reduce finance operating costs.