For over 30 years, Culver's guests have been treated to cooked-to-order food made with farm-fresh ingredients, served with a smile. The ever-expanding franchise system now numbers more than 600 family-owned and operated restaurants in 24 states. The restaurants' nationally-recognized customer service is based on small-town, Midwestern values, genuine friendliness and an unwavering commitment to quality. Signature items include the award-winning ButterBurger®, made from fresh, never frozen, beef, and Fresh Frozen Custard, including the famous Flavor of the Day program. For more information, visit www.culvers.com, www.culvers.com/facebook, www.twitter.com/culvers, https://plus.google.com/+culvers or www.instagram.com/culvers.
Situation
Eric Johnson came to the restaurant business as a former college coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes. With hard work and determination, he and his partners now own three restaurants in the greater Nashville, Tennessee area—one that is four years old, another is in its second year, and the third location is currently under construction.
Since the franchise’s inception, Johnson worked with an accounting firm in Nashville. After experiencing a host of costly mistakes and headaches, he reached out to other franchisees as well as to Culver’s corporate office for suggestions. Time and again, Wipfli was the recurring recommendation.
Strategy
Once Johnson selected Wipfli, he notified his vendors of the change then Wipfli took things from there, providing a seamless transition. Among the professional services Johnson receives from Wipfli are:
- Processing and payment of vendor bills. Wipfli gave Johnson 24/7 access to sophisticated yet easy-to-use, Web-based tools that Johnson says makes it easy to approve bill payments “in just 10 minutes each morning.”
- Reconciling all bank and credit card accounts.
- Managing cash flow and keeping accounts up to date.
- Preparing monthly financial reports and custom reports for Culver’s corporate offices.
- Preparing budgets.
- Performing tax preparation and filing.
- Managing payroll.
- Additionally, Wipfli caught and corrected accounting errors, and reconciled and corrected the newest store’s first-year tax returns. Wipfli’s principals also supplied proactive advice and assistance whenever needed.
Benefits
After experiencing the costly consequences resulting from the previous firm’s mistakes, Johnson now enjoys complete peace of mind and assurance that his accounting, payroll and taxes are all done accurately and timely with Wipfli. The portal has proven to be a most welcome and convenient tool for Johnson, letting him focus his time and energy on building the core business at hand instead of on bill paying.
Equally noteworthy is Wipfli’s efforts to reconcile past tax returns. Those efforts resulted in a substantial savings for Johnson’s business.
