Case Study: How Wildway Uses Accountfully and Cin7 for Continued Success

There is an inherent magic that happens as a result of combining two distinct experts to support the growth and profitability of an inventory-based business.  Enter an ambitious and ground-breaking mission-first company like Wildway, and it becomes the ultimate example of inventory management heaven.

Who are these experts?  Accountfully and Cin7. 

Accountfully specializes in providing the services and know-how required to support these businesses as they mature from manually-tracked spreadsheets to advanced inventory consulting and the implementation of an inventory management system like Cin7 Core.  

Once business owners realize they can now free up time to focus on optimizing their resources, growing sales, and looking ahead to next steps, that is when the business becomes its best optimized version of itself, and success is imminent.

Wildway, a clean granola company is a great example of going from cubicle day-dream to flourishing reality.  Through its years of first gaining traction by outsourcing the accounting functions to modern day complexities, Wildway has continued to access more services and systems to support this overall growth as the need arises.  

Full-service outsourced accounting, inventory consulting with Cin7, deductions management that monitors and disputes chargebacks from large distributors, to tax filing have all supported the ambitions of its CEO and co-founder, Kyle Koehler.  

Allow us to dig into the details and the how-tos of how Wildway has used the optimal combination of outsourced accounting and inventory management to get to where it is today.

Story/ Background

Wildway Co-founder, Kyle Koehler, used to spend his days in cubicles in New York City—and  craved an escape from the corporate grind. He had the mindset that everyday should be an adventure, so he quit his job and set his sights on starting a company to fuel his adventurous and active pursuits. 

Part of living an active, adventurous life meant fueling his body with a healthy diet. As he began to eliminate processed food, he recognized a need for “clean” snacks made without processed ingredients or added sugars. However there wasn’t a product he could find to satisfy that need.

The first recipe Kyle made was an unexpected success—the crumbly concoction tasted great as a snack and resembled a soft and chewy granola. After moving back to Texas, Kyle debuted the granola selling out at the local farmers market; and just like that, Wildway was born.

Company Overview

• Product: organic breakfast and snack foods including a regenerative organic certified oatmeal, soft and chewy snacking granola, and a thick and crisp organic coconut chip snack. 
• Distribution: Wildway is sold in natural and independent grocery stores across the country, but can also be ordered on their website (www.wildwayoflife.com) or through popular ecommerce channels like Amazon. 

Why Wildway Stands Out

• Sustainability: Wildway recently became a certified B-corp, achieving some of the highest social and environmental standards in the industry.
• In-house Manufacturing: From the start, Wildway has always self-manufactured everything in house. Unlike most food and beverage brands who outsource their manufacturing and packing, Wildway controls the entire process from start to finish ensuring that every batch made is of the utmost quality and achieves the high standards that the company has for themselves. 

The Challenge

Wildway’s quality control is directly related to its ability to manufacture their own products, but this brings in an added complexity when it comes to maintaining oversight into the cost and location of each ingredient.  

As the company grew and complexities increased, it was clear a more sustainable and scalable system needed to be implemented.  This included engaging an outsourced accounting firm that specialized in inventory accounting and implementing an inventory management system to track inventory.

• With a background in accounting and finance, it was easy for Kyle to keep the books in the early days of the business, but as the business grew outsourcing became an integral part in helping Wildway to grow and focus more on products, manufacturing, sales, and marketing. 
• Kyle’s original method of tracking inventory was not working efficiently.  He says, “Prior to using Core for our IMS, we used a combination of QuickBooks and Excel to track inventory and it was a nightmare."
• Once Kyle realized a new inventory management system was needed for Wildway, the next challenge was finding the best fit.  The system needed to be scalable and interact with his current systems seamlessly.  “The biggest challenge was finding a comprehensive product that met our needs as a manufacturer, but also integrated our ecommerce sales channels with other offline channels in one bundled solution.”

The Solution 

Kyle was able to grow his business without changing providers or services.  The combination of Accountfully’s full suite of services and the capabilities of Cin7 Core, Wildway has been able to stay focused on growth and optimization of its cost of goods sold.  Kyle says:

“Outsourcing frees up time for us to focus on other areas of the business, knowing that our accounting, finance, and inventory management needs are being taken care of by one of the best companies in the industry.”

Accountfully Services Wildway uses:

Full Service Outsourced Accounting (this is the most popular), Tax Filing Services, Deductions Management, Inventory Management Consulting (Cin7 implementation, maintenance or support)

Cin7 Implementation:

Wildway chose to implement Cin7 Core for inventory management. It is a comprehensive solution that combines our in-house manufacturing capabilities with all of our ecommerce, wholesale, and distribution sales channels all in one package. Accountfully’s expert Inventory Consulting team helped implement Cin7 Core and have supported his needs as it is an active part of the operations of the business.  Cin7’s team has continued to be a wealth of knowledge and support as updates and needs change. Its features like easy integrations with sales channels like Shopify and Amazon, and its ability to seamlessly pull data from QuickBooks make reporting and monthly closing optimized and streamlined.

Outcomes

After years of experiencing the success of combining the scalable services and software that grows alongside Wildway, Kyle recommends implementing an outsourced accounting solution and taking advantage of Cin7 for inventory management.  Using Cin7 Core, Kyle is able to track finite details from dried organic cranberry to packaged granola.  Accountfully shows the accounting perspective of this raw good to finished product journey.

“I would recommend Cin7 to any business who is striving to find a comprehensive solution to accounting and inventory management that will grow with them as the business grows. We feel like it's the most efficient way to handle all of our accounting, A/R, A/P, billing, and inventory needs by having everything under one roof.”

• Cin7 has helped us track raw materials through the entire production process, this helps us with lot tracking and traceability from the farm all the way to the consumer. 
• Accountfully was integral in the transition phase, helping ensure that all of our inventory was transitioned over properly and that everything was working smoothly. 
• In the eight years Wildway has been using Cin7, the platform has helped them grow and scale while continuing to provide a comprehensive solution that grows with us over time. 
• The combined services offered by Accountfully and Cin7 have freed up time and given the team peace of mind that their accounting and inventory needs are being taken care of by a company and software that they can trust and grow with. 

Closing Thoughts

Take it from a wildly successful company, like Wildway.  Knowing when it is time to outsource time-consuming tasks like regular accounting needs is crucial to the success of a growing business.  As needs grow and complexities heighten, it is best to rely on a team that can support its growing requirements with services and systems that match.  Combining a specialized and scalable outsourced accounting team with the industry leading inventory management software of Cin7 Core, success and growth is attainable.