If your company still relies on those dreaded pizza parties as their go-to employee recognition strategy, it might be time to meet Awardco. The employee rewards platform has reimagined how companies celebrate their employees' achievements, making recognition both meaningful and effortless.
To keep up with the company’s recent and rapid expansion, Awardco’s accounting team — small yet mighty – needed to change up their manual month-end close. Then, an even larger challenge: the team was preparing to lose one of their most experienced accountants, the Assistant Controller, who had been foundational in standing up many of Awardco’s accounting operations.
Prior to his departure, the former Assistant Controller and current Controller, Ryne Fertitta, began laying the groundwork for a more efficient future. Their ambitious goal? Rather than rushing to fill the headcount gap, Awardco could invest in software to not only streamline current processes, but also eliminate the need for additional hires. To do so, they set out, alongside Accounting Manager Robert Avila, in search of a vendor to give their team the most leverage.
Known for their ability to keep the accounting team lean since joining Awardco (in 2022 and 2021, respectively), Fertitta and Avila had long opted for investing in technology over bringing on additional personnel. Now, with their team facing a pivotal transition, they doubled down on this philosophy.
The departure of the Assistant Controller presented both a challenge and a catalyst for change. While he and the team had already made headway in onboarding solutions and trialing free tools, the team’s processes were still showing signs of age – too manual, overly dependent on spreadsheets, and lacking the sophistication needed for a growing company. Now, with reduced accounting experience and institutional knowledge on the team, these limitations had become impossible to ignore, which ultimately led the team to embrace Numeric’s full capabilities.
So, what led Awardco to Numeric?
Their journey began modestly, with an early test of the free Essentials plan that actually proved to be immediately helpful. As Avila put it, Numeric’s checklist features were a “night and day” improvement for managing the month-end close. The breadth of functionality in a free product also left a lasting impression: “I couldn’t believe they were giving us this much for free. That generosity absolutely influenced our decision.”
Even with Essentials as a starting point, Awardco didn’t skip a thorough evaluation of other close tools. Even then, Numeric still stood out as uniquely compelling. Competing products felt clunky and outdated, while Numeric offered a sleek, customizable UI.
Numeric’s direct NetSuite integration promised enhanced reporting capabilities, and Numeric’s reputation for exceptional customer service was already well-established – even as Essentials users, Awardco got quick and responsive feedback to their requests. And to top it all off, Fertitta notes, Numeric delivered this superior experience at a notably competitive price point.
The final pleasant surprise? Implementation was remarkably straightforward. As Fertitta recalls: "The implementation process was super easy. You connect to NetSuite, do a few quick setups, and you're good to go. We signed up in January and closed with Numeric that same month. It was fast."
Since onboarding Numeric, Awardco has shaved four days off the month-end close and dramatically reduced close volatility. As Avila explains, “We used to close on inconsistent days—sometimes +1, sometimes -1 from our target day. Now, we hit the same date every time. That consistency helps FP&A plan BvAs without delay.”
The month-end trendline, a key Numeric feature that illustrates how a team’s close timeline compares to previous months, has been instrumental in pacing their workflows to meet deadlines.
The biggest winner from the switch to Numeric has been Awardco’s accounting team, but their FP&A team might be a close second. Because of Monitors – a unique-to-Numeric feature that works as a real-time alerting framework on your Netsuite data – Fertitta believes the teams have a more streamlined handoff. The accounting team has monitors for any transaction missing classes or departments, as well as a monitor for transactions that the FP&A team historically would flag:
“Before we had Monitors set up, we would close the books and hand things to FP&A, but then they would come back with a list of transactions needing fixes. Now, once we close, we’re done. It’s been a game-changer.”
The reliability fostered by Monitors has bolstered trust between teams, improving synergy and efficiency.
Memo writer & policy generator by day, CPA study tool by night?
Avila gives the stamp of approval for both: while studying for the CPA exam this past year, he states that his daily use of the technical accounting AI inspired him to use it in his exam prep.
Fertitta, a strong AI advocate, adds that AI features like these are among Numeric’s biggest selling points:
“Having transaction-line detail and the AI flux writer built to read all that data is huge. Historically, if an expense account varied 20% compared to the month prior, somebody would have to sift through the GL for related transactions — what did we spend money on this month that we didn’t last month? Just having the AI be able to spot that for you in a matter of seconds is very beneficial.”
When asked to sum Numeric in a set of words, Avila lands on just one — “insightful” — before adding a fitting coda: “[Numeric]’s clean because it doesn’t throw too much at you, but everything it gives you is actually helpful.”
Nearly one year into using Numeric, Ryne & Robert feel that Awardco is adequately prepared for whatever accounting challenge might arise — staff transitions, upcoming audits, or continued company growth.
AI-assisted. Operationally efficient. Audit ready.
