Canelco: a Finnish industrial multi-sector group

Canelco is a Finnish industrial multi-sector group formed by the merger of several regional private equity funds. The Canelco group includes parent company Canelco Oy and two subsidiaries (sub-groups). Additionally, the group includes two associated companies. Parent company Canelco Oy plays a key role in the strategic development of its subsidiaries or associated companies.

The Canelco group employs nearly 700 people in Finland, with an impact revenue of over 200 million euros in 2023.

The group wanted to standardize and streamline reporting, budgeting, and forecasting processes

In the 2010s, Canelco had at best nearly thirty investment target companies simultaneously. Companies provided financial data in very different formats, and processing the data into a uniform monitoring and reporting format was time-consuming manual work.

In 2019, Canelco changed its strategy, beginning to make majority investments, and the Canelco group was born. This change brought consolidated financial statement obligations and a natural need to standardize and streamline reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation at all organizational levels, including the parent company, subsidiaries and associated companies, and sub-groups.

Canelco's ownership is active and daily, so it was essential to choose software that would also be suitable for use by subsidiaries, associated companies, and sub-groups. When evaluating different software options, Canelco paid special attention to ease of use and an interactive user interface that enables users to build their own KPIs and reports. Additionally, the software had to offer versatile functionalities for income statement and balance sheet budgeting and forecast creation for both individual companies and the group, and not be dependent on a specific accounting software.

As a group, it was also important for Canelco that the chosen software include comprehensive consolidation functionalities, minority and associated company calculation functionalities, and integrations.

Comprehensive onboarding training and Finadeck software's ease of use and self-service model enabled smooth implementation

Before implementing Finadeck, Canelco tried another software for the same purpose, but the user experience of that software was difficult and rigid. In 2022, Finadeck approached Canelco, and during the offer phase, Canelco valued especially Finadeck's clear pricing and implementation process. Additionally, Canelco saw as positive Finadeck's commitment to include in the software on the development path those functionalities that are important to Canelco. These functionalities have been developed on a scalable principle free of charge after implementation.

"Trust in Finadeck's team and support arose immediately during the first project when schedules were kept and manuals were delivered on time"

At Canelco, Finadeck implementation was carried out in phases, starting with a pilot phase in one subsidiary. After successful piloting, implementation was expanded to all subsidiaries and associated companies as well as sub-groups. This enabled extensive automation of parent group reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation. Canelco's Finance Manager Sari Pietiläinen emphasizes that trust in Finadeck's team and support strengthened during the first project when schedules and manuals were handled as agreed.

Finadeck implementation went smoothly, and in the first phase, actual data from subsidiaries and associated companies was integrated into Finadeck using ready-made Netvisor and Visma.net integrations. Budgets and forecasts were brought in for each company via OneDrive integration, fixed asset and loan lists via Excel import files, and investments entered directly into Finadeck. Canelco also benefited from being able to conveniently form the entire group's budgets and forecasts in Finadeck from subsidiary and associated company budgets.

In connection with the first phase implementation, group accounting rules were defined in Finadeck with Accounting Manager Maria Litmanen, which eliminated internal group transactions. Finadeck also took into account the group structure, ownership history, and ownership percentage development history, calculating the effect of minority and associated companies on the parent group. Other eliminations, such as group active entries, Canelco brought into an elimination company established in Finadeck via OneDrive, whereby all eliminations were taken into account in the group.

In the first phase of implementation, Finadeck's support team also built the KPIs and report templates defined by Canelco together with Canelco's staff. After building the reports, automatic email sending of reports was activated, whereby reporting was automated. Canelco's Accounting Manager Maria Litmanen and Finance Manager Sari Pietiläinen report having achieved significant time savings with Finadeck in monthly group figure formation, also taking into account the time-saving benefits Finadeck brought to subsidiaries and sub-groups belonging to the Canelco group.

At a later stage of implementation, Finadeck defined more precisely with each subsidiary, associated company, and sub-group what drivers they want to use to enter the budget into Finadeck. In connection with onboarding training, most subsidiaries and associated companies have been able to completely eliminate Excel auxiliary calculations when transitioning to entering the income statement budget with their desired parameters and calculation levels directly into Finadeck. Additionally, Finadeck support has built detailed manuals for each company, which make budgeting and forecasting more effortless even after the actual onboarding training.

Eliminating Excel-based auxiliary calculation has improved the quality of subsidiary and associated company reporting and planning while reducing the possibility of manual errors. Additionally, Finadeck has reviewed key metrics with each company and defined reporting needs so that companies' internal reporting has been automated and the budgeting and forecasting process has been streamlined.

"Finadeck's strength lies in its ability to seamlessly combine diverse data from different business units, thus enabling consolidated reporting"

The clarity and uniformity of Finadeck's user interface in the organization has been a significant advantage for Canelco. This enables group management support in subsidiaries' and associated companies' financial management, such as creating KPIs and reports, creating budget drivers, budgeting, scenario and forecast preparation, fixed asset and loan data management, investment planning, and setting elimination rules.

"Finadeck's strength lies in its ability to seamlessly combine diverse data from different business units, thus enabling consolidated reporting. The consolidation process is now efficient and real-time, giving group management an accurate overall picture of all business units," summarizes Maria Litmanen, Canelco's Accounting Manager.

Canelco is also satisfied with Finadeck's implementation smoothness, and according to them, customer service and the development team have performed excellently, even exceeding expectations in response and reaction times. Canelco's Finance Manager Sari Pietiläinen, Accounting Manager Maria Litmanen, and Partner Pekka Hietala note that Canelco has been able to go through development needs that have arisen through open discussion with Finadeck, which Finadeck has taken into account in its development work on a reasonable schedule. Canelco also appreciates Finadeck's scalable approach, which has enabled other customers to utilize desired functionalities at no additional cost.

Finadeck is not just a software solution, but a strategic partner

The collaboration between Canelco and Finadeck has been a strong alliance that has transformed the group's financial management into efficient and successful. Finadeck is not just a software solution, but a strategic partner that supports the group in financial challenges and opportunities. When Finadeck brings group financial statement functionalities to production in spring 2024, Canelco will also automate group financial statement preparation with Finadeck in the future. Canelco's Finance Manager Sari Pietiläinen, Accounting Manager Maria Litmanen, and Partner Pekka Hietala gladly recommend Finadeck also to other companies and groups.