Transformation Highlights:
- Reporting time cut from 10–15 minutes to under 2 minutes
- Real-time, drillable P&Ls with full audit trail
- Seamless multi-entity support across brands
- Month-end reporting to banks and auditors delivered faster
- Hands-on implementation support from Tablespoon
The Situation: Finance Stuck in the Past
Calhoun Management, one of the most respected operators in the Wendy’s system, had outgrown its legacy accounting platform. The system’s on-premise, remote-desktop system was dragging down productivity, limiting visibility and holding back growth.
Challenges:
- Extremely slow performance and frequent lockups during key tasks (e.g., pushing sub-ledger data to P&Ls would kick everyone off and require manual coordination).
- Rigid P&L formats: Poor flexibility for P&L formats and reporting; limited ability to create or compare multiple P&Ls.
- Data integrity issues: “Ghost” entries and unreliable audit trails caused weeks-long delays in resolving errors.
- Slow & Fragile reporting: Running a single report could take 10-15 minutes, often locking the system
- Scaling limitations: Only one company view at a time, requiring shutdowns and reopens.
- Weak vendor support: Complex issues went unresolved, frustrating the finance team.
The result? Delayed financials to banks and auditors’ slower decision-making and constant friction for an experienced finance team eager to operate at a higher level.
The Solution: Sage Intacct implemented with Tablespoon
After evaluating six vendors, Calhoun selected Sage Intacct for its flexibility, real-time reporting, and robust audit capabilities, and chose Tablespoon as their implementation partner because of Tablespoon's restaurant vertical focus and white-glove hands on approach.
Why Tablespoon:
- Restaurant-industry expertise: Tablespoon's team understood multi-unit franchise reporting and common restaurant data flows.
- A highly responsive implementation team who were willing to roll up their sleeves and handle imports, formatting, and edge cases.
- A partnership approach rather than a transactional implementation: Tablespoon stayed engaged, proactively followed up, and prioritized Calhoun's success.
Implementation Highlights:
- Collaborative data mapping and cleansing to remediate legacy data.
- Fast turnarounds on custom report formats and imports.
- Regular touchpoints throughout the implementation to keep the project on track and to address issues quickly.
"It was a night and day process from outdated legacy accounting software to Sage Intacct. The implementation with Tablespoon was one of the best I've seen. They are super responsive, hands-on, and willing to make sure we succeed. The speed and visibility we've gained are huge." — Sherman Christensen, CFO, Calhoun Management.
The Results & Benefits: Speed, Visibility & Control
With Tablespoon and Sage Intacct Calhoun Management modernized finance operations and unlocked new levels of productivity.
Before → After Snapshot:
- Trial Balance Reports: 10–15 min → 1–2 min
- P&L Flexibility: Fixed formats → Customizable, real-time comparisons
- Audit Trail: Missing entries → Full visibility into who/what/when
- Entity Management: One company at a time → Multi-entity, side-by-side
Business Impact:
- Faster and more reliable financials for banks, auditors, and leadership.
- Confidence in reporting accuracy and accountability.
- Finance team freed from “babysitting the system” and able to focus on analysis.
- Scalability to support future brand and restaurant growth.
“Sage Intacct runs circles around its previous software. We could not have done what we’re doing today.” — Sherman Christensen, CFO
What's Next:
Calhoun is now extending the value of Sage Intacct by integrating:
- Payroll systems for seamless labor expense management
- OneDataSource for NCR data extraction and consolidated insights.
The journey continues toward a best-in-class, fully automated finance tech stack- built on Sage Intacct and Tablespoon’s restaurant finance expertise.
