From tee-off to a modern close Topgolf's Finance transformation with OneStream

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All right welcome everyone and thank you for joining us today. I'm Trevor Walker Product Marketing Director for Financial Close and Consolidations at OneStream. I'm excited to be joined today by our customer Topgolf along with our partner Spalding Ridge for a discussion of how Topgolf was able to modernize their financial close.

Finance organizations today are under increasing pressure to close faster, improve transparency and manage growing complexity across global operations. Much like playing golf, the modern financial close depends on consistency, persistence, visibility and controlling as many as the variables that matter the most.

Modernizing the close is no longer just about reducing cycle times. It's about building a solid foundation for continuous close processes that perform reliably at scale. During today's session you will hear how Topgolf partnered with Spalding Ridge and OneStream to lay a foundation for finance that standardized and streamlined their financial close processes and improved consistency in the midst of all the hazards.

We'll discuss the challenges they set out to solve the approach they took key lessons they learned along the way and the impact a modern financial close process is having on their business today. We're excited to have you with us. So let's get started.

I'm joined today by Alyssa Moore, Senior Manager Financial Systems and Kendall Barras, Consolidation Manager at Topgolf. Hey Alyssa, can you give the audience a quick introduction? Sure.

At Topgolf I work on the non ERP business applications, which does include OneStream. I've been here at Topgolf for 10 years.

And my background is in accounting, financial reporting, SEC reporting and that kind of thing. But everywhere I've been, I always dug pretty deeply into systems to figure out how to streamline processes, etc. And so that's how I ended up in the IT side. And I led the selection of OneStream for Topgolf.

All right, great. Thanks Alyssa for joining us. Kendall, can you give a quick introduction? Sure. Hi everyone. I'm Kendall. I've been with Topgolf for seven months as the Consolidations Manager on the Financial Reporting Team. And as part of the closed process, we consolidate all of our entities, ensuring accurate and timely reporting for our stakeholders. And I've been in the front lines of the OneStream integration with Alyssa, and I'm ready to share what the honest version of our journey has looked like.

All right. Thanks, Kendall. Last but not least, Amy, who's with our partner Spalding Ridge. And Amy, can you give us a quick introduction? Sure. Hi everyone. I'm Amy, and I'm a delivery manager here at Spalding Ridge, which means I'm basically a jack of all trades. I'm responsible for coordinating the OneStream implementation from start to finish, even past go live during our hyper care. I work with a broad range of industries and a very diverse group of global delivery associates. I have over 25 years of CPM experience, so happy to be here today and share the story.

Well, great. Thank you, Amy. All right. Welcome, Alyssa, Kendall and Amy. Thank you all for joining us today.

So let's get right into some of the meat of the webinar. So here's a quick look at what our today, here's a quick look at our agenda today. We'll tee off with the introductions of our players at Topgolf and Spalding Ridge that paired up to support Topgolf from divestiture through to building a finance foundation that empowers their team to continuously adapt and tackle finance challenges for a better round. From there, we'll assess the course they were playing and the hazards they had to overcome to score on the round and achieve their goals of scale and control.

We'll then drive down the fairway to look at how they laid the right foundation to continue to hit shots and streamline and drove continuous improvements to the close. After that, we'll discuss how OneStream was the right set of clubs for every shot they needed to take in both the implementation and their finance improvement journey.

Then we'll look at how they kept perfecting their swing and driving key improvements as they played the course. And with every implementation, just like a golf match, you need to overcome hazards. So we'll survey the hole and look at the hazards they had to play around as they played the game. We'll check their scorecard and what they had to achieve and where they're going next. And then we'll settle into the 19th hole where we'll record their key takeaways, have some time for Q&A before we wrap up and leave you with some resources to help you play like a champion.

So let's tee off. And yes, as you can tell, I'm going to overuse the golf analogies as I continue to go through the presentation today.

All right. To modernize the financial close at a global organization like Topgolf requires more than just technology. It takes strong collaboration, shared goals and the right expertise across every stage of the journey. Just like playing golf, success depends on the right having the right caddy and equipment working together seamlessly.

In this case, that meant combining Topgolf's vision for finance, One Stream's unified platform and Spalding Ridge's industry and implementation expertise. Together, that partnership focused on building a strong foundation for a go forward, self-sufficient finance team that could lay a foundation for the close, overcome any additional hazards that presented themselves along the way, and could improve visibility, efficiency and control across their finance operations.

I'd now like to turn it over to Amy to introduce Spalding Ridge and share more about their role as the caddy and helping Topgolf to par the whole. So, Amy, I'll turn it over to you.

Thanks, Trevor. It's great to be here and I'm excited to be part of this conversation. For those of you who may not be familiar with Spalding Ridge, we are a global business and technology consulting firm focused on helping organizations modernize the way that they operate across finance, and revenue operations and data. On the finance side specifically, we work with organizations to transform core processes like financial planning and analysis, financial closing consolidations, and also procurement.

Beyond finance, we also help revenue teams optimize sales performance management. We support operations with planning and procurement solutions as well.

What really sets Spalding Ridge apart is our focus on connecting these business functions rather than treating them as individual technology projects. So we help clients bring together leading platforms like OneStream, NetSuite, Coupa, Salesforce, Snowflake, and others into a connected ecosystem that provides better visibility, stronger governance, and ultimately enables more informed data-driven decision making.

That approach was especially important for Topgolf because this isn't simply about implementing a new consolidation system. It was about helping them build an independent and scalable finance foundation that could support the business long after the separation from Callaway.

OneStream has been a part of this mission for us for a while. We are proud to be a OneStream Diamond Partner and Development Partner. We have had the opportunity to deliver more than 120 OneStream implementations for over 70 clients across a wide range of industries and across the globe.

Our team includes more than 100 dedicated OneStream consultants, over 20 certified solution architects, and 10 lead architects, giving us experience to support clients from strategy and implementation through ongoing optimization and innovation. We are also honored to have received the OneStream Partner Innovation Award twice, which reflects our commitment to helping clients solve business challenges, not just deploy technology.

With Topgolf, that experience allowed us to focus on more than getting them through just day one. Together, we built a strong foundation for the close and consolidation first, while designing the solution to expand over time into capabilities like task manager, transaction matching, also dynamic cash flow from Spalding Ridge, as well as management reporting. The result is a platform that not only supports today's needs, but also gives their finance team the flexibility to continue evolving as their business does.

So I'm excited to share that journey throughout today's discussion. And with that, I'll hand it back to you, Trevor.

All right, great. Thanks, Amy, for that overview and for helping to set the stage. I'm now going to hand over to Alyssa to walk through the Topgolf introduction and background. Get to that slide. Over to you, Alyssa.

Sure. If you're not familiar with Topgolf, we have venues across the US, over 100 now. And we like to think of ourselves as as having the fun of golf without the intimidation of golf.

I personally am not a golfer and I do enjoy going to Topgolf and hitting some hitting some balls sometimes. I tend to play the more light and fun games like Angry Birds and Sonic and stuff like that. But there are things for the the true golfers out there, too. We track shots and do all kinds of fun things like that.

And it's good to a lot of things to compete against your friends, too. So and we also have we do company events. So really fun little outing for your team or even Christmas parties and stuff like that. But and then our our background for why our journey to one stream, I guess, is we we were purchased by Callaway a few years ago. And then more recently we were spun off and sold to another company. And we had some fun challenges trying to figure out that whole process out. So we'll be talking a little more about that later.

All right. Great. Thank you, Alyssa, for that overview and for teeing up a lot of again, pun intended, teeing up a lot of the things that we're going to be going through today for the remainder of the presentation. So with that context, it's really important that we that we begin to understand the environment that your finance teams were operating in, especially with the divestiture and the hazards and complexity that you're playing through. But that background in place, we're now going to move into the next part of the discussion, sort of assessing the course in this section.

We'll start to explore the hazards that were in front of you in Topgolf, the approach you took to laying a foundation and the key elements that needed to be in place to support a more modern financial close post the Callaway divestiture.

So as we prepare as you were, as you prepared for that next chapter in golf, you need to assess the whole right and determine how best based on the current conditions you're going to basically get from T to green. In the case of Topgolf, what was your current situation? Where did they where where where did you need to get to and what hazards did they need to overcome to get there?

So if you think about playing a hole in golf, as we move from T to green, if you think about the situation with Callaway, first and foremost was about the spinoff. It was about spinning away from Callaway. Right. And what that meant for you to need in the need you had to build a foundation for systems and processes for how you wanted to operate going forward. You were faced with fragmented systems and manual data movement.

You also had a lot of your existing process. They were much more historically based for how you used to operate. But now and those were a lot of those were actually manual processes with a lot of complexity, things like bunkers and water hazards on the whole that you needed to plan for how you're going to avoid them and how you needed to operate going forward as a finance team.

Which was you needed to be self-sufficient as a finance team. So you had to lay the foundation and processes so that you could play efficiently and play through those hazards and any hazard hazard that happened to present themselves along the way. It was all about putting the fundamentals in place so that you could see every issue and that you were equipped to play through those challenges.

So as we think about where we are in terms of assessing the current hole and challenges, I want to start asking you guys some questions. So, Alyssa, I'm going to start with you. You know, if you take us back to the moment that the Callaway separation became real for your finance team, what did that morning look like? And what did you suddenly own that you hadn't before?

Yeah. And so during the ownership period by Callaway, we actually went on to their ERP. So we were on their SAP environment and they so they managed the ERP, the chart of accounts, master data. They owned tax, consolidations, equity stock options and management reporting. So we all of a sudden didn't have people or systems to do a lot of those things. So we had to figure all that out very quickly. Okay.

And then, Candle, as we prepared for this, I know that you own the consolidation and close process. And I thought it'd be useful for the audience to hear you walk us through what the close and consolidation process actually looked like at that point in time. Where were you spending the most time and what was breaking down that you simply couldn't live with anymore? Yeah, certainly. So our close process and the consolidation process was a heavy reliance on manual processes and spreadsheets. And we spent a lot of time just moving data around and reconciling it.

Consolidations across all of our entities were really time consuming and error prone. So as well as our intercompany eliminations, they were pretty painful, highly manual, hard to track. Reporting was more reactive rather than proactive at the time. And we were spending so much time actually closing the books, which didn't leave any bandwidth for actual analysis.

Okay. And Amy, when you first engaged with the Topgolf team, what was the thing that stood out most as the biggest risk to the close? And what did you tell them they had to solve first? Like what was the guidance that you provided them with and how did you coach them through that process?

Well, when we first started working with Topgolf, we realized that the biggest risk wasn't any one system. It was that the finance processes were heavily dependent upon manual work and a lot of manual work. Data was coming in from multiple sources. There were numerous flat files. It was an Excel based validation type of process.

And there was a lot of manual movements between the systems. So we all know that that creates risk during the close. And especially when you're simultaneously trying to separate from a parent company.

So our recommendation was to focus first on building a stable foundation for the financial data, for the metadata, the dimensionality, the comments, everything else, the reports, the in-process reporting. And then before adding automation or new reporting capabilities, we needed a trusted consolidation process, one that could be repeated month after month. We needed standardized data and clear ownership of who does what in that system.

So once that foundation was in place, everything else, such as cash flow, transaction matching, reporting, and any future enhancement can be built on top of that with greater confidence and efficiency. Great. Great. Okay. Okay.

Okay. So the key takeaway that was just shared by, by Alyssa Candle and, um, Amy, uh, here was that, you know, hitting the green and making par again, can you continue to use those analogies all required a strong foundation or in this case, a foundation underneath everything. How do we get rid of all those manual processes and how do we become much more efficient?

So much like playing golf, if the underlying fundamentals aren't consistent, well-practiced and, uh, with a, with clear knowledge of what lies around the bend or what, what, what hazards exist on the course, it becomes extremely difficult to scale your performance or maintain consistency and control as the challenges become visible.

Because let's, let's, let's, let's be honest, we make mistakes, uh, and, and it's all about how do we build the solid set of foundations or fundamentals to be able to adapt to those. So let's carry that forward as we move into how this, this foundational approach was put into practice.

Uh, so as we prepared for this webinar, talk of, talked a lot about feeling as if they were stuck. Move to the next slide. It talked a lot about feeling as if they were stuck on the practice green, or I think it was candle during the prep work talked about being stuck in a cage. Right. So, so they needed to break free and they needed to do so with a sense of urgency because the spinoff was going to happen.

So much like if you've ever played golf, there's a Marshall on the course. That's all about helping to keep things moving along and keep the pace moving. It's about, uh, they're always there to push the pace to keep things moving. So let's talk about how top golf found the fairway and put that foundation in place to handle the immediate priorities, but also to drive additional improvements.

So I'm going to be consistent. Like before I'm going to start with you, Alyssa. Uh, so you, you've described feeling stuck in a cage or stuck on the, on the practice green before this project.

What did that mean practically? And what was the break point that made standing still no longer an option for you? Yeah. Um, so previously, um, we were on Callaway's ERP and their ERP was built for them. Right. They, they're a manufacturer.

Um, they make golf clubs and clothes and what have you. Um, and, and, uh, previously like we, our business is very different and we may have requested certain GL accounts or profit centers or what have you master data. Um, but that didn't work into Callaway's model. So while, I mean, this was a, a huge project, a huge challenge. It was also an opportunity, right? So we could, we could set things up in a way that made sense for our business and our management to, uh, to be able to evaluate, um, our results. That makes sense. That makes sense.

And candle, when you started mapping out what good looked like, you know, what your future state was going to be, what were the two or three things that were truly non-negotiable? You know, the ones you said, we cannot go live without this in place, without these things in place. Yeah, certainly.

First and foremost, we needed a clean and automated consolidations process. Um, and our inner company eliminations needed to be systematic, not manual. Um, we needed accurate, reliable reporting that we could stand behind. We could stand behind and there was no room for error. And we needed the ability to close on time every time, you know, with the separation, we had hard deadlines and a new level of accountability that we didn't have before. Um, you know, we went from following the leader to sort of being the leader.

Nice. And Amy, as you, uh, worked with Topgolf, uh, uh, and they were, and they were new to, uh, corporate performance management or enterprise performance management, EPM, CPM, whatever term you use. They were new to that landscape because they were operating under their parent company and a kind of operating inside of whatever structures were already there. So as they were looking for a partner to help get them through the rough, how did you work with and guide them to accomplish what Alyssa and Candle just, uh, just shared were their priorities?

Yeah, well, you just said it, uh, we guide. So we were really an enabler for them. So both guide and advisor. Um,

when, when we started, we spent a lot of time in foundations, as we call that beginning process to understand not just what Topgolf needed for day one after the separation, but also where they wanted to go within their finance organization of the first year, the second year and ongoing. Um, rather than trying to solve everything at once, we worked together to prioritize the highest value, uh, items out there. So inner company getting the consolidation foundation there. Uh, we focused on establishing that first, those fundamentals.

And then at the same time, we also designed out the solution so that future capabilities such as transaction matching, dynamic cashflow management reporting could be added without having to go back and redesign later on. And so that phased approach and that enabler approach. So train the trainer, uh, little, uh, training here, little advising here. Um, it allowed us to meet the critical separation timelines while creating that platform that they continue to expand on today.

Makes sense. Makes sense. And one of the things that really stands out of what you just talked about, and I think you said it clearly was it wasn't just about preparing for day one, that you actually took an approach that, uh, was incremental. Incremental, right. That laid a foundation for how they wanted to operate as a go forward finance team, not just solving the immediate challenge, but laying a good foundation for the future. It's clear that this was carefully planned.

You know, what foundation you needed, what clubs were in the bag to be able to handle every shot and how you planned and, uh, sort of, uh, scenario played all the potential hazards that could stand in the way of the success for the teams and the project. With this vision in mind, like a golfer that's, uh, that is meticulously plans every shot and run scenarios on potential outcomes. Top golf took a well-planned approach down to the actual equipment they selected so that they could overcome any hazards and, uh, anything that, uh, they encountered along the way.

So let's now discuss how they planned, executed, and selected the right equipment. In this case, one stream and how they executed well on playing their round for, for initial go live and for broader transformation and improvement as they went forward.

I'm going to continue to be consistent. So I'm going to go back to you, Alyssa, to start with, you know, sort of walk us through how you actually ran the evaluation process. I think it'd be good for the audience to understand kind of who was in the room. What were you looking for? Or, and were there moments where a solution surprised you in either a positive or negative sort of way? Give us some insights into the process.

Sure. Um, so we had a fairly tight timeline, uh, to get something going and selected and get started on implementation. So we started with products that, um, either my team was familiar with or financial reporting or accounting. Um, and so we started with SAP since that is our ERP, um, Hyperion and OneStream. Um, SAP, uh, SAP is what it is. And all the ERPs are right. They, it, it would have functioned as a consolidation. Um, but it only does that and it, and it does it in the way it wants to do it. Right. So it doesn't allow for as much flexibility and what have you. Um,

then when we got to Hyperion, it was a bit over what we were hoping to spend. Um, and it also, um, there's some level of, uh, of, I, it is a purpose built solution for, um, consolidation planning, that kind of thing. But it didn't have all extra bells and whistles. So when we got to OneStream, we were not only were we impressed with how it handled consolidation and some of the flexibility and how you could have, um, like alternate hierarchies and roll ups of, um, financial statements.

But also, um, that there were these extra pieces that we didn't expect that we actually have in different software tools. So the great thing about that is that we could help pay for the project basically by, um, bringing other functionality into OneStream over time and we can, um, get rid of some other products.

So, um, that, it, OneStream was definitely a clear winner, um, around the entire group. That's great. And I'll continue the puns. It lets you tackle a lot of other hazards that you encountered along the way. Right. So, all right. And, uh, Candle, I want to go back to you because I knew consolidations was a critical sort of starting point. And you had a lot of complexity and consolidations a little bit earlier. We talked a little bit about the intercompany and the challenges that you had as well as cash flow. Uh, what were the things that, that you had to get solved as part of those processes?

Yeah, sure. So our intercompany eliminations were a major pain point. Um, our financial reporting team was spending a lot of time doing manual work to kind of figure out what was going on with that. And, you know, we were reporting up to our parents, you know, our findings and results. So, you know, with the number of entities that we have doing it manually just wasn't sustainable anymore. You know, we work with four different foreign currencies and they all need to be translated into USD.

You know, the dynamic cash flow is something that could help us with that Svalding's product. Um, so we perform all of our cash flows in local currency and then we translate it to USD after, you know, we do our big cash flow workbook. So, um, that was really helpful, but it was, you know, largely a manual build, um, pulling from multiple sources and reconciling everything took way too long. So getting everything into one stream was a pretty big help. Great. Awesome.

And Alyssa, I want to go back to you. Uh, you, you touched on it a little bit before. So when you landed on one stream, you talked a little bit about being able to sort of pay for the project through tackling additional, uh, challenges. And, and, and, uh, where you had other software products. You also talked a little bit about you, your confidence grew over time. So what was it that made, um, that you made you made a cop made you confident that it was not only the right solution for the immediate needs, but also where you were ultimately heading as a finance organization.

Um, yeah, so, um, it, our kind of, our philosophy and it is we want to be in as few products as possible. Um, it just for, you know, um, streamlining everything for cost purposes for everything else. So, um, the reconcile account reconciliation functionality, the, um, the, um, management book task management. Yeah. Um, oh, the transaction matching was a huge one. So all of that, um, as we started implementing and putting those into place, um, a lot of those things worked really well.

So, um, that, that really helped along the way as we, you know, as we could mark some off of the list, then that just allowed us to get more and more confident in the product. Great. Great. Great. So confidence bill was built over time through consistency.

So great. And Amy, um, as you were working with them during the selection process, candle talked a lot about the importance of cashflow. And I know you have a solution on one stream for that. Can you speak to that and also how it helped to address this key requirement for them?

Yeah. Cashflow reporting was a really important requirement. Um, and it's because it's one of those areas that's often difficult to automate consistently. Um, and it, it's just ugly. Let's face it. Cashflow is just not fun. So what we've done at Spalding Ridge is rather than build something completely custom every single time we leverage Spalding Ridge's dynamic cashflow.

It's a framework within one stream and it's configured for each customer. So in this case, it's specifically configured for Topgolf's business. So it uses their accounts, the flows, uh, the currencies, everything else that allowed the team to automate much of the cashflow process, uh, with just the data that's already loaded. So it's really loaded into one stream on a monthly basis. Uh, we use tagging, we use roll forward activity, standardized calculations. So consistent from month to month, instead of relying on spreadsheets and manual reconciliations.

And because it's built directly within the one stream platform with consolidations, finance could work from one trusted source of data, giving further confidence to that data. So once you validate you, or once you load that data, the data is validated.

And then you just have one place to maintain that data. So you don't have data everywhere in different spreadsheets and it's not consistent. Um, it also gave them a framework that they can continue to refine as the reporting requirements evolve, which they do.

All right. So it's, so as we've heard through the presentation so far, it was a lot about Topgolf, um, laying that solid foundation and starting with that foundation for consolidations and then incrementally taking shot after shot to modernize the financial close, expanding into intercompany transaction matching. We just talked about cash flow.

We just talked about cash flow. And also I'm not sure if it was mentioned yet, but I think we will talk about a little bit now. Also their venue reporting, because I think Alyssa mentioned it before that their business was very different than, than Calloway's. And one of that is they have actual venues and the performance and the revenue expenses and profitability of those venues is something that's, uh, that's extremely important.

So when organizations talk about modernization, it's easy to focus only on the technology itself, but transformation at this scale really depends on structured execution, clarity of what lies ahead and building confidence through each shot that you take.

You can really see how Topgolf approach. You can really see how Topgolf approach this as a long-term operational transformation, rather than just a quick system replacement, albeit they needed to have a quick system replacement because of the divestiture. They took that as an opportunity to build a crowd and great foundation so that they can ultimately perfect their swing over time.

So let's look at how Topgolf intentionally focused on mastering the core processes and then started to expand into additional capability. Things like learning and building on the fundamentals, driving consistency in the close and consolidation processes, swinging with efficiency by leveraging task manager to plan every single shot and make sure every shot and the shot that they wanted to take was visible.

Gaining visibility into consistent and regular cash flow reporting, optimizing intercompany eliminations and transaction matching, and ultimately always keeping an eye on the green or IE their future, their future goals and plans. It was all about ensuring information and control were in the hands of the people that needed it and empowering their finance team to identify issues and to solve them proactively.

So Alyssa, back to you again. You know, we've talked so far that you went live on consolidations first and then you kept expanding. What happened after that first step that made your team confident enough to add intercompany, to add task manager, and ultimately more? Was there a moment where the team said, okay, now we're ready for the next shot?

I mean, some of it really came up organically. The accounting team saw task manager along the way and they wanted it now, right?

Because they had everything in Excel and they kind of been looking for something for a while. So as it turned out, it wasn't all that hard to do task manager and accounting took ownership for adding all the tasks in and getting them scheduled out and everything. So that one we actually launched before consolidations. Also, innercompany was another big gap that we had from Callaway. And we were doing that in monster, horrible Excel workbooks where we're trying to match transactions with V lookups and all kinds of craziness.

But once we realized how valuable it would be to get it into a real system, we were able to work that in along the way as well, just to get those wins.

And, you know, solve some really big time sucks, right? I understand. Yep. So, Candle, I'm going to drill down on that with you then, because as a close of consolidation lead, intercompany eliminations and transaction matching are notoriously painful to automate. So what was that process like before and what changed for your team once that was live?

Sure. So Alyssa mentioned the monster Excel spreadsheets, which is very true. Everything was in Excel. You know, we would download a report from SAP and then we would pivot it. We would V lookup. We would, you know, try it. We were spending a lot of time swifting through actual intercompany transaction matches. So once we once we were able to match everything, we were able to get down to the meat of the problems that we had in our intercompany transactions.

So, yeah, doing it so manually was very, very time consuming. And it was also high risk because of how manual it was. But once we got it live in one stream, the matching became more systematic.

And the system does the heavy lifting for you and flags exceptions instead of us actually hunting for them.

You know, you know, we would get a group of exceptions and then we would reach out to people for fixes and ask them to update the transaction.

And then we would have to do the process all over again, two or three days later to actually see if they were taken care of. So it was a very manual process over and over and over again for our team. And, you know, one stream just makes it super, super simple. All you have to do is refresh, hit the refresh button or the consolidate button, and you're able to see like live what's matching, what's popping. And that's really helpful. And, you know, research and getting those things fixed.

So it sounds like, Candle, that you accomplish a lot more than just getting rid of the manual junk as part of the process, that you actually were able to drive greater focus on exceptions or an exception-based focus and driving greater efficiency. Anything more you want to say around that?

Yeah. So it honestly was one of the biggest wins for the whole implementation. You know, it gave the team like a level of confidence in the numbers that we didn't have before because, you know, we're able to focus more on exception items and getting those resolved in a timely manner, like before close even starts, right? The ideal thing is for everything to be perfect before business day one. But, yeah, I mean, the time savings alone were significant. But, you know, the reduction in stress and the risk was also very valuable as well.

Sounds great. And, Amy, when you look at Topgolf's implementation timeline and the phases that they went through, how did you help them sequence and phase the project to ensure that they met their top goals?

We were very intentional about sequencing. We knew that there was a hard separation deadline. So we focused first on the capabilities that were absolutely essential for an independent financial organization. So the consolidations, the close process overall, and the absolute necessary financial reporting out of that.

Once those core capabilities were stable, then we expanded into the task manager, transaction matching, and the dynamic cash flow and more management reporting, and also additional operational reporting. And because everything was built on the same platform, each phase built naturally on the last instead of creating these disconnected point solutions.

And that phased approach also helped with change management. So the finance team could become comfortable with each new capability before moving on to the next, which ultimately drove stronger adoption across the user base. So we don't do big bang if we can help it. We like to phase the approach and help everybody go from start to finish in a very methodical process way.

I like that. And, you know, similar to playing golf, the approach that you took with them was all about strong planning, coordination, practice execution, so that you could connect all of the multiple systems and processes in a much more unified model that, like you just articulated, builds upon itself and creates momentum over the course of the project.

You know, and as with any game or project, you're going to encounter hazards along the way. The things that are going to force you to re-approach the shot. Take an entirely different shot than you thought about. Re-assess how you're playing the round and adapt to challenges as they present themselves. So let's take a look at how Topgolf played through the hazards as they kept their eye on the hole and how best they were and what they did to adapt their game to hit the green in regulation.

So as we prepared for this webinar, you talked a lot about that there were several key challenges that you addressed as you went through the project. So Alyssa, you know, can you, you know, no project like this goes exactly as planned. You identified you had resource challenges. You had process ownership challenges as key hazards. Can you share what that looked like in practice and how did you recalibrate without losing ground over the course of the project? Sure. Yeah. About a month or so into the project, we lost our whole financial reporting team, except the leader.

And so we, I mean, we did what we could. I won't say that it went at full speed during the time, but we had some accounting resources jump in and try to help and some other things. But luckily out of that process, we got new team members like Candle and Candle came with one stream experience. So that was, that was great. It's, it's almost like we leveled up there. Um, and, um, you know, we just tried to keep things as smooth as we could and picked up the ball and started running as quick as we could afterwards, you know, sorry, wrong sport on the reference. But anyway.

So it sounds like you were able to level up and you sort of had a good solid foundation that you were able to adapt as you went. I think another thing, Candle, we talked about as part of the preparation for this webinar was the separation timeline itself from, from Callaway actually shifted during the project. So what did that mean for the team, your team or the entire team on the ground? And how did you keep people aligned and focused in the midst of that and all the other hazards that, uh, Alyssa has already talked about?

Yeah, sure. So I came to top off right in the middle of the implementation. So I was learning the business and navigating the shifting timeline all at the same time.

Um, so I guess the change in ownership went live on the first of the year. So, um, you know, the scope started increasing as we went and new requirements kept surfacing as the separation evolved. Um, and goalposts were moving while they were trying to execute.

So, um, yeah, so I guess for one, one example that I can think of off the top of my head, whenever one stream was implemented, we built out our account dimension.

Um, at the Callaway way, right? We, we put all of their accounts in it because maybe one day they would use it as well or, um, stuff like that. So we, we built and implemented one stream with that in the back of our heads. But now that we were kind of, you know, on our own and standalone, you know, we were able to kind of like make decisions based on what our business needs were at the time. So, um, you know, project organization was critical with all of that in mind.

You know, we had to rely on really disciplined tracking and documentation and, you know, making sure that everything was getting validated in a timely manner. You know, a huge part of my focus were making sure that, you know, our numbers were right and everything was accurate and, you know, finding kinks, uh, where, you know, where they laid hidden, you know, really drilling down. But, um, yeah.

Okay. And Amy, I think it would probably be good as a, as a practitioner, helping organizations like Topgolf through this. What advice would you give people that are on the listening to this call, other finance teams that are trying to modernize while the business around them is constantly changing? What advice would you give them?

So easy to say, hard to do in practice, but our biggest advice is to expect the change and embrace it rather than trying to avoid it. Change is going to happen and that presents opportunities. Very few transformation projects happen in a perfectly stable environment, especially when there's a divestiture acquisition, organization change, turnover, etc.

So our advice is focus on building a flexible foundation rather than solving today's problems or focusing on the squeaky wheel. So establish good governance, prioritize your highest value objectives, choose a platform that can grow with you. And just as importantly, you maintain close communication with finance and IT and everybody else as you implement and your implementation partner. So, uh, you know, don't do it in a silo and that way you can quickly adapt and prioritize and shift as needed.

Spalding Ridge follows a tested and proven methodology for project success called the Spalding Ridge Way. And just like implementations, we constantly modify our approach. We bring in specialties from our data team as well as change management team. We have a global delivery center that provides a deep bench of experience with technical and functional skills. And the Spalding Ridge Way can morph to accommodate every project at every stage of that project.

Transformation success is not a predefined path with a rigid project plan with blinders on, but rather it's accomplished with a willingness to solve problems as they arise. And they're going to, uh, to shift when necessary and to embrace the change at all levels in the organization. It can take a lot of grit, a lot of determination and some grace. Um, and remember modernization isn't about implementing software.

It's about building an operating information model that will continue evolving with the business, uh, long after the go live date. Yep. Persistence planning and adaptability sounds like are critical to both your process and how you would advise others to go through it. So now that we've seen how Topgolf selected the right clubs, perfected their swing, overcome the hazards and laid a foundation that allows them to adapt and grow. Let's, uh, let's actually check the scorecard for what they've accomplished and where they're heading next.

So Alyssa, you know, you now have consolidations, you have your management book, you talked about task manager, you and, uh, and, uh, Kendall both talked about intercompany transaction matching and cashflow and all of those things are live. Can you pick one that has made the biggest difference to the team day to day and tell us what that actually looks like now compared to what it was like before? Sure.

Um, yeah, so it, it probably depends on who you ask around the accounting team. Um, so different things have bigger impacts on different teams. Um, so our accounting team was thrilled to have task manager, um, it for financial report it for part of financial reporting, the ones that were doing the intercompany transactions. Um, transaction matching, um, transaction matching was huge.

And then of course our, our, you know, our primary need was consolidation and cashflow. So the, those pieces are a big deal for, for the, um, F4 leadership. So, um, I don't know, we got a ton of value out of a lot of different pieces. That's great. And so you talked about some of the efficiency games. So Kendall, you know, you're seeing efficiency gains, time saving with some efficiency around the clothes process. Can you put some real color on that? What does the team do with the time that they've gotten back?

Yeah, sure. So instead of spending the clothes buried in spreadsheets and chasing down reconciling items, we can actually look up and focus on what the numbers are telling us. The team has more time for analysis and value added work. You know, we're not just reporters of the numbers anymore. We're interpreting them and we have more time to do that. So it's also made clothes, you know, less stressful for the team when you have a process that you can rely on and one that's clean and systematic. You know, you're not in crisis mode every period.

You know, if the Wi-Fi goes out, like, it's fine. You know, Excel, you know, you're not worried about an Excel crashing.

You know, for a lean team, you know, that time is everything. So every hour we get back gets reinvested in doing, you know, better work. So our goal was never like a faster clothes. It was a better clothes and, you know, time savings is what makes that possible. That's awesome. Yeah. And I guess one last thing, I'll pose this to both you, Candle, and Alyssa. You know, looking at where you are today and what your finance team has accomplished, what's next? What's on your roadmap?

Yeah. Well, the first thing we're going to be working on is getting our feeds automated. Right now we're still loading. We're loading a report that we built out of SAP in or several reports, actually. So we're going to get that automated so that that will take one more step out of the process. And then our FP&A group is interested in looking at budgeting potentially. So that'll be another big project and a big win for the company. Awesome. Anything to add, Candle?

No, Alyssa covered it all. Okay. All right. Great. Well, let's settle into the 19th hole and wrap up this webinar. And let's recap some of the key takeaways that we had. So, you know, as with golf, you're constantly learning, taking stock of what went well, what clubs were the right club selection. Did you plan for the weather appropriately? You know, can you, you know, it's basically all the preparation work that goes into helping you be consistent in how you perform. So for Topgolf, as we've heard during the course of this webinar, there were three primary takeaways.

One is they selected the right equipment and built a strong foundation first. Second, they then expected change. And I think Amy said it, you expect it and plan for it. So you have to apply what you've learned, the skills that you're developing so that you can constantly adapt and adjust. And you need to constantly adapt so that you can drive the long-term success of the project. You know, the best rounds aren't one with one perfect shot. They're built on consistency from start to finish. So it looks like we might have time for just one, maybe two questions, just checking the time.

Let's see. I'm going to pick one, and I'll pose this to Candle or Alyssa, either one of you. We'll cover one of these questions that came in. You know, I've learned throughout the presentation today that it's not just about implementing a new solution, but it sounds like it's more of a mindset. Do you have any advice on how to handle change management? And I think, actually, this would be good for you to chime in as well, Amy. You know, what were the things that you guys did over the course of the project that helped you be successful?

Yeah, yeah. The biggest thing I would say with change management is just make sure everybody's on the same page. Everybody that needs to be at the table is there and gets their needs out there so we can do the best we can to meet everybody's requirements.

That way, nothing is a big surprise at the end and, you know, nobody freaks out on us and says, what about this? Why didn't I get my thing, you know?

Anyway, I don't know. Amy, if you have any other insights on that? I do. So going along with the advice of expect change and embrace it, we also keep the end vision in mind, but we deliver value incrementally. And you always celebrate your wins early. So every win, big or small, celebrate it. Go hit a golf ball or two. We involve the business users throughout the project early and often, and we build confidence one phase at a time. And phases can be different. It doesn't have to be regimented.

A phase can be we loaded up the data today. Hooray, let's go hit a golf ball. Or a phase can be we completed transaction matching with only two matches to go. Hooray, celebrate that. So, yeah, and just remember that it takes humans to do this hard work, and we're making human lives better. So celebrate that. And some really good things can happen when you build that foundation, when you keep the lines of communication open between everyone, even if they're not involved or just a little bit involved. That communication goes a long way.

All right. Thank you. We really don't have much time, so I just want to, for the audience that's on the call today, if you posed a question and we did not get to that, we will follow up afterwards. I thank you for all the collaboration, for your time. Hopefully my golf puns didn't make you roll your eyes too much.

We really appreciate you joining the call today. And I really want to especially thank Alyssa, Candle, and Amy for sharing your stories and all of your insights and all of the preparation you work you and putting up with me as we went through in preparation for this. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Sure. Happy to do it. All right. Great. All right. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. And to stay connected with OneStream and learn more about how you can start your own modern financial close journey, check out the doc section in this webinar to download our latest e-book for the Modern Financial Close, a 2026 guide for finance leaders.

So thanks again for all of you for attending. And thank you, Alyssa, Candle, and Amy for your time and insights during the presentation. I hope everybody enjoyed it and weren't too turned off by the golf analogies and puns. Have a great rest of your day.