How Terminus used automation to save 1,000+ hours and increase cash flow predictability

As the Senior Director of Finance at Terminus, Russ Gambrell is always thinking about how he can better predict cash and improve cash flow. Technology is his main lever to maximize predictability; the more sophisticated and reliable his technology systems and processes, the better the outcome.

Early on, Russ identified manual finance work as a gap in his team that technology had the potential to fill. At best, manually invoicing and closing books was causing a lot of friction in the order-to-cash cycle; at worst, it was allowing errors to go undetected.

Another pain point was his team’s inability to track growth across customers and demonstrate ROI. Russ wanted to be able to more clearly demonstrate to Terminus’ customers that the dollars they had invested in Terminus software were offering a big return. And for that, he needed better data.

Russ set out in search of “I-can-sleep-at-night software,” as he puts it. He wanted an infallible solution that would do away with the vast majority of manual operations, but that also wouldn’t complicate processes beyond his team’s realm of technical expertise.

When automation platform Workato was first brought to Russ’ attention, it seemed to tick all of the boxes: seamless integrations with his team’s billing applications, powerful automation capabilities, and easy-to-understand recipes that his whole team could manage.

But the real test, of course, would be seeing the platform in action. Russ started out by connecting all applications relevant to the billing process—Netsuite, Salesforce, Trade Desk, and Snowflake—and then added in automation that would comprehensively transfer data from one system to the next.

It was a success! Confident in his selection, Russ formally implemented Workato as a critical technology for his team. With the ability to understand Workato recipe logic, his team can now monitor and adjust these recipes as necessary.

Within days, Workato’s impact on the business was apparent. No longer was Russ’ team having to devote hours on end to manual tasks; rather, all of this time could now be redirected to business strategy. Over the course of a year, this amounted to 1000+ hours saved, or roughly 4 hours each day.

Perhaps even more importantly, Russ was now able to provide granular cash flow predictability and cut down the risk of errors to near zero. Given this increased confidence in his data, he can now better advise on business strategy for improved decision making.

Similarly, Russ now has better and more sophisticated data at his disposal to create customer ROI statements and track customer growth. With this data in his back pocket, the business is best poised to continue to scale.

Finally, implementing Workato allowed the organization to replace three middlewares, which resulted in an estimated $30,000 annual savings for the Finance department. This reduced spend offers the Finance department increased flexibility to explore new investments for the business.