Oh sure, there’s a ton of romance and history in the origins of winemaking.
And every boutique enterprise, no matter how large or small, has a charming tale to tell about their artisan craft and how it all got started.
But at the end of the day, wineries live or die by their numbers.
No matter how compelling the story or how good the wine, if the numbers don’t work, the business is bound to fail.
To avoid that, it’s imperative for wineries to have rock-solid data on their day-to-day fiscal operations so they’re able to determine the overall health of their organization.
That’s where having the right financial infrastructure in place becomes critical.
Set Up for Wine Industry
Protea Financial is an outsourced, operational financial partner intentionally focused on the complexities and challenges of wineries.
Winery owners need accurate bookkeeping, timely reporting and proactive inventory management in order to drive profitability.
With 12+ years in the business, Protea Financial is exclusively geared to handle the inventory, production cycles, compliance requirements and capital constraints unique to the wine industry.
Protea Financial leverages fully-integrated, cloud-based systems to deliver real-time visibility, accuracy, and transparency across all financial operations.
Protea is a deeply team-driven group of professionals dedicated to a collaborative work environment that provides wineries with reliable, structured accounting support, freeing them to run their businesses with absolute confidence in the numbers.
Full Spectrum Accounting
Protea Financial supports wineries with everything from accurate day-to-day accounting and specialized cost and inventory accounting to financial reporting, cash flow management, M&A support, and forward-looking insight, providing the level of financial visibility and guidance typically associated with CFO services.
The financial foundation of its services rests on accurate, reliable day-to-day accounting, ensuring books are structured, reconciled, and dependable.
Protea Financials' solution-based reporting covers:
Transactional processing & bookkeeping
Accounts receivable & payable processing
Bank, credit card, sales and inventory reconciliation
Month-end close and financial reporting
Balance sheet integrity and account accuracy
Cash flow visibility and management
Budgeting and forecasting support
In addition, Protea specializes in inventory and cost accounting that are central to a winery’s performance, with a focus on:
Inventory reconciliations
Inventory costing and cost allocations
Bulk wine and production tracking
COGS accuracy
Margin visibility and analysis
Inventory reporting and valuation visibility
Variance analysis and issue identification
Why It Matters
While there is reason for cautious optimism, the most recent SVB State of the (wine) Industry report shows slower demand, elevated inventories, capital constraints and significantly, the need for sharper business discipline.
Wineries that fail to adapt will feel the pressure quickly.
Protea Financials’ flexible business model supports wineries as a fully outsourced accounting department, a complement to internal teams, or a targeted solution for specific financial needs.
The viability of individual wineries within the overall industry is at the heart of the Protea Financial paradigm.
“If a winery doesn’t have all the data to make decisions, they’re just running it blindly, which is a terrible place to be,” cautions Zane Stevens, Protea Financials’ Founder. “I want to make sure people in this industry are successful. A winery is a business. It has to be run like one. It starts with sound financial management.”
Zane Stevens, Founder
To gain clarity in your numbers and make more confident decisions, schedule a free consultation at proteafinancial.com.
