BerganKDV's Journey to Standardization

Imagine trying to decipher and make decisions based on financial data from nine different markets, each developed and formatted differently. 

That's the challenge BerganKDV, Ltd (now Creative Planning Business Services), faced before standardizing their financial planning and analysis (FP&A) processes.

Without standardized FP&A processes across your business, your firm may face many extra challenges as it grows. 

BerganKDV’s team experienced this firsthand. In this article, we’ll be exploring their standardization journey with takeaways for your firm.

The Challenge: Inconsistent FP&A Practices

Based in Iowa, BerganKDV provides tax, audit, advisory services, business valuation, wealth management, assurance, litigation support, and more. 

BerganKDV's nine markets were using individual financial spreadsheets for FP&A. None of the approaches were wrong, per se. They were just all different. 

Chris Gallo, BerganKDV's Solutions Leader, was assigned the task of improving the situation. Gallo said one of the main challenges was that you couldn’t pick up an FP&A report from any of the different markets and read it the same way.

The Need for Standardization

“As we grow, we have to standardize our process and make it replicable…so that any two people can pick up a cash flow report and understand how it was made.”

Gallo understood firsthand the importance of bringing consistent processes and ensuring reports were easily understood by anyone at the company. 

Inconsistent reports across nine markets created frustration and inefficiency, especially for those working across the organization.

Benefits of Standardization

In addition to consistent reporting, Gallo knew firsthand that there were many benefits to standardization. Firms that take on this process can expect to experience:

• Improved Efficiency: Standardized processes minimize wasted time and resources by creating a clear and consistent way to complete tasks.
• Increased Scalability: Standardized practices allow businesses to easily replicate successful methods across different teams, locations, or product lines.
• Improved Communication and Collaboration: When everyone understands the "how" and "why" behind processes, communication and collaboration become more efficient.
• Simplified Training: Clear and consistent procedures make training employees and maintaining knowledge transfer within the company easier.
• Enhanced Quality: Standardization helps ensure consistent quality of services by establishing clear benchmarks and reducing variability.
• Reduced Costs: Streamlined processes and minimized errors lead to cost savings in areas like production, training, and maintenance.
• Regulatory Compliance: Standardization can help ensure adherence to industry regulations and safety standards.

Implementing A Standardized Approach

After making the decision to implement a standardized approach to FP&A processes, Gallo and his team hit the next roadblock. 

With so many options, it was difficult to choose a course of action. Did they build a home-grown approach based on existing methods from their markets, or choose a new software tool?

When Gallo saw the options available, he realized that for their growing needs, a software tool that could be customized to BerganKDV was the way to go. Having specialized software with experts constantly improving and adding features meant the firm could be much more adaptive, offering more growth and strategic opportunities.

Questions Asked When Choosing a Software Tool

The team searched for software and considered the following questions when vetting different solutions: 

• Standardization Features: Does the software offer tools to create and enforce standardized templates, reports, and processes? This was crucial for BerganKDV.
• Integration Capabilities: Can the software integrate with existing accounting and financial systems used by the company? 
• Scalability: Can the software handle the company's current and future needs as it grows?
• Ease of Use, Training, and Support: Does the vendor offer adequate training materials and ongoing support to ensure successful user adoption?

By vetting these criteria, BerganKDV landed on Jirav, a solution that delivered far more than just standardized reporting. As Gallo relates: 

“Jirav is much more than software. The Jirav team guided us on our entire FP&A strategy, including onboarding, training, pricing, packaging, marketing, and sales support. They are a true partner.”

 

Results of Standardization Implementation

By standardizing FP&A processes, BerganKDV was able to expand its accounting and advisory services, bringing on staff at different levels throughout the firm. It was much easier to add advisory services by using data to adapt to client needs.

These weren’t the only benefits. BerganKDV also enjoyed better:

• Decision Making: Leadership had a clearer picture of the company's financial health, facilitating informed decision-making.
• Collaboration: Standardized reports across markets improved communication and collaboration across the company. 
• User Adoption and Efficiency: Despite initial resistance from some team members, Jirav's user-friendliness led to quick user adoption. The team embraced the benefits of a "single source of truth" for financial data and quickly came to see its benefits.
• Integration and Scalability: Jirav integrated well with existing tools, streamlining data transfer. The solution also scaled effectively, supporting BerganKDV's growth and expansion of services.
• Acquisition Attractiveness: Standardized reports and processes made BerganKDV more attractive to potential buyers, simplifying integration when it was acquired by Creative Planning.

For more background on BerganKDV’s FP&A standardization, Chris Gallo shares his story in this video.

Standardizing FP&A Made Easy

Jirav is designed to help firms seamlessly standardize their FP&A processes. Book a demo today and explore the software that empowered BerganKDV’s strategic financial planning and growth.