Newcastle based web and mobile development studio Komodo Digital has come a long way in thirteen years. Founded and led by MD Andy Greener, it now has top-tier clients on its books including ITV and Northumbria Police amongst many others. Greener has always excelled at identifying and timing opportunities. Serious growth came when he spotted the booming mobile market early and rapidly reconfigured Komodo as a specialist to supply the demand.

Challenge

Finding the time to develop an accurate cash flow forecast as well as a scenario planning process is a key challenge for most (small) business owners. Traditional cash flow forecasts can take up a lot of time in (small) businesses and stop many (small) business owners from dedicating their time to what they do best.

Komodo founder and managing director Andy Greener wanted to pinpoint and exploit market opportunities. The trouble was, he was spending much of his time wrestling with financial scenarios and what-ifs in spreadsheets. He needed a forecasting solution that allowed him to help the team drive success by working with clients. As the company was facing a big growth stage, Andy needed clarity over the big decisions like hiring.

Solution

Andy now models his new contracts against his top-line sales and expenses. It shows the impact of the scenarios on his balance sheet, P&L, and cash flow statement in seconds. Andy’s operating the business with so much more clarity now, and steady growth is happening. Now his finances are running seamlessly, there’s a lot more time for him to get back to what he loves – design. Futrli can help the (small) business owner focus on what really counts - doing what they love to become successful entrepreneurs.

Results

Komodo is running effectively, with all scenarios and variables accounted for. Andy and his team are focusing on what they excel at, and that’s made for a more enjoyable working day. The business is able to stay ahead in the market thanks to Futrli’s nature of navigating the future, mitigate risk and maximize opportunities. Whatever the cash flow forecast shows, Komodo is ready for it.

Interview in full

How have you found working with Futrli?

It would have been great to have had Futrli at the start when I set up Komodo Digital. It’s the best forecasting tool we’ve used, it’s incredibly powerful and in contrast to working with spreadsheets, there’s no comparison. Pinpointing and exploiting a market opportunity by delivering great services and products is where I want to use my time rather than wrestling with the financial scenarios and what-ifs.

Futrli allows me to minimise time spent on forecasting and focus my time on actual delivery.

How often are you using it?

We use Futrli most days. If a new contract lands then we need to model the effect on top-line sales and expenses quickly and easily and with Futrli I can see in seconds the impact on multiple scenarios across P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cashflow thanks to the software’s all-in-one capability. How does the acquisition of a new client affect when we should hire next? Futrli will give me that answer.

I can look at my P&L for the next 3 years or visualise our core KPIs from the forecast. For example, what do wages as a % of overall expenses or sales look like? Advertising expenses as a % of revenue? A great feature is being able to copy scenarios with one click. In an instant, you see a completely different outcome of what’s ahead.

Why do you enjoy using Futrli?

Being involved in the technology sector, it is critical to be aware of what’s going on and what’s happening next because what’s happening next is ultimately where you are going to create your revenue and if you’re not preparing for it then you’re always going to be playing catch up. It’s easy to get wrong too which can be costly. Futrli helps us navigate the future and improve our business planning, mitigate risks for our business model and maximize opportunities.

How did you hear about us?

We found Futrli on the Xero website. We tried other Xero add-ons as well but for us, Liveplan wasn’t flexible enough and it didn’t handle UK VAT very well, and Float didn’t go into enough detail. Futrli syncs seamlessly with Xero so you don’t need to hack the numbers to get it to work.

I am a designer, so I really appreciate the clean interface making it easy to interact with and use on a daily basis. We always know how we’re performing against budgets. An added benefit is that when I export reports for investors, they look great and communicate our vision accurately.