Case Study: Horizon Air Freight

Client profile

Horizon Air Freight is a family business that started at John F. Kennedy International Airport 50 years ago and now provides air, land, sea freight, and logistics services to marine vessels all around the world. They specialize in critical marine spares, supplies, and equipment worldwide. 

Engagement scope

Horizon worked with CohnReznick to lead the implementation of Oracle’s NetSuite ERP and to develop a custom package of SuiteScript interfaces to Horizon’s legacy sales and operations transaction processing system.

Results

CohnReznick supported Horizon in the implementation of their new financial platform, starting with discovery and design sessions to identify critical business requirements for the configuration of NetSuite ERP, and a custom-built package of interfaces to support daily data feeds from Horizon’s proprietary operational system.

Horizon is now running multiple subsidiaries with thousands of transactions per month in multiple currencies, and can view the financial reports across the organization in real time. They have an automated process for recording payments to a paying agent, which relieves payables to a variety of airline carriers. Their time to complete a financial close has gone from several months per period to under two weeks. CohnReznick also delivered custom searches to automate the generation of positive pay files and to reconcile daily AR and AP.

Business breakthroughs 

• Ability to run multiple subsidiaries, transactions, and currencies in real time
• Automated process for recording payments to a payment agent
• Time to complete financial close decreased from several months to under two weeks

NetSuite functional implementation scope 

The following areas were configured for the client:

• AR and AP 
• Department, Class, Location
• Multiple Currencies
• Automated Intercompany Management
• Allocation and Amortization
• SuiteScript integration package of 14 custom interfaces

In their own words

“We are now able to generate GAAP financial statements in NetSuite, and can now add entities easily and manage budgets for all subsidiaries using standardized financial reports. We also have the capability to generate accurate customer statements. With CohnReznick’s training of our team in NetSuite, Horizon can now close the books in less than two weeks, whereas prior to NetSuite it had taken several months. We are now closing ahead of schedule and we are more than meeting our midmonth deadlines with our private equity partners, and our month-end deadlines with our bank, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest fees that we would have otherwise been liable to pay.” 

–Dave Rector, Chief Financial Officer