Over the years, Radius carved a niche in the sustainable oral hygiene market with its unique and innovative toothbrushes. However, behind the scenes, CEO Saskia Coleman struggled in a suffocating cycle of chaotic accounting workflows. Errors snowballed, leaving Saskia in the dark for critical decisions. Years of outdated accounting practices left Radius drowning in paperwork, jeopardizing the very growth Saskia had fought so hard to achieve as a small business owner.
Radius is a manufacturer and brand of oral care products that was established in 1983 with the goal of creating more honest, better functioning products that stood out amid a market of false claims and absurd features. This family-owned, second-generation company makes decisions from sourcing to manufacturing with environmental impact in mind. A leader in its niche, Radius demonstrates that good business and a healthier planet can go hand in hand.
“COVID was its own roller coaster, but we were riding a perpetual accounting roller coaster as well,” said Saskia.
Saskia would hire a staff person who came with great references and qualifications only to find out months later that the new hire didn’t get the business’s accounting on track as intended. Among other things, there was a lack of detail and due diligence when it came to posting transactions in the general ledger. The overarching issue, though, was that Radius simply did not have the correct accounting standards and processes in place.
“In the past, our reporting process was highly manual,” said Saskia. “Now, after E78’s help, things are like night and day. All I have to do is press a button and, at the snap of a finger, I have an accurate report that helps me operate the business better. I no longer have to think about what I need. It’s already been suggested and provided in the report.”
“Having the variance analysis report automated is like manna to me,” said Saskia, whose father used to manually create the report before E78’s involvement. “I needed that to happen because we really shouldn’t, at this point in our life cycle as a company, be depending upon my father to run the analysis.”
“The E78 team has contributed to our success in an important area,” said Saskia. “Every single time I have a request, it gets resolved. I’m confident that they know what they are doing and what’s best for this company. That is a success, in essence, because it means that I can keep rolling forward.”
— Saskia Coleman
, Chief Executive Officer
That made it difficult to keep financial records and reports accurate, inhibiting the ability to gain actionable insights from their data to make educated business decisions.
“That was the result of years of bad training from one person to another as well as a general lack of knowledge,” said Saskia. “Often, when you have an in-house accounting team, you depend on them to keep up with the growing and changing world of accounting, but they don’t, and you’re at risk if you don’t make sure they do. You can’t always know what they’re doing though. It became a case of the blind leading the blind.”
Radius had been using Microsoft Great Plains accounting software for more than twenty years. However, even through various rounds of hiring, the accounting staff never found the time to really understand how to use the system properly.
“I didn’t want to lean on outside financial professionals who just tagged in for a short period of time and weren’t really being there day to day to focus on quality and detail,” said Saskia. “Any outside assistance I received needed to be able to have the understanding and dedication of an employee while also using industry best practices.”
At the recommendation of her business advisor, Saskia engaged E78 Partners. “We needed someone who could be a leader and a guiding light for our team and tell them what to do every day, not just tell us they did a review and show us what was wrong,” said Saskia. “ We needed someone to fix it for us.”
Understanding the urgent need for a comprehensive overhaul, the E78 team dove headfirst into a forensic review of Radius’s existing accounting systems. The team quickly pinpointed historical errors and ingrained inefficiencies that had created a web of unreliable data. Rather than provide a simple “fix-it” list, E78 approached Radius’s challenges holistically, ensuring that corrected records could be reliably maintained going forward.
Simultaneously, E78 took decisive steps to establish clear communication channels and foster collaboration within Radius’s in-house team. Recognizing the wealth of company-specific knowledge within the department, E78’s experts worked shoulder- to-shoulder with staff to provide practical training and guidance. The goal was not merely to hand off tasks but to empower Radius’s team with the tools and processes for lasting stability.
One of E78’s immediate wins was revamping vital reporting structures. No longer did Saskia need to wait weeks for stale snapshots of her business. Streamlined reports and tailored analytics put on-demand vital insights into her hands.
“The E78 team is excellent at coming to the table with totally logical solutions to our problems,” said Saskia. “I always know where we stand. I don’t have to sweat month-end anymore. We have early warning if something looks out of line, so we’re proactively managing risks, not just reacting to them.”
