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Centage > Case Studies > Upgrading from Excel Saves Time, Eliminates Errors & Streamlines Budgeting Across 4 Entities
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Upgrading from Excel Saves Time, Eliminates Errors & Streamlines Budgeting Across 4 Entities

Technology Category
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Industries
  • Agriculture
  • Food & Beverage
Services
  • Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
The Challenge
Price Family Vineyards & Estates, a family of vineyards and wineries in Sonoma County, California, was facing challenges in consolidating the financial statements of each of its entities and preparing individual budgets for each LLC. The business was growing and the existing system, which relied heavily on Excel, was proving to be time-consuming and prone to errors. Additionally, the company was looking for a new accounting software to replace the winery-specific system it had been using, one that its sales teams would find more intuitive and user-friendly. After considering several options, they decided to switch to QuickBooks Premier due to its ability to integrate with multiple third-party software platforms that the sales teams were actively using.
About The Customer
Price Family Vineyards & Estates is a family of vineyards and wineries owned by Bill and Eva Price. It includes 370 planted acres across several vineyards as well as two wineries in and around Sonoma County, California. Each vineyard and winery has its own LLC, falling under the Price Family Vineyards & Estates, with an individual budget, P&L, revenue, and expenses for each. As the business grew, the company found it increasingly challenging to consolidate the financial statements of each of the entities and prepare individual budgets for each LLC in a timely manner.
The Solution
After switching accounting systems, the company decided to find an alternative to Excel for budgeting, forecasting, and reporting needs. An online search led them to Centage, a cloud-based modern FP&A platform that offers sophisticated planning, budgeting, forecasting, and advanced reporting and analytics capabilities. After a smooth and quick implementation, the company was able to have the two vineyard budgets and two winery budgets fully operational within 4 months. The data entered into QuickBooks flows into Planning Maestro and updates all financial statements automatically, following the business logic of each entity. The pre-built business drivers and allocation methods within Planning Maestro were particularly helpful, as the company uses those same drivers to track expenses and revenue.
Operational Impact
  • The time taken to create reports to present to management has been significantly reduced from days to a few hours.
  • The company can now easily track expenses and revenue using pre-built business drivers within Planning Maestro.
  • The allocation of employees who work for multiple departments and LLCs is now seamless and less tedious than when using Excel.
Quantitative Benefit
  • The company was able to have the two vineyard budgets and two winery budgets fully operational within 4 months.
  • What used to take days to create reports to present to management now takes a few hours.
  • The company can now see the ROI on each event category.

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