Building a happier, healthier Strategic Finance function
TL;DR
- “You weren't kidding when you said it's plug-and-play and you immediately play. We were up and running in the same week."
- “Data extraction from NetSuite is now a breeze with Aleph, which is exactly what our Strategic Finance team needed.”
- “Aleph has been like half an analyst for us, where we can just get to the endpoint much quicker and cleaner than before.”
- “I’m glad you came out with a product that was so flexible and allows us to do our job without forcing us to do it in any one way. We’re really happy with Aleph.”
About Hungryroot
Hungryroot delivers nutritious groceries, easy recipes, and essential supplements directly to your door. Founded on the belief that food is the foundation of health, convenience should not mean compromise, and we’re all unique in how we eat and live, Hungryroot is building a future in which healthy living is easy and enjoyable.
However, Hungryroot's small but mighty Strategic Finance team was burdened by manual spreadsheet processes. As the business continued to scale, they realized they needed an FP&A platform that could streamline financial reporting, making it as seamless as filling your cart with Hungryroot.
The Challenges
- Before Aleph, reconciling financial reports with their bottoms-up forecasts was a manual process, and at times, prone to errors.
- Downloading and cleaning up CSVs from NetSuite was time-consuming.
- Their industry and business model adds complexity to reporting needs.
- Finance works in Excel, but the other teams needed data in Google Sheets.
“There were too many steps between getting financial data from NetSuite to Google Sheets, and with all those steps, there's more room for human error throughout the process.”
Hungryroot also knew they didn’t have the time or resources for some drawn-out, multi-month onboarding that would only add to the bottlenecks they were trying to remove.
Their lean team needed a low-lift implementation with a short learning curve.
The Solution & Results
Connie described Hungryroot’s procurement process as “robust” before going with Aleph, which included calls and demos with at least ten other vendors.
One-week time-to-value
On their first day on the platform, they integrated NetSuite and started automating reports—an outcome only Aleph can deliver.
“You weren't kidding when you said it's plug-and-play and you immediately play. We were up and running in the same week.”
“The learning curve is very intuitive,” said Connie. “If you’re familiar with pivots and basic Excel formulas, you basically understand Aleph as soon as you get access.”
Replacing manual steps with automation
- Aleph extracts, transforms, and warehouses all of Hungryroot’s NetSuite data.
- Excel and Google Sheets add-ins allow them to work with each team's preferred tool.
- They also push model data back into Aleph for things like budget and revenue forecasts.
“With Aleph, we can quickly execute on tasks that previously took a lot of pre-work before the actual task could even start,” said Connie.
- Finance pulls pre-close reports in Excel and collaborates with accounting to finalize and close monthly reports.
- Once a month is closed, they refresh the budget vs. actuals in Google Sheets for all of their department heads to review.
- Finance uses similar monthly variance reports for several views on the P&L side, like Gross Revenue and EBITDA.
“Aleph has been like half an analyst for us, where we can just get to the endpoint much quicker and cleaner than before.”
Outside of financial reporting, Hungryroot has also been able to build monthly dashboards that allow them to monitor month-over-month KPIs like credits and fulfillment costs.
Handling industry-specific reporting needs
Hungryroot’s industry and high-growth model require a flexible solution that can adapt to its unique needs—not the other way around.
Like many retail companies, their reporting deviates from a traditional calendar. A retail calendar uses periods that don’t align with months and quarters. “Aleph was easily able to accommodate our period structure,” said Connie. “It was easy and works seamlessly.”
Hungryroot’s business model also adds more complexity around COGS and OPEX. Connie mentioned that “many solutions were set up for traditional SaaS products and that’s not us.”
“I’m glad you came out with a product that was so flexible and allows us to do our job without forcing us to do it in any one way. We’re really happy with Aleph.”
What’s your favorite feature and why?
“I love the ability to remap how we want to look at departments or vendors differently than what is in NetSuite.
It’s really helpful for a management P&L scenario where you don't need it to look exactly like an audited financial statement—but rather a lens for operators to make strategic decisions.”
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