From a Family Business to a Scalable Company: Transformation with Symfio

Živina is a rapidly growing family-owned business that brings the experience of great food right to customers’ homes. It builds on a combination of top-quality ingredients, the expertise of talented chefs, and inspiration from world cuisines.

The Challenge

Živina was growing rapidly, but its financial management was largely intuitive. There was a lack of visibility into cash flow, margins, and overall performance. Without clearly defined processes and responsibilities, scaling the business was difficult.

Solution

Symfio introduced data-driven finance, efficient reporting, and administrative automation. Rapid implementation enabled management to monitor results in real time and establish solid processes, which helped the company manage its rapid growth.

Story

What was your biggest challenge in financial management before implementing Symfio?

Before I discovered Symfio, I managed finances more intuitively. Operating cash flow was often very tight; we didn’t have the kind of investment plan we’d envisioned, and given the rapidly growing revenue at Živina, we struggled with margins and financial control—we lacked a reporting tool and an overview of the company’s overall performance. However, finance wasn’t the only area that troubled us as our company continued to grow and is still growing. Although we’re still a family-owned business, we’re undergoing a transformation into a larger company—and that’s not possible without stable, clearly defined processes. We lacked a clear description and division of responsibilities and competencies so that all the wonderful people who make up Živina would know exactly what was expected of them, ensuring seamless cooperation.

What convinced you to choose Symfio as your financial management solution?

I think Symfio’s track record and the clients they serve—or for whom they’ve already implemented many solutions—speak for themselves. What strikes me as truly unique is the combination of knowledge and experience in financial management across various types of companies (both SaaS and manufacturing) with the development of a financial management application designed to help me run the company effectively with a CFO for the 21st century.

How did the process of rolling out Symfia to your team go? Did it meet your expectations in terms of implementation speed?

Right from our first meeting, during a discussion with Honza Gabriel and Zuzana Hloušková, who has her own experience running a manufacturing company, I knew I’d made the right choice. They asked “in-depth” questions that got straight to the heart of the matter, and within a week we had a clear vision and scope for our collaboration. For us, it was primarily about combining the work of a CFO with Symfia as a tool that was essential for reviewing financial results, transferring accounting data, and configuring the system with a focus on optimizing and ensuring the accuracy of the data. The implementation itself was very simple—it took Symfia just a few hours to connect the application to our accounting system, and then we slowly began cleaning up the data 🙂

How specifically has the application helped you improve reporting or cash flow planning? Do you have an example of a time when you achieved a better result thanks to it?

Zuzana Hloušková, who worked with us as an interim CFO and later also as an interim COO, helped us set everything up in Symfia so that our management team could monitor financial results on a virtually daily basis. For us and our new group CFO (whom Zuzana also helped us select and “train”), the most valuable features right now are the overview of financial results across the group and the ability to plan using both analytical accounts and cost centers. It has also significantly simplified our controlling activities.

How much time are you now saving on administrative tasks thanks to Symfio?

Given that Živina has practically doubled in size over these 18 months, it’s more a matter of our ability to automate these activities, set up processes, and—thanks to that—manage this rapid growth.

How would you describe the app’s user-friendliness? Was it easy to understand even for less experienced team members?

Yes, the app is well-organized, and now it’s primarily available in Czech, which is important for some of our team members. In any case, this is one of the key reasons we work with Symfio: their constant progress. Since Symfio is an online app, new features are released practically every month, which in turn challenges us to think about how to make financial management even more efficient.

Which feature do you use most often?

I most often look at the overall overview of the company’s results; our CFO uses the income statement and balance sheet reports for controlling and, in collaboration with cost center managers, also for monitoring the cost plan.

Since implementing the app and working with Symfio consultants, have you seen any specific impact on your business growth or improved relationships with partners (e.g., banks, investors)?

Absolutely! For us, 60% of the collaboration was about the role of interim CFO and consultant Zuzana, and 40% was about implementing a high-quality, reliable tool. From my perspective as CEO, I’ve noticed the most significant changes in our processes and the overall functioning of our accounting and back-office operations. It has significantly impacted our ability to continue growing by helping us build a solid foundation for future growth with the help of Symfio and their consultant.

What surprised you the most about Symfio? Is there any feature or function you’d describe as a game-changer?

Actually, nothing really surprised me, because whenever I thought, “It would be nice if I could see this detail, for example,” I found that Symfio already had that functionality. They’re simply always one step ahead in terms of what we could use for our continued development and managed growth.

What message would you give to companies that are considering implementing Symfio but are still hesitating?

Don’t hesitate 🙂 Symfio isn’t just a reliable tool, more importantly, it’s backed by people who understand what it means to be a CFO in the 21st century. Here at Živina, we strive to bring the experience of great food right to your home, building on the combination of top chefs’ expertise, high-quality ingredients, and world cuisine. And that’s exactly why our partnership with Symfio makes sense—just like them, we do what we love, bringing together the seemingly impossible to deliver the best to our customers.