Huel Moves From Scrappy Month-Ends to Closing Two Days Early

Huel, one of the UK’s fastest-growing nutrition brands, built its reputation on making complete nutrition convenient. But behind the scenes, the finance team was fighting a familiar battle: month-end close was eating up every hour they had, and then some.

A month-end that never ended

As Huel scaled rapidly, its finance operations struggled to keep pace. The month-end process ran on makeshift trackers, Slack messages, and notebooks. Nobody had clear visibility into who was doing what, or when anything would be finished.

Running balance sheets alone could take five or six hours. Reviews ate entire evenings. And the moment one month wrapped up, the next one started.

“Before FloQast, the finance team felt a bit all over the place. It was very much a scramble to get things done and over the line. Things weren’t finished. We didn’t have time to do analysis. Everyone was tired.”

– Sophie Scott, Financial Reporting Manager

The team had the right people. What they lacked was the right system to let those people do their jobs without spending every evening chasing reconciliations.

Finding the right fit

Huel needed something purpose-built for finance. When they saw FloQast’s demo, the reaction was immediate.

“We loved the tool straight away.”

– Kushal Malde, Head of Financial Control

Critically, Huel didn’t want a short-term fix. They chose FloQast because it could grow with them – a system built by accountants that understood the profession’s actual pain points. Working with PwC UK on implementation, the team went fully live within two months.

Closing faster, seeing further

The difference showed up almost immediately. Balance sheets that used to take ten minutes per entity now refresh in thirty seconds. Kushal’s review process, once an hours-long evening task, dropped by three to four hours every month – the equivalent to nearly a full week reclaimed over the course of a year.

Huel has closed month-end up to two days faster on average. But the time savings are only part of it. The team now gets Slack notifications the moment a predecessor task is signed off, so the next person can start their work immediately rather than waiting for a message or a meeting to find out what’s been done.

The multi-product approach made a particular difference. Huel adopted FloQast’s AI Transaction Matching alongside Month-End Close, Journal Entry Management, and Compliance – replacing manual, line-by-line reconciliation with intelligent, rule-based matching that runs in plain English. No coding required.

“As a finance team, I genuinely believe we’ve always got the right people, but I think with FloQast now we’ve got the right tool to do the right work at the right time.”

– Kushal Malde, Head of Financial Control

From purse strings to strategy

With the time they’ve gained back, Huel’s finance team is doing work that simply wasn’t possible before. Management accountants are starting to think commercially, asking why numbers have moved rather than just confirming they reconcile. The team has built stronger relationships with stakeholders across the business, providing insights into spend, EBITDA impact, and bottom-line performance that the CFO and senior leadership team can actually act on.

The business has also continued to grow 15% since implementation – without the finance team needing to increase headcount.

“Now we have FloQast involved, it means that I’m not stressed when I close. There’s time to do other things and there’s more to life than just month-end.”

– Sophie Scott, Financial Reporting Manager