Challenge

Alpine needed to improve financial operations efficiency to meet the demands of rapid growth

As a fast-growing service provider for the oil and gas industry, Alpine Energy Services manages financial operations for both their core business and across multiple subsidiaries. With plans to expand and rapid growth on the horizon, Alpine’s leadership identified the need for greater efficiency and visibility across financial operations.

Austin Hostetler, Head of Finance for Alpine Energy Services, was well aware of the opportunity to improve reporting bottlenecks. Each month, he and his lean finance team spent hours manually gathering data for both Alpine and subsidiaries from multiple QuickBooks systems, payroll systems, and spreadsheets to compile internal month-end reporting packages and FP&A models. Logging into each separate platform, downloading and merging financial data, and updating spreadsheets to build reports for stakeholders was a time-consuming process—one that simply wouldn’t scale with Alpine’s forecasted growth.

“Before Cashboard, our finance team spent hours every month consolidating data, building FP&A models, and distributing reports. With expansion on the horizon, that manual work put us at risk of slowing down decisions and delaying financing—we knew we had to automate.”

– Austin Hostetler, Head of Finance 

When lenders or the board wanted an update outside of monthly reporting cycles, the team had to quickly pull updated data, manually verifying every figure for accuracy, and tailor reports and lender packages for each stakeholder’s requirements. These manual processes risked slowing strategic decision-making. 

Meanwhile, the finance team fielded ad-hoc requests from operations and other internal teams for custom cost, budget, and operational data. These granular reports took hours to assemble, and the data was often outdated by the time the team could deliver them—consuming finance resources while slowing operational decisions. 

To meet these growing demands, Alpine needed a platform to automate manual spreadsheet consolidation, save time preparing financial packages and reporting, and give leaders instant answers—without the constant back-and-forth with finance.

Thanks to Austin’s connections with industry colleagues and his previous experience at Alpine’s sister company, finding a partner to help them scale financial operations didn’t take long. Cashboard’s AI-powered financial analysis platform was the clear choice capable of connecting and automating their disparate accounting and payroll systems, streamlining visibility, and delivering the robust analytics Alpine’s stakeholders required.

Solution

Cashboard’s AI-powered automation and insights unlock faster reporting, deeper insights, and real-time answers

During the quick and seamless implementation process, Cashboard worked closely with Austin and his team to integrate with Alpine’s QuickBooks and payroll systems, setting up customized dashboards, permissions, and reporting tools.

Cashboard's customizable, AI-powered platform automatically pulls financial data from multiple data sources, eliminating manual data preparation. Austin uses the scheduled reports agent to generate highly accurate, recurring monthly financial packages, charts, and written summaries. This automated data aggregation and analysis saves time, reduces the risk of reporting inaccuracy, and accelerates strategic decision-making for stakeholders.

“Cashboard takes the manual effort out of reporting and consolidations, which helps us stay focused on our growth, rather than scanning lines of spreadsheets. It gives everyone from finance to operations the instant, accurate insights they need as we scale.”

– Austin Hostetler, Head of Finance 

Beyond regular internal reporting, Austin’s team leverages Cashboard to prepare tailored financial packages for Alpine’s board and external lenders. Automated data integration pulls in and formats the latest financials on demand, enabling Austin to quickly deliver reporting that meets the rigorous requirements of both board and lender audiences.

When Austin’s team needs to drill down into GL account variances and cost drivers, they instantly investigate using AI-powered root cause analysis. A quick question to the natural-language AI chat agent surfaces reliable insights in seconds—without scanning through spreadsheets and invoices.

With Cashboard’s advanced permissions and personalized dashboards, Alpine's operations team now has tailored access to self-serve ad-hoc data and custom analyses. The AI chat agent enables the team to explore key operational drivers in real time, including maintenance costs, labor performance, and daily headcount.

As Alpine adds new subsidiaries and accounts, the Cashboard team provides hands-on support, updating dashboard layouts and user permissions. For example, when Alpine’s operations team needed new analytics for maintenance and labor tracking, Cashboard promptly added features and adjusted reports, delivering insights into cost spikes and efficiency gaps. Austin shares, “If we needed something added or changed, it was just a quick conversation and would get turned on in a day or two.”

“It's easy to just log into Cashboard, instead of manually assembling reports. That speed means we spend less time chasing numbers and more time working with lenders, giving operations insights, or updating the board on our progress.”

– Austin Hostetler, Head of Finance 

With Cashboard, Alpine’s finance team saves 15+ hours monthly on reporting while gaining real-time visibility into costs and performance. This frees the team to focus on higher-value work and strategic initiatives while maintaining operational efficiency and supporting the company's rapid growth.

Results

Alpine improved speed-to-insight by 75% with Cashboard

With Cashboard’s AI-powered analysis and reporting, Alpine streamlined financial and operational processes, gaining real-time visibility into costs and performance. With instant insights across the organization, Cashboard empowers Alpine’s leadership with the agility and data visibility it needs to make informed strategic decisions.

Alpine achieved efficiency, visibility, and accessibility improvements:

• 15+ hours saved monthly on reporting and financial package preparation

• 75% increase in speed-to-insight for finance and operations teams

• 95% instant data alignment with flags for mapping new data labels

Looking ahead, Austin plans to expand Cashboard’s impact by integrating engineering software, defining new KPIs, and exploring AI data mapping. These integrations aim to enhance operational visibility and support Alpine’s continued growth as new projects and assets come online.