TESTIMONIAL
Iron Horse Brewery: ROCK-SOLID BOOKS FOR BETTER BUSINESS DECISIONS
SERVICE
Numbers Powered Growth
LOCATION
Ellensburg, WA
AT HIGH-VOLUME YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE NUMBERS
Over the past two decades under owner Greg Parker’s leadership, Iron Horse Brewery has grown into a mainstay of the Washington state distribution scene.
No stranger to the tight grip required to run a high-volume, distribution brewery, Greg and his team place a high premium on fast, accurate accounting. So when their controller decided to move on, Greg took the opportunity to survey his options for a replacement with an eye towards improvement.
"We had an in-house controller who was looking to move on. The business and market were changing, and I wanted greater detail in the financials, better timeliness, and more certainty in the information I was looking at."
Beyond the basics, Greg wanted a better inventory management system to dial in their COGS and true item costs. And it was during that search that one of his peers recommended Small Batch Standard’s team and tech stack as a solution for Iron Horse.
Even with the endorsement, Greg was still hesitant to make a change, especially if it involved migrating to a new system.
"My reservations were around changing to something different. The change to SBS required getting into a different ecosystem and adapting to their ways. And then I thought: what if I go through all that effort to get integrated and then find, ‘Oh man, it’s not working.’ That was where my biggest resistance came in. I don’t know how good they were so I feared it not working."
Ultimately, Greg realized he’d face the same challenges whether he hired another person in house or chose an outsourced option. So after speaking with the SBS team, he decided to move forward anyway, and quickly recognized the value of their process and team-based approach.
"What I found is that SBS has a system, a software stack, and numerous humans tending to the processes and needs of my business. It’s not just me rolling the dice on one human to do all this work and hoping to get it right."
GOOD BOOKS, GOOD DATA, BETTER DECISIONS
Today, Greg and the team at Iron Horse are able to dig deeper into the financials, and keep a close eye on how the business is really performing. And with a faster monthly close and higher confidence in the numbers, their decisions have improved as a result.
"Now with good financial statements, we can successfully operate under our open- book management system. As part of our open book system we have a weekly team meeting where each person takes ownership of a financial line on the P&L. Each person forecasts for the month, and reflects on the numbers. With good books, we have good information on those lines, and we can review them much quicker than we used to be able to. People can really start to pick them apart, so our financial competency and understanding builds on itself."
They’ve also been pleasantly surprised with the responsiveness of the SBS team in making ongoing adjustments to the financials to support the brewery.
"What we’re able to do now that we couldn’t before is really start to pick at the nits of the accounting. For example, we might have someone whose wages are classified as admin, but they actually belong over here in this class during this time, and over here in another. It’s sweet to have SBS respond to those requests and make those changes on an ongoing basis, whenever we need it."
And even though he’s very tapped in to his business and the Iron Horse team is filled with smart, financially minded people, Greg appreciates the advisory role that SBS plays.
"The greatest daily value is in the certainty that my books are being tended to and that I can rely on them. But there’s also significant value in the advisory role that SBS plays. I have a lot of smart people on my team and we’re never sorry when we reach out and say, ‘Here’s what we’re thinking... what’s your perspective?’ It’s just nice. I don’t take it as any sort of guarantee. I’m making the choices, but it’s that perspective that enriches our ability to make smart decisions."
"If what you’re going to spend otherwise is anywhere near what you’re going to spend on SBS, don’t be stupid. Just get SBS."
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