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ABOUT WAYB

WAYB is a sustainable retailer that focuses on providing high quality, eco-friendly products for families. They offer a wide range of products such as car seats, travel gear, and accessories, all made with the utmost care for both people and the planet. With a mission to reduce waste and promote sustainability, WAYB aims to inspire conscious consumerism and make a positive impact on the world. As a socially responsible company, WAYB is constantly striving to improve and make a difference in the industry while providing practical solutions for modern families.

THE CHALLENGE

WAYB, a forward-looking company, initially operated with minimal tech support, relying on basic accounting software like Xero for general ledger maintenance, despite lacking inventory management capabilities. As they grew, despite transitioning to QuickBooks Enterprise to manage inventory and increasing transaction volumes, Andrew Gunter, their Chief Operating Officer (COO), knew they still faced limitations. 

Seeking a better way, they adopted NetSuite, a comprehensive  enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This move led to embracing strategic partnerships that could evolve with their needs, ensuring operational efficiency. Embarking on a journey to enhance accounting and order-to-cash reconciliation with a robust solution, WAYB turned to Blue Onion.

THE REASON WHY

At the heart of their financial operations lay a critical pain point: manual order-to-cash reconciliation. With a significant volume of transactions occurring daily across various platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and wholesale accounts, the manual process was time-consuming and error-prone. The urgency to resolve reconciliation inefficiencies led to their search for an automated solution that could grow with them.

Prior to implementing Blue Onion, WAYB faced several hurdles:

Manual Reconciliations

Their entire reconciliation process was manual, from downloading and converting data from Amazon Seller Central to Excel, to performing manual pivots to creating journal entries and applying accounts receivable to payouts. 

‍Efficiency Issues

Manual, labor-intensive processes consumed approximately 40% of the staff accountant’s role, leading to inefficiencies and delayed month-end closings.

Growth Pressures

The company's rapid growth required a scalable solution that could handle increasing transaction volumes without compromising accuracy.

IMPLEMENTING BLUE ONION 

WAYB initiated a collaboration with Blue Onion as its inaugural paying client, fostering a strong working bond with Blue Onion’s team, especially with the Accounting Expert team and CEO Lyndsey Bunting. WAYB’s leadership, acknowledging the proficiency and credibility of Blue Onion’s top management, recognized the app’s potential value and entered into a collaborative partnership that helped influence Blue Onion's product advancement.

TRANSFORMING WAYB WITH BLUE ONION 

Blue Onion provided WAYB with a comprehensive solution that addressed their key challenges and added immense value in a number of ways, including improvements regarding: 

Automation

Blue Onion’s Integration with NetSuite allowed WAYB to automate 90% of their payouts, significantly reducing the manual workload. Initially, their reconciliation process required downloading and converting files from platforms like Amazon’s Seller Central, followed by rigorous manual data entry and verification—a cumbersome and error-prone task.

"Blue Onion built features we suggested. One of the best pieces I would say that we asked for that eventually got built was the ability to push unreconciled deposits. That was a game changer! With Blue Onion, 90% of our payouts are reconciled automatically. The platform has significantly reduced our manual reconciliation workload and their ability to integrate with our tech stack has been invaluable.”

With Blue Onion’s advanced functionalities, such as three-way matching and automated variance push to manually push unreconciled deposits directly to the general ledger and  rectify reconciliation discrepancies quickly, the process became streamlined. Issues that would take hours to reconcile manually could now be identified and rectified swiftly, cutting down the reconciliation time to a minimal part of the staff's workload.

Time Savings & Increased Productivity

The reconciliation process, which previously occupied 30-40% of a staff accountant’s role, was cut down significantly to 15-20%, freeing up resources for more strategic tasks. Blue Onion also significantly improved WAYB's month-end closing efficiency, reducing the payout processing time by 50% and saving at least 8-10 hours each month on the month-end workload. By freeing up the accounting team to focus on higher-value tasks, overall productivity grew.

Enhanced Accuracy

The integration allowed for the rapid identification and resolution of issues, further streamlining the month-end close processes. Additionally, the variance push feature and three-way matching between NetSuite, Celigo, and Shopify ensured precise and reliable reconciliations.

Adaptability

Besides the primary functionalities, WAYB found creative ways to utilize Blue Onion. Blue Onion's flexible dashboard and features allowed WAYB to use it for various purposes, including identifying and categorizing warranty and product replacement orders, tracking complimentary orders and warranty replacements, and facilitating internal financial reporting and analysis. 

Audit-Ready Data

Blue Onion’s dashboard provided a comprehensive view of transactions, ensuring that their general ledger reconciled seamlessly with financial data from various sources. This integration not only improved operational efficiency but also ensured that audit trails were clear, concise, and easily verifiable.

“Blue Onion’s dashboard is crucial for our reconciliation and financial reporting."

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