Tomtreyco Bridges the Gap Between Restaurant Operations and the Back-Office
Founded by Tom Locke in 2000, Tomtreyco is a family-owned and operated McDonald's franchise with 56 locations across Northeast Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. To get more information about Tomtreyco, please visit https://www.tomtreyco.com/.
The Search for a New Accounting Platform
Tomtreyco has grown from humble beginnings to 56 locations and plans to expand to over 70 locations. Since its inception, its back-office needs have also changed. Tomtreyco's Chief Financial Officer, Nichole M. Foltz, started to search for the right accounting software to move the business forward. Instead of increasing her workforce in the finance department, she decided that she needed to work more efficiently and effectively.
"I am increasingly reliant on technology as our business expands. Even though our stores already conduct inventory counts and employee time tracking, I still manually produced financial statements using the same data. I was duplicating a lot of effort and inputting numbers that already exist elsewhere."
Tablespoon and Sage Intacct
In the search for the right accounting software, Tomtreyco looked at Restaurant365 and Sage Intacct. To manage their business efficiently, they required a system that would automate their processes and reduce the need for manual work. They also wanted to work with a partner who knew the restaurant industry.
"I came across a Tablespoon case study about a Wendy's franchisee who had switched from RTI Office to Sage Intacct with impressive results. Since we were using RTI at the time, Tablespoon’s experience resonated with us."
Dashboards & Reports
Sage Intacct’s robust reports and dashboards provide real-time visibility into store performance. Tablespoon's team has over ten years of experience designing and deploying Sage Intacct dashboards for restaurant groups' specific needs and use cases.
After implementing Sage Intacct, Tomtreyco rolled dashboards out to their Area Supervisors. With Sage Intacct, Tomtreyco’s team has anywhere, anytime access to all 56 stores from a single login. They can also control what financial and operational data each employee sees and has access to with Sage Intacct's multi-entity functionality and robust user permissions.
"Dashboards have proven to be an invaluable tool for our supervisors, providing them with real-time access to the information they need pertaining to the money spent in their restaurants. I can transfer accountability from our back office to the supervisors to stay on top of their P&L’s. They can monitor their expenses and immediately improve their financial situation."
Mastering the numbers and teaching their team accountability is important to Tomtreyco. "Our supervisors come into the office each Wednesday for an 'admin day.' Part of their day is spent using their Sage Intacct dashboard to review their month-to-date P&Ls to make sure they are on target to meet their monthly profit goals. If they have questions or concerns, they can address them with the office staff at that time. But even if their schedule doesn't allow the in-person visit, they can still do their review remotely. That's one of the many things we love about Sage Intacct.”
Tomtreyco’s next step will be to provide each restaurant’s General Manager with access to Sage Intacct’s dashboards so they can review their store’s P&L information throughout the month.
Closing the Books 2.2x Faster!
Sage Intacct’s user-friendly interface and automated workflows enabled Tomtreyco to drastically reduce the time it takes to close the books at period-end. Closing the books faster helps restaurant operators control costs and improve store profitability.
"When we started this software transition at the beginning of the year, my team was closing the month in 16 days. By June, we improved and achieved a 10-day close, and in October, we finally hit our target of closing in 7 days."
Automated Bank Reconciliations
Tomtreyco now works in real-time to process bill payments and categorize expenses accurately. This allows them to dive deeper into certain expenses and balance sheet account items during the month when they occur instead of waiting until the monthly financial close. "Our bank reconciliation rules and procedures have been a game changer for our cash management department. What's more impressive is that Sage Intacct automatically creates journal entries for us based on the 940 rules we have in place, saving us a lot of time and effort. Due to RTI’s limitations, we previously reconciled using Excel spreadsheets that not only duplicated data and created room for error but took us 4-5 days on average to complete. Reconciliations are now done in 1 business day for all 56 locations."
Improved Visibility
"The most significant benefit of Sage Intacct is its improved visibility to our teams and operations. It allows quicker turnaround times, enabling our teams to make real-time store improvements based on up-to-date data. Previously, we would close the month on the 20th, 22nd, or even 24th day, meaning the current month was already over. There were only a few days left to address any issues from the previous month before next month's close. Now, with our seven-day goal, our teams have more than three weeks to implement changes and turn things around. Improved visibility and real-time data access are crucial to helping our restaurants perform better. It's amazing how much we've achieved with Sage Intacct and Tablespoon's support."
Focusing on the Future
Nichole has been able to spend more time focusing on forward-looking projects. "As accountants, we tend to focus on the past, always working on things that have already happened. However, to continue to grow, we need to be proactive and spend more time looking forward. The benefits we’ve seen from Sage Intacct have allowed me to be more involved in planning for the upcoming year and setting projections, goals, and incentives for the team."
“Tablespoon and Sage Intacct have helped us bridge the gap between restaurant operations and our back-office. They allow us to operate as a more efficient team with better communication and understanding of our business finances.”
What's Next?
"We aim to integrate a lesser-known bank with the Sage Intacct live feed for bank reconciliation. Tablespoon's Sage Intacct Practice Director, MJ Mahood, is helping us with that process. She's communicating directly with our bank and Sage to make it happen. It is a much easier process for the national banks but requires more work for smaller banks. My team has mastered the process even without the live bank feed integration. Each McDonald's location has its own bank account, so that's 56 bank accounts we are working with. Having the bank feed integrated into Sage Intacct will save us even more time! We also plan on automating accounts payable. We've only touched the surface of what's possible."
Dishing on Tablespoon
“Tablespoon has improved our team's speed, efficiency, and transparency.”