{"id":37610,"date":"2024-12-09T14:41:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T14:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/?post_type=case-study&p=37610"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:21:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:21:48","slug":"american-airlines","status":"publish","type":"case-study","link":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/case-study\/american-airlines\/","title":{"rendered":"American Airlines’ Record to Report Processes Take Off, Leaving Spreadsheets on the Tarmac"},"content":{"rendered":"
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American Airlines’ Record to Report Processes Take Off, Leaving Spreadsheets on the Tarmac<\/h1>\n

Case Study<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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Share<\/h2>\n
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Business Drivers to Automate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

American Airlines gained their sterling market reputation in part by staying ahead of the curve \u2013 which is becoming increasingly difficult. \u201cEveryone is trying to do more with less, and that\u2019s a big part of our vision,\u201d shared Alison DeVad, Director of Automation Systems for American Airlines. \u201cWe\u2019re continuously looking to transform and optimize, and we decided to start with our record to report processes.\u201d
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\u201cOur processes were very manual, and we didn\u2019t have an official system or sufficient approval workflows. Despite being a global organization, we didn\u2019t have a templated format for our reconciliations or journal entries, so they were not standardized at all,\u201d continued DeVad. \u201cBasing our processes in spreadsheets proved to be an issue, as every update from Microsoft would corrupt our workbooks. We were continuously having to implement custom coding just to maintain our templates, in addition to the everyday manual processes.\u201d
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Additionally, working globally was becoming increasingly challenging: \u201cEverything was decentralized, so employees were storing files\u2014 including Excel workbooks and supporting documentation\u2014on their desktops rather than a shared location. There\u2019s delays and limits to what managers can see when working in Excel, so they were required to follow up via email or phone calls to find out the status of all our reconciliations and journal entries. On top of that, there\u2019s enforcing compliance controls and ensuring all of the data is complete and accurate. It was really a headache,\u201d commented DeVad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finding Cadency by Trintech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

American Airlines started their digital transformation initiative by focusing on their account reconciliations, journal entries, and transaction matching processes. \u201cWe really needed a solution to help us automate the manual components of the close and serve as a one-stop-shop to consolidate everything into one place,\u201d shared Will Mohler, Manager of Accounting Automation at American Airlines. \u201cWe needed a solution that would evolve along with our needs, provide much-needed visibility, serve as a single source of truth, and help us improve our controls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the tall order, Cadency by Trintech fit the bill. \u201cChange management is at least half of the effort of any digital transformation project, and it\u2019s no different here at American Airlines,\u201d commented Mohler. \u201cWe spent a lot of time meeting with different teams, talking about how processes would change, and it led to a really great adoption of Cadency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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The consistency of movement between Cadency and SAP has\r\nmade for a really smooth transition and has allowed for a smooth data flow between the two platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

\n Will Mohler<\/span>\n \n Manager of Accounting Automation at American Airlines<\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n\n <\/figure>\n <\/div>\n\n
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Solution in Action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since implementing Cadency by Trintech, American Airlines has been able to bring several improvements and efficiencies to their financial close processes. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to achieve the large transaction volume matching that we really needed, and most importantly, it\u2019s accurate! It\u2019s saved us a lot of time, in addition to reducing our manual processes and minimizing error-prone practices. Rather than focusing on repetitive processes, people are able to focus on value-adding activities,\u201d continued Mohler. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to improve our productivity and accuracy while providing a better sense of security and confidence in our processes, particularly through dynamic approval workflows, templates, and having that centralized repository for
a single source of truth. Everything is documented and able to be audited as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trintech\u2019s integration with American Airlines\u2019 ERP, SAP, turned out to be a huge plus, as well. Moller shared, \u201cThe consistency of movement between Cadency and SAP has made for a really smooth transition and has allowed for a smooth data flow between the two platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the executive team to end users, it seems that everyone has had something positive to say about Cadency. \u201cThe feedback we get from our users is that they don\u2019t have to do a lot of the copying and pasting that they did previously, and there are far fewer emails and phone calls to ask for updates,\u201d said Mohler. \u201cThe integrated reporting capabilities have really offered leaders improved visibility into what\u2019s going on in the financial close process, providing the ability to make better decisions, faster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The partnership between American Airlines and Trintech seems to just be growing: \u201cWe make sure that we keep up with the new version upgrades of Cadency, because we really want to make sure that we\u2019re taking advantage of the latest features and capabilities and implementing those where appropriate,\u201d continued Mohler. \u201cWe\u2019re always looking for ways to improve and Trintech is a valued partner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Read the Full Case Study<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Discover key insights and actionable strategies by downloading our full case study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See Trintech in Action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Seeing is believing. Discover why Trintech is the real leader in financial close automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Business Drivers to Automate American Airlines gained their sterling market reputation in part by staying ahead of the curve \u2013 which is becoming increasingly difficult. \u201cEveryone is trying to do more with less, and that\u2019s a big part of our vision,\u201d shared Alison DeVad, Director of Automation Systems for American Airlines. \u201cWe\u2019re continuously looking to transform and optimize, and we decided to start with our record to report processes.\u201d \u201cOur processes were very manual, and we didn\u2019t have an official system or sufficient approval workflows. Despite being a global organization, we didn\u2019t have a templated format for our reconciliations or journal entries, so they were not standardized at all,\u201d continued …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37614,"template":"","topic":[69,66,734,64,71,67],"product":[79,214],"class_list":["post-37610","case-study","type-case-study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-account-reconciliation","topic-controls-compliance","topic-erp-integration","topic-financial-close","topic-improve-visibility","topic-increase-efficiency-effectiveness","product-cadency","product-erp-sap"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":37610},"pll_sync_post":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case-study\/37610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case-study"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/case-study"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case-study\/37610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49082,"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/case-study\/37610\/revisions\/49082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=37610"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=37610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}