Grant Thornton alyx™ case study in retail

An alyx^® case study

Challenge

In retail, the point of sale is the point of everything. When one retail chain’s point of sale terminals appeared to be reporting incorrect, duplicate and missing transactions, the retailer needed to both resolve the issue and also confirm the resolution. But, with terminals at more than 1,000 locations, the retailer needed to check a sample of at least 50 locations – requiring 400 hours of manual review. The retailer needed confirmation sooner than that.

The retailer needed to quickly gather and reconcile reports from point of sale terminals at more than 50 locations, including more than 480 spreadsheets.

Solution

The retailer asked Grant Thornton to help solve the problem. The Grant Thornton team used the alyx platform to develop a solution that combined the power of automation and the confidence of financial oversight. The team created a client-specific Alteryx® workflow that automated data consolidation, then audit specialists ensured the data was accurate and any questions were resolved.

Alteryx logo

The automated solution soon played a critical role twice over, as some of the terminal reports had to be re-sent and re-processed after a new problem emerged during the initial run. Fortunately, automated processing meant that the project was not delayed.

Results

The Grant Thornton team was able to compress the 400 hours of estimated resolution time to only 40 hours with the alyx solution, a time savings of 90%. The savings meant that the retailer’s locations could resume normal operations with a dependable point of sale – which is really the point.

This project was just one of the solutions that make our clients thankful they can call on the power of alyx:

Alteryx is a registered trademark of Alteryx, Inc.

Alteryx is a leader in analytic process automation (APA). Its APA platform™ unifies analytics, data science and business process automation in one, end-to-end platform to accelerate digital transformation. Discover more at alteryx.com.

Contacts:

Jason P. Rogers

Partner, Audit Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Principal, Grant Thornton Advisors LLC

Jason Rogers is an Audit Services partner in Grant Thornton’s Atlanta office and has over 18 years of experience in financial accounting and advisory services. He provides audit services to public and private clients in the consumer industrial products and technology sectors, including a primary focus on food and beverage, manufacturing and distribution, and transportation/logistics.

Atlanta, Georgia

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