Case Accountor

How ZenTreasury brought safety and peace of mind to IFRS 16 reporting.

About Accountor

Accountor offers modern software solutions and outsourcing services for financial management and human resources management. Accountor is a corporation specializing in software solutions and outsourcing services for financial and human resources management. The company employs 2,350 experts in seven different countries. In addition to the headquarters in Espoo and other offices in Finland, the corporation operates in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine. The company’s business idea is to help its customers to utilize the possibilities offered by contemporary technology and digitalization in their daily operations. In 2019, the corporation’s revenue was 244 million euros.

Excel was replaced by the platform of ZenTreasury

When the IFRS 16 standard on leases came into effect in January 2019, all the IFRS 16 entries were entered into an Excel sheet provided by the accountant. Information about the baseline as well as monthly data were registered to the document. The Financial Controller of the corporation, Elina Finnilä, says that there were no problems with the Excel sheet in the beginning, but it soon became laborious to use the sheet when existing contracts were modified, or new leases were added to the sheet. The risks related to mistakes and formula functions were also higher with the Excel sheet. ”It became clear very soon that we needed a separate software for the administration of the leases. We surveyed three different alternatives, and after some interviews ZenTreasury was chosen as our partner. ZenTreasury brought safety and peace of mind to IFRS 16 reporting. Furthermore, we were able to share reporting responsibility to the different business units and employees. The service was also familiar from a previous workplace of the financial director of the corporation, who recommended the platform for us.”

User-friendliness, cost-efficiency and co-operation as criteria

Elinä Finnilä says that the primary factors influencing the choice of the software were the speed of implementation, easy-to-use customer interface and the competitive pricing of the service. ”The customer service was superb as well. The challenge was in our complex reporting system. The customer service of ZenTreasury worked on our existing features and eventually we got all the necessary data in the correct order into our consolidation system HFM. This was essential for us. Luckily everything went well, and we were able to sort out all the challenges. ZenTreasury seems very agile!”

Fast implementation process

Accountor and ZenTreasury signed a contract at the end of June. The implementation process was relatively quick and clear, since Accountor was using IFRS 16 entries. Elina Finnilä says that learning to use the service itself took some time in the beginning. ”We signed the contract at the end of June, and the IFRS 16 entries were already reported with the help of ZenTreasury in September. So, the implementation was quite fast, considering that the summer holiday season was going on at the same time! Customer service worked seamlessly throughout the process and was an indispensable help for us, so that we were able to report everything according to our wishes and demands.”

According to Finnilä, co-operation with ZenTreasury has made sure that the IFRS 16 numbers are correct and that the accounting works as planned. ZenTreasury has also saved time in several different fields, as it is easy and quick to enter data and changes into the service. It is also simple to share reporting responsibilities internationally through ZenTreasury. ”Business units all do their own part and Group Finance coordinates. We can rest assured that the calculations are performed correctly and that we get good value for our money”, Finnilä explains.

She also gives separate thanks to customer service. All communications are replied to within the same day, and very quickly. ”When there aren’t any problems, there is no reason to be in contact. On average we communicate once a month, at most. At first, we had communications more often to make sure that the entries were done right, as we were still learning to use the software.”

ZenTreasury has met the expectations

According to Elina Finnilä, the software has met the expectations regarding cost-efficiency and competitiveness. ”All three of the key points are present: service, easy-to-use software and cost-efficiency. We have been really satisfied with everything so far.”

To learn more about Accountor please visit https://www.accountor.com