The Challenge

Santista Distribuidora is a wholesale distribution company with a network of stores and a central matrix operation. The company moves significant volume and serves a broad customer base. On the surface, the business looked healthy. But beneath that surface, something was broken.

The company's financial systems were fragmented. Data lived in multiple spreadsheets. Cost allocation was inconsistent. Pricing didn't account for internal freight. Tax credits weren't being captured. Approvals moved at a crawl—literally on paper with physical signatures. And worst of all, nobody could see clearly whether individual stores or the company as a whole was actually making money.

"We had no visibility into what was really happening," one leader explained. "We'd close a month and have no idea if we were profitable. The numbers didn't match reality."

The pain points stacked up. Manual pricing calculations meant errors and missed margins. The fiscal team was reactive, not proactive—defending against tax issues instead of preventing them. Monthly closings dragged on for weeks. Freight costs were double-counted in the cost of goods sold. Inventory variations weren't tracked systematically. And the company was bleeding cash on unnecessary tax payments because credits weren't being used strategically.

Most critically, the company couldn't answer a simple question: Which stores were actually profitable? The consolidated view showed losses, but the real story was hidden in the details.

The Solution

The transformation didn't happen overnight. It started with a decision to bring in external expertise to map the current state and design a better future. The company engaged a consulting partner to help structure financial governance, build a proper chart of accounts, and implement systems that would give real-time visibility into performance.

The approach was methodical. First, the team built a granular plan of accounts—moving from vague, aggregated categories to detailed classifications that tracked costs by function, by store, and by cost center. They separated internal freight from cost of goods sold to eliminate double-counting. They created dedicated lines for unusual costs like wheat-related charges and promotional gifts. They segregated travel expenses by department so they could see which teams were spending what.

Second, they systematized approvals. Instead of paper signatures and email chains, they moved to a digital workflow in their ERP system. Approval limits were set by role and amount. Bordereau reports ran daily. The system wouldn't accept duplicate invoices. Suddenly, payment processing became traceable and fast.

Third, they got aggressive about tax credits. The company had been paying taxes in cash when it had credits available to offset those payments. A dedicated fiscal professional took ownership of PIS/COFINS credits, INSS offsets, and federal recoveries. Within four months, the company recovered over a million reais in credits and compensations that had been sitting on the table.

Fourth, they built a consolidated DRE—a single, unified income statement that pulled data from multiple sources and mapped it to a standard chart of accounts. This meant they could finally see the real picture: revenue, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, and profit or loss. And they could see it by store, by cost center, and for the company as a whole.

"The moment we had a real DRE, everything changed," a finance leader said. "We could finally have honest conversations about what was working and what wasn't."

The company also implemented monthly governance reviews. Every month, the finance team presented actual results against expectations, explained variances, and discussed corrective actions. This created accountability and forced the organization to stay focused on the numbers.

What made this work was commitment from the top. Leadership didn't just approve the changes—they participated in them. They asked hard questions. They made tough decisions based on data. And they held the organization accountable for execution.

The Transformation

The results came faster than expected.

Within the first few months, the company identified and prevented a fraudulent tax charge of approximately five thousand reais. The fiscal team's proactive approach caught it before it became a problem.

Fuel costs, which had been a major drain, dropped by roughly five hundred thousand reais annually through better monitoring and control. The company implemented odometer tracking and reabastecimento logs. Suddenly, drivers were more careful. Waste disappeared.

The tax credit recovery was substantial. In just four months, the company recovered over a million reais in credits and compensations. That money went straight to cash flow. In February and March alone, federal credit recoveries exceeded eight hundred thousand reais.

The freight reclassification alone freed up tens of thousands of reais in February and March by eliminating the double-counting that had been inflating cost of goods sold.

But the real win was visibility. For the first time, the company could see which stores were profitable and which were drains. This led to hard decisions—closing underperforming locations, reallocating resources, and focusing energy on high-return operations. The consolidated view showed losses, but the unit-by-unit analysis revealed that several stores were actually generating positive cash. The matrix was the problem, not the stores.

This insight alone changed the strategy. Instead of closing stores, the company focused on reducing matrix costs and improving operational efficiency. The company also implemented an ABC curve on its product portfolio, identifying which items drove the most revenue and which were just taking up shelf space. This led to smarter pricing, better inventory management, and improved margins.

The company moved from a reactive, firefighting mode to a proactive, data-driven culture. Monthly closings that used to take weeks now happen on schedule. Approvals that used to get stuck now flow through the system in days. Pricing decisions are now based on real cost data, not guesses.

"We went from chaos to clarity," one team member reflected. "Now we know exactly where we stand. We can make decisions with confidence."

The transformation also created a foundation for growth. With clear visibility into costs and margins, the company can now negotiate better terms with suppliers, optimize its product mix, and invest in the right areas. The company is no longer just managing cash flow—it's building a sustainable, profitable business.

Looking ahead, the company plans to continue automating processes, expanding the use of data analytics, and pushing deeper into cost optimization. The foundation is solid. The culture has shifted. And the numbers prove it works.

"This isn't just about fixing the past," a leader said. "It's about building the future. We now have the visibility and discipline to grow profitably. That changes everything."