How A Growing Company Automated Financial Processes to Drive Strategic Growth

The Challenge: A Critical Manual Work Index™

As the company grew, it decided to assess the efficiency of its core financial operations. They calculated the Manual Work Index™ for the Business Controller's key processes, which revealed a critical score of 71%. The Manual Work Index™ measures the level of manual effort and inefficiency within a specific process area. A high score, a score over 65%, is a clear warning sign that a function is burdened by bottlenecks, operational risk, and compliance vulnerabilities.

For Sarah’s area of responsibility, the symptoms behind this high score were clear:

• Manual Month-End Reporting: Sarah spent five full workdays each month manually exporting files, cleaning data in spreadsheets, and copying everything into a presentation. This created a significant delay, and by the time the report was finished, the information was already a week old.

• Chaotic Quarterly Forecasting: The process involved emailing spreadsheets to department heads, chasing them for weeks, and then manually combining all the different files. This lack of a central system meant no one had a clear, real-time view of the budget, increasing the risk of inaccurate financial planning.

• Slow and Untraceable Approvals: The process for approving major purchases was slow and impossible to track, often getting lost in email inboxes. This not only delayed critical projects but also lacked a formal audit trail, creating a potential compliance gap.

The Solution: A Centralized Workflow Platform

The health tech firm chose Zenphi, an AI-powered, no-code platform designed for Google Workspace, to automate these core processes. This enabled Sarah to design and launch new, compliant workflows in days instead of months.

• Automated Reporting: A new workflow now runs automatically each month, using direct connections to pull and combine data before instantly creating the report in a Google Slides template. Sarah's only task is to review the report and add her expert comments.

• Streamlined Forecasting: The forecasting process is now a single, automated step. The system sends tasks and reminders to managers based on business rules and combines their input into a real-time dashboard, ensuring data is collected consistently and on time.

• Digital Approval Tracking: Requests are submitted via a simple form and automatically routed based on preset approval policies. Every step is tracked, providing a clear audit trail and guaranteeing adherence to company purchasing procedures.

The Results: A Healthier Process and More Time for Strategy

By automating its manual processes, the company significantly enhanced the efficiency and impact of its finance function. The automation allowed Sarah to focus on the high-value strategic work she was hired to do.

• The Manual Work Index score for the controller's process area was reduced by half, dropping from a critical 71 to a healthy 35.

• The reporting process was reduced from 5 days to just 1 day, freeing up almost a full week each month for strategic work.

• With full process visibility and automated routing, the approval time for major purchases was cut from  2 weeks to only 3 days.

• Management improved its forecasting accuracy by over 15% due to access to real-time, consolidated data.

"Instead of spending the first week of every month looking backwards, I now spend it looking forward. Improving our process area's Manual Work Index score means I have the time to analyze customer profitability, model new pricing strategies, and act as a true co-pilot to our leadership team. We're not just reporting the numbers anymore; we're using them to drive the business."

— Sarah, Business Controller