September 10, 2024
Right Brain Insights, an outsourced CFO firm based in Melbourne, Australia, faced with the challenge of managing consolidations for clients with multiple entities. Like many firms, they were bogged down by manual processes, relying on spreadsheets that were time-consuming and prone to errors. For some clients, it took weeks just to get a draft of their financials. These inefficiencies were holding them back from delivering the strategic insights their clients needed.
By adopting Fathom’s consolidation and forecasting tools, Right Brain Insights not only streamlined their workflows but also freed up valuable time—allowing them to focus on what matters most: helping their clients succeed and grow.
In this case study, we speak with founder David Maher, to explore how Right Brain Insights overcame these challenges and tapped into new opportunities for deeper client engagement.
Website: rightbraininsights.com.au
Number of employees: 2-10
Industry: Outsourced CFO Services
HQ: Melbourne, Australia
Right Brain Insights provides outsourced CFO services to independently owned industrial manufacturing and trade service businesses in Melbourne, Australia. Led by David Maher, the company specialises in delivering comprehensive financial insights and strategic planning to clients.
The manual consolidation process at Right Brain Insights felt cumbersome and error-prone:
"Operating in spreadsheets means it's quite prone to error. You miss a formula, accidentally delete something, or move things around the wrong way. It can be really hard to find and correct these errors," explains David.
One particular client with 11 entities illustrated the extent of the challenge:
"It took an entire month to create a first draft of their whole group's financials, trying to forecast the future while also bringing in the history to inform everything. The accounting software only pulled 12 months at a time per entity, per financial statement."
Enter Fathom. After years of grappling with spreadsheets and manual processes, David and his team at Right Brain Insights had reached a breaking point.
"For years, we had mucked around with spreadsheets and doing things manually because we had no other choice. But the penny dropped for us as a team, when Fathom released the forecasting feature. All of a sudden, we could bring together the history—where a client has been, where they are now—and we could begin forecasting their future at an individual entity level, and then bring that together into a unified forecast and wrap all our reporting in real time around that. " David shares.
The process of consolidating client data had become overwhelmingly time-consuming and prone to errors. The manual work involved downloading multiple reports, aligning them correctly, and building complex formulas—all tasks that diverted attention from more meaningful analysis.
The introduction of Fathom’s consolidation and forecasting features changed everything.
"The release of Fathom’s consolidations was a game-changer for us," says David. "We work with clients that have relatively simple structures—like a trading entity with an asset holding company—but getting a full, consolidated view of all their investments used to be a huge task."
With Fathom, David’s team could now bring together historical data and forecast the future with ease, transforming how they managed multiple entities. This shift not only simplified the process, but also allowed them to focus on providing deeper insights and more value to their clients.
1. Better understanding of financial dynamics
"Using Fathom, the first consolidated forecast was a little taxing but revealed the power of the tool. It's hyper efficient compared to spreadsheets, especially for understanding and managing the financial dynamics of multiple entities," David notes.
2. More time to workshop with clients
With Fathom, Right Brain Insights can now spend more time on strategic client engagements rather than data crunching:
"It's incredibly lonely at the top for our clients running their businesses. Being able to bounce their ideas, concerns, and opportunities off us and really lead them in driving their performance is why we do what we do," David shares.
3. Ability to benchmark and forecast using Fathom
Fathom not only simplified consolidations but also activated new capabilities such as benchmarking, which David finds incredibly powerful:
"By consolidating, we can activate the benchmarking, which has been incredibly powerful as well."
Right Brain Insights’ journey with Fathom shows how the right tools can simplify workflows, unlock valuable insights, and ultimately, provide more time to focus on clients. Fathom took a cumbersome process and made it seamless, allowing Right Brain Insights to spend more time being strategic partners for their clients.
"Fathom has been absolutely fantastic. It saved us days of data crunching and allowed us to spend more time face-to-face with clients, guiding their performance and helping them grow their businesses. It’s hyper efficient compared to spreadsheets and has completely transformed how we manage consolidations and forecasting."
Discover how Fathom can simplify your financial workflows and provide clear, actionable insights. Check out more features here.
Ellie is a campaign marketing manager at Fathom, with a degree in branding and marketing. With a background in campaign strategy and creation, Ellie is passionate about showcasing how Fathom can make a real difference to finance professionals and businesses.
