Healthcare Staffing Leader Saves 976 Hours and Halves Close Cycle with FloQast AI

‍THE CHALLENGE

Manual Processes Meet PE-Backed Growth

Following a milestone acquisition by private equity firm Knox Lane, the accounting team encountered immediate institutional friction. A mandate to provide sophisticated, multi-entity margin analytics collided directly with a rigid, manual "Before" state. The organization was trapped in a grueling 20-day close cycle that completely excluded timely balance sheet reconciliations. Instead, reconciliations and crucial reclassifications were pushed out to a perpetual one-month lag, leaving executive leadership navigating growth via historical data.

The core breakdown stemmed from data friction between the company’s homegrown CRM and Sage Intacct. The GL accounting and commissions teams were forced to manually clean and audit massive data volumes to calculate sales and expense accruals. Compounding this, healthcare providers routinely submitted weekly work logs spanning multiple months, requiring accountants to manually split time records by Item IDs to establish accurate monthly revenue recognition.

"Before FloQast, our 20-day close did not even include balance sheet reconciliations," says Accounting Manager Sarah Honeycutt. "The transition to private equity ownership introduced strict reporting deadlines and entirely new expectations. Our GL team was spending 16 hours every month just preparing data for sales and expense accruals, while the commission team spent 32 hours per week on manual audits. Our audits were incredibly manual; there wasn't a straightforward formula we could use in Excel to catch every naming inconsistency. We were completely consumed by data preparation, leaving zero runway for variance analysis or strategic commentary before executive review meetings."

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“Before FloQast, we had a 20-day close, and that did not include our balance sheet reconciliations. Balance sheet recs were done after the fact, and any reclassifications or adjustments needed were on a one-month lag.” 

— Sarah Honeycutt, Accounting Manager

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HOW FLOQAST HELPS

Deploying Enterprise-Grade AI Built for Accounting Complexity

Faced with aggressive institutional timelines, management initially assumed that scaling operations would require a linear—and costly—increase in department headcount. Seeking an automation solution, the team initially trialed Numeric's checklist tool. However, the software lacked the functional maturity, robust ERP compatibility with Sage Intacct, and sophisticated AI architecture required to parse their disparate datasets.

The organization turned to FloQast, selecting the platform for its advanced reconciliation engine and the specialized automated workflows driven by FloQast Transform. To identify the processes most suitable for automation, Honeycutt established a rigorous collaborative discovery phase, having team members meticulously document each close activity alongside its precise timing. This foundational process mapping pinpointed high-value targets for AI execution and established strict benchmarks for success.

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"We initially trialed Numeric, but it quickly became evident they lacked the organizational maturity we required. FloQast was several steps ahead, providing the sophisticated functionality and enterprise-grade support necessary to be a true long-term partner." 

— Sarah Honeycutt, Accounting Manager

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During this operational audit, the GL Accounting and Commission teams discovered that their manual prep workflows heavily overlapped. Working closely with a dedicated FloQast Forward Deployed Accountant (FDA), the organization engineered four tailored FloQast AI Agents in a disciplined four-week sprint. The deployment included specialized Sales and Expense Dimension Audit Agents designed to automatically scrub trailing spaces and structural naming mismatches between the CRM and the ERP, isolating true data exceptions for human review. Simultaneously, the implementation introduced Sales and Expense "Splits" Agents. These modules leverage advanced logic to parse multi-month medical work records by Item ID, executing precise accrual allocations in a matter of seconds.

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"The timeline our FDA provided was exactly on point, which was incredibly impressive. I initially assumed it might take longer since this was a new process for us, but the partnership and communication were excellent. Our FDA was proactive, asking the right questions during the build to ensure there were no delays."

— Sarah Honeycutt, Accounting Manager

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THE FLOQAST DIFFERENCE

Shifting the Paradigm from Data Preparers to Strategic Advisors

The operational transformation was immediate. Standardizing and automating close workflows through FloQast allowed the finance department to cut their close cycle exactly in half—dropping from 20 business days to 10. Balance sheet reconciliations are now completed within the current month, driving the company toward a continuous close model. Data prep for sales and expense accruals plummeted from 16 hours down to just four hours per month, while weekly commission audit times were slashed by 50%.

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Crucially, the rollout required strategic change management to address natural team anxieties. When AI Agents were first introduced, the natural question arose: "What does this mean for me if it takes less time to do my job?" Honeycutt addressed this "AI anxiety" head-on by re-framing the technology as a platform for upskilling, cross-training, and professional advancement. Once the team saw the ease of use, adoption was immediate. Commission team members began cross-training in core GL accounting functions, expanding their capabilities into revenue recognition journal entries, malpractice accruals, and compensation planning.

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“Our audits used to be incredibly manual; there wasn't a straightforward formula we could use in Excel to catch every naming inconsistency. With AI Agents, we’ve built those rules directly into the process. We are far more confident in our dimensions and reporting now, which allows us to provide deeper insights into our margins.” 

— Sarah Honeycutt, Accounting Manager

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"Our financial review meetings have changed entirely," Honeycutt concludes. "We used to leave meetings with our CFO holding a list of 20 different research questions. Today, because we have the time to perform deep margin and operating expense analysis beforehand, those questions have dropped to three or five at most. On the commercial side, we are no longer just stating past facts to the CSO; we have the time to be proactive and identify specific negotiation opportunities based on margin trends across different teams. Looking ahead, we are already targeting payroll and benefits reclassifications for automation, alongside expanding specialized use cases for the FP&A team."