Industry: Medical Devices

Cytovale is a clinical-stage company composed of an innovative team of biologists, data scientists, and engineers. Based in San Francisco, California, the company is aspiring to revolutionize diagnostics using cell mechanics, starting with early sepsis detection in the emergency department.

As a venture-backed company with government grants, Cytovale’s chart of accounts was structured in a way that made reporting and visibility across functional areas difficult. Jirav’s flexible cloud financial planning and analysis solution enabled their outsourced finance leader to create new insights and opportunities.

In an aggressive effort to help millions affected by sepsis, Cytovale depends on government funding to support research and development for its early detection product. Like many venture-backed companies, financial statements in QuickBooks were structured to meet specific government reporting requirements, which restricted Cytovale’s board from getting the strategic business insight they needed across operations.

Jim Gellas, VP of Finance for Kruze Consulting and Cytovale’s outsourced finance leader, had a challenge on his hands. "Because of the government reporting requirements, an overhaul in QuickBooks was not an option.

"My goal was to find a solution that could retain the existing chart of accounts and adhere to the government reporting requirements while providing Cytovale leadership with deeper visibility into functional areas which we couldn't get natively with QuickBooks."

Jirav was the solution Jim was seeking. He could connect it to QuickBooks Online, add multiple datasets, customize KPIs and business drivers, and produce tailored reports with the click of a button, without changing anything in QuickBooks.

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Opening The Door To New Funding Opportunities

When Jim began his engagement as Cytovale’s finance leader, the company had no formal budget in place. “With Jirav, I can create a multi-month budget and forecast, by department, to show Cytovale leaders exactly how they are spending every dollar. Without this, we wouldn’t have been in front of planning and able to pursue major grant opportunities,” says Jim.

10+ Hours Saved Every Month On Reporting

Producing reports for Cytovale used to take hours to pull information together and construct comparisons. Now, Jim reports it takes only 10 minutes and the click of a button. He can also create custom report packages to automatically deliver meaningful insight to the team. "Jirav is saving me at least 10 hours per month on a regular basis, on reporting alone."

Visibility Across The Board

Members of Cytovale’s leadership are now able to see, at a functional level, what is happening in the business and where to allocate resources.

"With the government reporting requirements, we could only track direct expenses, indirect expenses, and overhead related to each grant or project," explains Jim, "It made visibility into the business opaque. You can't run and grow a business like that. Jirav lifted those boundaries and gave the board a new way to see the business."

Accountable, Confident Decisions

As Cytovale continues to mature as a business, Jirav provides budget accountability and empowers leaders to make more confident decisions on the direction of the company.

"It certainly would not be an overstatement to say that Jirav has impacted the organization from team leaders to the executive team through the board and investors. It has enabled crisp communications and provided a paradigm we weren’t able to provide before."

Tracking Budget vs Actuals

Before Jim and Jirav, Cytovale had no way to measure and track budget vs. actuals. Now, they are building budgets internally against functional areas. On a monthly basis, they can review what happened across different departments as compared to budgets.

"I can review everything with Cytovale's leadership to help them understand where we are, what is coming in, and where we are spending more or less in specific areas. It has been a huge advantage," says Jim.

More Value From Every Dollar

For Cytovale's CEO, every dollar going out the door is critical, and Jim wants to ensure he is providing the most value for money spent on his time. Jirav is helping him do that by substantially reducing the time spent on financial reporting as well as improving the quality of insight he can deliver. "My time with Cytovale is now absolutely more about strategic advisory and less about data manipulation and mechanics."