OneStream Webinar Recap: AI in Financial Close

On a recent OneStream webinar, experts from KPMG and AutoCanada took center stage to discuss how AI is shaping the modern financial close process. This roundtable brought together thought leaders in finance transformation to highlight real-world customer successes and both the role and applications of AI in driving accuracy, speed, and efficiency in the financial close.

A Unified Approach: OneStream’s Vision

The webinar kicked off with Trevor Walker, OneStream’s Senior Product Marketing, who introduced OneStream’s uniquely unified platform for financial close, consolidation, and planning. Designed to eliminate fragmented processes, OneStream provides a seamless, finance-owned solution to drive productivity and unleash the power of data-driven decision-making across the organization.

Walker emphasized that OneStream's mission is to make every customer a success—an ambitious goal realized through their focus on customer-centric solutions and a marketplace of over 70+ solutions, including predictive analytics and machine learning. These solutions allow organizations to evolve at their own pace, without purchasing additional software.

The AutoCanada Transformation Journey

A key highlight of the webinar was the case study on AutoCanada, a leading automotive retail group operating in Canada and the U.S. Hoi-Yee Wong, Corporate Controller at AutoCanada, shared her company’s journey through a significant finance transformation, focusing on how OneStream’s platform helped modernize their finance operations.

With over 350 legal entities and multiple ERP systems, AutoCanada faced a complex and challenging consolidation process. Wong explained that prior to adopting OneStream, data integrity and process management were major challenges. AutoCanada struggled with multiple charts of accounts and manual intercompany eliminations that created inefficiencies and increased the risk of errors.

By implementing OneStream, AutoCanada streamlined these processes, significantly reducing manual intervention. Wong specifically praised the platform’s ability to automate intercompany eliminations and integrate seamlessly with their Data Lake House infrastructure—an improvement that has been a game changer for their financial data management. Moreover, with OneStream, AutoCanada has improved its data quality, accuracy, and clarity in reporting, and has the scalability needed to manage the company’s ongoing growth and acquisitions.

Intelligent Close with KPMG

Erik Woods, National Lead Partner for EPM at KPMG, shared insights into KPMG’s "Intelligent Close," a methodology that combines advanced AI with a clear roadmap for finance transformation. Woods explained how KPMG helped AutoCanada design a phased implementation of OneStream that allowed for incremental value drops, ensuring both immediate improvements and long-term scalability.

Woods highlighted the importance of working closely with clients to not only implement technology but to also evolve organizational processes in tandem. The focus on creating trusted transactions, automating accounting tasks, and delivering real-time reporting has allowed AutoCanada to focus more on strategic analysis rather than getting bogged down by manual data entry and reconciliations.

The Role of AI in Modern Financial Close

AI has become an integral tool for improving financial processes, and the webinar explored how AutoCanada can leverage these capabilities. Wong shared that AI-driven automation in data gathering, reconciliations, and intercompany eliminations can reduce the time and effort needed for consolidation, allowing her team to focus more on high-value analysis.

Key Takeaways

• Unified Platform: OneStream’s all-in-one platform reduces fragmentation, increases efficiency, and empowers finance teams to manage the entire close process within a single environment.
• AI-Driven Transformation: The use of AI for tasks like data validation, reconciliations, and anomaly detection can significantly reduce manual workload, allowing finance teams to focus on value-added activities.
• Real-World Success: AutoCanada’s journey showcases how a well-executed finance transformation, can lead to significant improvements in operational efficiency and financial precision.
• Scalability and Flexibility: The modular nature of OneStream’s platform allows businesses to adapt as they grow, integrating new solutions without adding complexity or technical debt.

Looking to learn more? Check out the full webinar: Precision and Efficiency: AI's Role in Modern Financial Close with KPMG.