From Chaos to Clarity: How Outside is Reinventing Their Revenue Accounting with Leapfin

Outside Interactive, Inc. is a premier media and technology company dedicated to inspiring and enabling people to live an active, outdoor lifestyle. With a vast network of publications and digital platforms, Outside reaches millions of enthusiasts across the globe, fueling their passions with rich content and personalized experiences that span from adventure and sports to health and wellness.

The Challenge

In previous years, Outside had made multiple strategic acquisitions of complementary platforms. The expanded portfolio now included several independent subscription bases, and the volume and complexity of Outside’s transaction data increased exponentially. The team needed to account for different legacy accounting policies, multiple currencies, plus transaction data that had already been filtered through previous systems with varied levels of transparency or documentation around potential gaps, errors, changes, or enrichments.

The team’s manual processes had been effective enough to get the business to this point, but those processes were not built for this level of challenge. 

The fragmented nature of Outside’s revenue data also created higher risk of errors and more difficult reconciliations. A degree of accounting risk is to be expected for most companies, but Outside felt increased pressure from looming audits, and urgency to reinforce operations in the event of a potential future IPO. 

The overall data situation and revenue picture was described as “chaotic.” Knowing their current systems were not built for this new reality or future ambitions, the team sought a proven solution that could centralize their transaction data, automate revenue recognition, and provide accurate, audit-ready financials. 

The solution

The search for the right tool was thorough. Outside conducted a formal RFP process and evaluated several well-known providers in the revenue recognition space. 

Leapfin was a late entrant in the process, but it quickly stood out. Outside paid extra attention to how each provider could handle the complexities of Apple’s App Store Connect data, as this was creating especially painful speedbumps in the team’s process. Unlike the other vendors, Leapfin had already proven its ability to handle Apple data.

Additionally, Leapfin’s user interface was intuitive and required little customization, a significant advantage for a team that did not have extensive data engineering resources.

Outside selected Leapfin. The implementation process took a little longer than anticipated, but for good reason – Leapfin had helped uncover previously unknown gaps and nuances within Outside’s transaction data.  

With Leapfin, Outside can automate their revenue recognition processes, significantly reducing the reliance on manual spreadsheets. Leapfin consistently demonstrates it can easily handle massive volumes of data (millions of records per year) from all of Outside’s sources – Google Play Store, Apple App Store Connect, and Stripe – and consolidate it into a single, auditable system of record.

One of the most significant benefits is the ability to see every underlying transaction by day, which rolled up into one monthly journal entry. This level of detail improves the precision of Outside’s financials and also provides the team with the insights needed to make timely business decisions.

Early impact and confidence in the future

Outside sees a bright future with Leapfin. By dramatically reducing month-end close time, Leapfin will provide Outside’s finance and accounting team with more time to focus on strategic, value-add activities. And because automating repetitive tasks with Leapfin reduces the risk of manual errors, Outside has renewed confidence in their ability to quickly and successfully handle audits.