Software is often sold as plug and play. At BrightAnalytics, it ís effectively like this.

Huge time savings and efficiency gains for Sportoase

Since Sportoase has been using BrightAnalytics for their financial reporting, they have only gained in time and efficiency. Whether it’s monthly reporting, cash flow analyses, forecasts or the creation of various budget scenarios through the corona situation: today the board and operational management have a grip on the figures.

“Sportoase is part of Group Van Roey,” begins controller Jonah Van Opstal. “Group Sportoase takes on the development of new sites as well as the global management of the subsidiaries. However, the financial follow-up and reporting is done by Group Van Roey.” They use Navision to coordinate the accounting per Sportoase company, but until recently they did not have a single program to create an overall view for the entire group. “To generate data for all the sites together, we were using Excel,” says Jonah. “After we exported the data by site, we brought everything together to come up with a consolidated figure. That, of course, was very cumbersome.”

Plug and play

Through KBC, the company came to BrightAnalytics. “When we were given a short demo, we immediately noticed how intuitive the program was,” Jonah continues. “Everything was obvious, and you didn’t have to be a technical specialist to get started with it. Moreover, the info we wanted to be able to extract from numbers was already available. Since we have a BI specialist in-house, we had already considered creating our own reports. But with BrightAnalytics, all of our needs were already met. So the choice was quickly made.”

A month and a half after the data was brought together and Group Van Roey received a brief training, they were already actively working with BrightAnalytics. “As is often the case with software, it was sold to us as being ‘plug & play’. It then always remains to be seen whether this is effectively lived up to in practice. But at BrightAnalytics it really was. Moreover, we could count on excellent service. After the implementation, we were told that we could now contact the support team with our questions. At the time, I wondered whether we would be helped as quickly as before. But in that respect, too, we have nothing but praise: a question is always answered within 24 hours.”

Adjusting budgets depending on pandemic

Today, both financial and operational reporting for Sportoase is done through the platform. “The biggest advantage for us is that we now have consolidated data for all the companies, which makes it easier to compare. Before, we had to look up the water costs one by one, for example, but now they are all next to each other at the press of a button. And self-defined KPIs show at a glance how a company is doing.”

Sportoase reports figures at two levels: on the one hand to operational management at the sites, and on the other hand to the board of directors. “BrightAnalytics is something we initially started using for the board. Our finance director now uses the platform herself, e.g. for a board meeting, because it gives her quick access to all the available data. In fact, it’s the only source she consults anymore.”

After that, operational managers were also given access. “Once we close out the month, they can look at their figures themselves, compare them to the budget and seek explanations where necessary. Moreover, they can view the figures from different analytical dimensions: by site, or by department for example (the swimming pool branch, the fitness branch…). This is interesting information for a manager. In the past, this could only be done through detours and in a complex way, today we have an analytical result quickly. A site that has just opened can also further filter out all costs still related to construction, leaving only the pure operating costs.”

Today, operational management also uses BrightAnalytics to budget. “Previously, they had to use our accounting package for that. However, BrightAnalytics is more user-friendly, which lowers the threshold for looking up information. It is also very easy to create different scenarios of budgets. This has already proved to be very useful in the wake of the corona situation. We work in a very changing context: if we first draw up a budget based on 12 months of normal operation but it is subsequently decided at a consultation committee that the recreational part of the swimming pools must be closed down, we can very simply make a new version of the budget.”

Cash flow analysis & forecast of results

In addition, Jonah also uses BrightAnalytics to provide cash flow analysis for Sportoase. “That’s where business reviews often call for, e.g., at year-end. But banks also attach great importance to cash flow analyses. Before, we had to make do with Excel again, in which we copied everything manually. This is now no longer an issue. Another added value for us is that BrightAnalytics allows you to choose for yourself how you want to present your income statement. We opted for an income statement that provides greater insight into the figures for management by highlighting certain cost centres that we know are very important to them. Think e.g. of teachers, temps, utilities … Finally, we can also make a forecast at the level of the income statement. The actuals are then supplemented with a forecast for the remaining months, giving us a view of where we will end up at the end of the year. This is crucial today, given that we are operating in a sector that has been hit hard by the measures and banks want to know whether we will be able to meet our financing obligations.”