Andretti Indoor Karting & Games races toward expansion with Business Central

Strategizing for scalability and future growth

At Andretti Indoor Karting & Games (AIKG), the goal is to create unforgettable memories by delivering unique and exciting experiences at an unbeatable value. Building on the Andretti name and legacy, AIKG boasts seven locations, with eight more by 2025, each featuring massive high-end facilities that are impeccably maintained and staffed with exceptional service. From the 120-game arcade to the multilevel electric go-kart tracks, laser tag, bowling, virtual reality experiences, and a full-service restaurant kitchen, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

With its mission of delivering an unparalleled entertainment experience to its guests, AIKG has adopted a collaborative team approach across departments, ensuring a high-quality experience for its guests. “The whole company is based on that philosophy,” says Laura Lane, Senior Accountant at Andretti Indoor Karting & Games. ”How can we all work together to make sure we have a great product and our guests have a great experience?” She continues, ”We work very closely with operations and senior management. We want to set up policies, procedures, and structures that support them and make their jobs easier and give them the access and data they need to make on-the-fly decisions.”

Established in 1999 in Roswell, Georgia (with its current headquarters in Orlando, Florida), AIKG initially used Intuit QuickBooks for its financial management needs. As the company rapidly expanded, it needed a more robust solution than what QuickBooks could offer at the time. Rather than relying on multiple external platforms, the company aimed to centralize its operations and consolidate various functions like credit card processing, payroll, and accounts payable into a single, in-house system.

Facing these limitations, AIKG transitioned to Microsoft Dynamics GP with the help of its partner, Enavate, marking a significant shift in its operational capabilities. With a user-friendly interface and audit-friendly features, Dynamics GP was an ideal choice for the company. However, the complexities and costs associated with on-premises server management were a bottleneck in AIKG’s expansion strategy. ”With having to host Dynamics GP at a server farm and our IT department maintaining it as we grew, the database was going to have to grow with us,” explains Tammy Koehler, Chief Financial Officer at Andretti Indoor Karting & Games. ”We were also going to have more users, and we could definitely see that it was going to add complexity as we continued to grow.”

Recognizing the need for a more flexible and scalable solution, AIKG wanted to upgrade its systems and move its business operations to the cloud. At the forefront were several key objectives, including scalability for future expansion. A move to a cloud-based solution would not only streamline the company’s operations, but also position it for continued growth and success, allowing AIKG to focus on providing unforgettable family entertainment.

Transforming business operations with a move to the cloud

AIKG’s needs were multifold: easier access to business tools, a considerable reduction in manual processes, and ease of use (especially with purchase orders and the monitoring of spending). Enavate helped the company realize that to tackle these requirements, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was the way to go. ”Not only is Dynamics 365 Business Central less expensive, but it includes the cost of the users and also takes the pressure off of my IT team of not having to maintain the servers,” Koehler says. “Even though we are increasing our size, we don’t anticipate that we’ll need to add any further accounting or IT personnel because of the efficiencies we’ve gained with Business Central. I’d say cost savings are in at least the $300,000 to $500,000 a year range.”

At AIKG, Business Central serves the accounting team, helping with critical financial tasks such as bank reconciliations, month-end closes, and the integration of amortization schedules. It acts as a central hub, ensuring that when users enter data from other systems, everything is accurately recorded and aligned. With data from Business Central, store managers also benefit from detailed financial insights, such as unique profit and loss reviews and a real-time ”declining checkbook” for budgets and expenses.

Apart from its broad capabilities, Business Central is straightforward to use, so AIKG has experienced quick adoption. Says Koehler enthusiastically, ”You just set up a user in Azure and boom, you’re done because we’re on a complete Microsoft platform. Business Central just makes sense in every way you can think of.” Koehler also notes that as part of the migration to Business Central, AIKG employed Microsoft Teams, which it was already using, helping the company quickly onboard users. ”We hosted a Teams call where we could instantly address participants’ questions and issues, which was amazing.” She adds, “Being able to share screens on the spot is always nice.”

AIKG has noticed that the connectivity of Business Central with Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook, Excel, and Teams further simplifies operations by increasing accessibility to data while improving staff efficiency. Lane particularly appreciates the seamless connectivity with Excel. “Everything is 100% in Dynamics 365 Business Central, where we run reports, access data, and make any necessary comparisons,” she explains. ”It connects to Excel, where we can analyze it more deeply if needed.” Business Central is the system AIKG uses in all its daily activities, effectively dealing with all the company’s data. The solution can provide provisions of reports the company might be interested in, and as Lane points out, can easily be shared to Excel or exported to any other data warehouse software for further analysis and manipulation. For more polished, high-level financial documents like income statements, AIKG has added a third-party solution. However, the data flows smoothly between Dynamics 365 and this external system, enabling quick access to the necessary formats.

A striking advantage of Business Central is its compatibility with various plugins and its inherent flexibility and accessibility from any location, granting AIKG users much more freedom and fluidity in their work. Gone are the days when the company had to pause operations for updates or deal with tedious tasks like rolling over general ledger balances, a common issue with the previous system. This automation is so efficient that it has reduced the need for additional staffing, allowing AIKG to grow without proportionally increasing its headcount. Lane notes that automation in Business Central has led to substantial cost savings in labor because it streamlines operations without direct system interaction. Plus, operating in the cloud improves data security and provides a reliable audit trail.

Business Central has brought less tangible yet valuable benefits, such as enhancing the team’s understanding of business concepts. Although not everyone needs to know details like profit and loss on a daily basis, Business Central has made it easier to understand important concepts like dimensions and data entry processes. ”When Business Central came along, we were able to explain why certain things had to be entered in a specific way so they flowed correctly to other areas,” Lane recalls. ”It opened up opportunities for people to understand a lot more about what they do daily, how it influences these things, and how it connects to the bigger picture.” This shared knowledge has led to a sense of collective accountability among AIKG’s teams, and with enhanced connectivity and fewer manual tasks, they have time to focus on what matters most: their customers’ experiences. Koehler explains, “We’ve seen a decline in manual tasks, such as entering daily cash receipts and pulling in bank transactions. Bringing in that data automatically saves a huge amount of time, and it saves error. We’re able to turn around our financial statements in a 3- to 5-day period where, before, it took us 10.“

Ushering in a new era in data management and accounting

With Business Central, AIKG has realized a unified system. The company has been able to enforce the use of purchase requests more consistently, dramatically reducing credit card usage by more than half. Business Central has substantially reduced the company’s reliance on manual processes and was easy to tie into the company’s existing software ecosystem, along with applications AIKG intends to incorporate in the future. For example, the company’s procurement software works seamlessly with Business Central, and AIKG plans to achieve similar compatibility with its inventory program. “Because of the integration of our procurement software with Business Central, we’ve gone from about 40% compliance with putting in purchase requests to 98% compliance,” says Koehler. ”Essentially, everything—invoices, payments, expense reports, all of it—is pushed straight into Business Central and nobody has to touch it,” explains Koehler. ”I mean, it’s just fantastic.”

By bringing together Microsoft 365 and Business Central, AIKG has been able to improve its workflows and data access for employees. Everyone can see the same data at the same time without exiting or switching screens. Another key advantage is the uniformity in file structures used across the board that have been standardized to make them more organized and efficient. The central data storage AIKG created as part of this connection ensures all information is stored in the same way, which further improves the data management processes of the company.

Business Central has been a game-changer for AIKG. It’s simple to learn and operate, and while AIKG is currently using it primarily for accounting and data management, the company plans to broaden its application across other business areas. Additionally, AIKG is excited about adopting Power BI, whose capabilities are particularly anticipated for handling point-of-sale data, which is expected to enhance cost accounting analyses. The goal is to accurately determine the true cost of each entertainment service AIKG provides, including detailed expenses like maintenance and repair of specific items, such as go-karts. This level of detail in cost analysis is a major step forward in AIKG’s analytics capabilities.

With its current seven locations, and the goal to open three to five more every year, AIKG is squarely focused on making sure its business operations run smoothly and its customers have amazing experiences. ”There’s nothing like the look on somebody’s face when they walk in for the first time and they’re just in awe of everything,” says Samantha LaMagna, Director of Marketing at Andretti Indoor Karting & Games. ”I just love that we are able to do that for people and provide these lifelong memories with their family.”

As AIKG embarks on a bold journey of expansion, Business Central stands as a cornerstone of this new era. It’s not just a tool; it’s the backbone that scales with the company’s ambitions, a platform to unite all processes, integrating every facet of AIKG’s goals of creating family fun and smooth operations.

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