"Every month, we do a four currency consolidation.Before we started using Spotlight Reporting, we were using Excel and the process would take us hours—anywhere from 4 - 8 hours a month in EOM reporting. From the point at which we have finalised the month end close in Xero, it now takes about an hour, including review."
Catherine Alcock is a Startup Accountant at The Startup Shop, an accounting firm based in Sydney that specialises in startups. Read on to find out how Spotlight Reporting takes some of the heavy lifting out of what she does.
Hi Catherine, can you tell me about The Startup Shop and what you do?
We are specialist startup accountants based out of the Sydney Startup Hub. We’ve been around for about six years and offer a full range of services, including accounting, tax, and advisory to tech startups.
What does 2020 look like for you and the team? Have you had any wins so far?
2020 has been a tough financial year (especially Q4!), but we’ve made it through as a team. A win is that we've unlocked stimulus for the majority of our 130+ corporates.
What were the major pain-points of your process prior to using Spotlight Reporting?
Manual Excel consolidations, for sure!
We hear that the team at The Startup Shop are Spotlight Reporting and consolidation experts. What has your experience been like using Spotlight Reporting so far?
It’s been mostly centred around multi-currency consolidations, of which we have a handful that need to go out on a monthly basis. It’s been super helpful. We're looking forward to getting stuck into the Forecasting module in 2021.
By using Spotlight can you measure any increases in revenue or growth, or time-saving?
With your tools, we get a massive time-saving on monthly consolidations.
Before we started using Spotlight Reporting, we were using Excel and the process would take us hours—anywhere from 4 - 8 hours a month in EOM reporting. From the point at which we have finalised the month end close in Xero, it now takes about an hour, including review.
What features do you enjoy the most, and which features make your jobs easier?
I like being able to customise the templates. It takes a bit of time to set up, but which then enables us to deliver reports that are pertinent to a particular client/group of clients.
What would you say to someone who’s shopping around for a reporting or forecasting tool?
The biggest pain point is finding time to actually onboard, train, and learn. So I would say set aside more time than you think you need to onboard and train. It will be worth the time investment.