Channel Zero

The Company: About Channel Zero

Cloud-based automation helps power growth.

Established in 2000, Channel Zero is an independent media company that started with a number of specialty movie channels. After acquiring over-the-air channel CHCH-TV in 2010, the business doubled in size, and today generates income from premium cable subscriptions, film distribution, advertising, and more.

The Situation: Financial Complexity

As the organization grew to over 150 employees across more than 13 distinct entities, so too did its need for a more robust and efficient way to handle the increasing financial complexity. ​“Previously, we relied on Intuit QuickBooks for some entities and Adagio for others, which meant we couldn’t easily consolidate results and had to do time-consuming manual data entry,” recalled Cathy Mewett, vice president of finance at Channel Zero.

The Solution: Sage Intacct

Channel Zero’s finance team sought out a cloud-based solution that could empower the business to make more data-driven decisions. Mewett noted, ​“After considering Microsoft Dynamics GP and Oracle NetSuite, we ultimately found the best fit in Sage Intacct due to its effortless multi-entity capabilities and seamless integration with Salesforce CRM.” After implementing Sage Intacct, the team improved efficiency by 25%, gained transparency into cash flow, and expedited their audit cycle by a week — freeing them up to focus more time on forward-looking financial analysis to support the business.

Standardized processes save weeks of manual work.

With help from Sage Intacct implementation partner The Answer Company, Channel Zero quickly and smoothly standardized all of its business entities onto Sage Intacct’s modern financial management solution. A year later, the onset of COVID-19 further accelerated the company’s digital transformation and its adoption of paperless, electronic processes. ​“The timing of our move to the cloud could not have been better — I’m not sure we would have survived 2020 had we not been on Sage Intacct,” said Mewett.

In particular, processing accounts payable (AP) approvals, which used to take up to three days, often takes a mere 30 minutes. ​“We now handle invoicing and the entire AP workflow electronically, which is 50% more efficient,” Mewett explained. ​“Being able to automatically route everything to the appropriate department, secure necessary sign-off, and get checks signed promptly has been a game-changer for us.”

Another key advantage is Sage Intacct’s seamless multi-entity capabilities, such as intercompany allocations and elimination entries. Intercompany account balances are easily checked with a click of a button, saving two full days of monthly reconciliation. These time-saving improvements streamlined the lean finance team’s responsibilities and allowed them to scale with the business, leading to a 25% increase in overall efficiency.

Similarly, month- and year-end closes are more consistent, timely, and accurate across all entities, and no longer hampered by the error-prone and siloed Excel spreadsheets that could drag the process out. ​“Now, running projections, handling our month and year-end close, and supporting the audit are all so easy. With Sage Intacct, it is easy to generate the necessary reports and quickly access supporting documentation, which shortened our most recent audit by a week,” commented Mewett.

The team also has plans to take advantage of Sage Intacct’s seamless integration with Salesforce. ​“We’re in the final stages of integrating the two best-in-class systems. Once that’s sorted, we’ll have a bi-directional flow of information from accounting to sales, giving the finance team timely access to the sales pipeline and giving our reps unprecedented visibility into the payment status for each client — a huge win,” explained Natalie Clarke, accounting manager at Channel Zero.

The Results: Sage Intacct Implementation Benefits

Increased visibility equips team to make data-driven decisions.

Channel Zero especially benefits from the increased transparency Sage Intacct provides into the financial health of each of its entities and more. The system’s flexible reporting dimensions allow the team to uncover valuable insights, such as sales by filmmaker and by project, as well as to track advertising sales by agencies and their individual clients. For the first time, Channel Zero can easily produce consolidated balance sheets, not just profit and loss statements. This improved the business’ cash flow forecasting and allowed for more regular communication with shareholders.

The company’s leadership team now relies on a custom-built executive dashboard that compiles metrics spanning multiple revenue streams. It includes a high-level breakdown of actuals versus budget, cash balances, and year-to-date profit and loss. Department heads can log into Sage Intacct to access relevant data throughout the month, rather than waiting for the finance team to provide it.

“I used to get around five emails a day asking about payment status or whether invoices were in. Now, all of that information is available to the team at their fingertips. They feel empowered, and I get crucial time back in my day,” Clarke said. As a result, the finance team has taken on more and is focused on adopting mature financial processes that were previously too difficult to contend with.