If your company has entertainment accounting requirements and is in growth mode, you have a lot of decisions to make—such as what direction to take the business and how you’re going to achieve your goals. The right technology, such as cloud financial software, can make all the difference. In a recent webinar, Integrate ERP with Your Planning Process, Dino Gioia, recent senior vice president of finance for Legendary Entertainment, shared how the company’s integrated Sage Intacct Cloud ERP and Adaptive Insights CPM solution helped drive growth.
“Legendary Entertainment was on the cusp of rapid expansion, both globally and in its product lines,” Gioia says. “We needed a system that could expand and scale with the business growth we envisioned for the next three to five years. Plus, we were committed to using cloud-based solutions.” Sage Intacct Cloud ERP software was a logical choice, followed by other solutions such as Adaptive Insights for business intelligence and budgeting.
Legendary Entertainment acquired four entities within 18 months, a rapid expansion by any count—and Sage Intacct handled it seamlessly, Gioia says. It also supported Legendary's worldwide operations with global consolidation and support for multiple currencies.
Even with such rapid growth, Legendary Entertainment was able to streamline its film accounting processes. “Thanks to Sage Intacct, the company’s chart of accounts (COA) shrunk from over 1,600 accounts to under 500,” Gioia says. “Sage Intacct has a data dimension capability that provides a granular level of reporting critical for growing companies.”
In addition, Sage Intacct easily integrates with additional cloud-based solutions that addressed other business challenges, such as AP automation or expense management. “Now there’s a single source of truth flowing into the accounting system along with an excellent reporting and analytic capability,” Gioia says.
As with many companies, Legendary’s budgeting lived in Excel, a burdensome solution for a rapidly growing company. “Budgeting is a lengthy process, and it’s even longer—and more error-prone—with Excel,” Gioia says. Limited reporting and analysis and lack of integration with ERP or other data sources also hampered budgeting.
“Adaptive Insights knocked three months off the budgeting process,” Gioia says. “And as Legendary Entertainment continues to use it, the budgeting time will be reduced by four or five months.”
The software’s reporting capability has transformed how the company prepares financial information for management and investors. For instance, Adaptive OfficeConnect links existing Excel reports to Adaptive Insights, which allows companies to easily create and update financial reports, board books, and management presentations.
“Legendary’s management discussion & analysis (MD&A) is extremely detailed,” Gioia says. “One change in the financial statements might have to be reflected in five places throughout the notes—but there’s always a chance for error. OfficeConnect maps all that data, so any changes made to the balance sheet or income statements are reflected accordingly. I’d say this cut down the time by 50 percent—time that could be better spent on analytics.”
Spend less time entering and updating data, and more time analyzing it
Thanks to the strong integration between Sage Intacct ERP and Adaptive Insights, growing companies like Legendary Entertainment can take a deeper analytic dive into their business. They can view financial and operational metrics by any relevant dimension, such as department, sub-department, item, or instance. “It’s all about the granularity,” Gioia says. “For Legendary Entertainment, that might be looking at things from a film, campaign, episodic, or seasons level.”
Integration means finance and entertainment accounting teams also spend less time entering and updating data, and more time analyzing it, Gioia says. “You need to be able to access and analyze information at a granular level in a real-time environment. Integration makes this possible. Now you have more time to analyze your business and determine next steps. In the case of Legendary Entertainment, would it be more profitable to make more TV shows, produce more films, or expand into another business?”
Growth doesn’t just happen. It takes planning and a clear vision. It also takes help from the experts at RKL to create a solution that supports that vision.