Ripley Entertainment: World-famous entertainment attraction company uses Job Cost to build, maintain facilities
"Using Job Cost, each week we provided a report to the owner, the corporate office and all the vice presidents. The report discussed the budget, committed costs, any change orders for that week, current expenses paid, remaining amount to be spent, etc."
Tracey Robinson
Controller
In Spring 2006, Ripley Entertainment opened Great Wolf Lodge, a 406-room, all-suite, indoor water park resort in Niagara Falls. The opening marked Ripley Entertainment’s first venture into the water park and resort industries, a new step for the nearly 90-year-old entertainment company with 64 attractions in 11 countries.
The $100 million project was coordinated with the use of WennSoft Job Cost. Construction budgets, timelines, staffing, change orders, etc. were tracked and updated on a daily basis through Job Cost and Microsoft Dynamics GP. But such an important project was hardly the first time Ripley staff had utilized the software solution, only the largest to date.
Ripley’s use of Dynamics GP dates back to 2000, shortly after Controller Tracey Robinson first joined the Ripley team. “When I came onboard, we were building a $50 million aquarium in Tennessee and tracking costs on a huge Excel spreadsheet,” Robinson recalled. “The reconciliation never matched up because something was always off or missing.”
Maintaining consistency in tracking projects was made more difficult by the “revolving door” as Robinson described the chief financial officer and controller positions at Ripley entertainment during this period. Challenges created by the turnover were magnified as Ripley sought to maintain a company policy of doubling in size every three-to-four years – a pattern they have continued since 1997.
Less turnover in key financial roles coincided in 2000 with the purchase of Dynamics GP and a software solution. These products were an improvement for Robinson, but not the answer she was looking for.
“It was an automated program, but I still needed to enter information twice,” she said. “I used it for one small project we had, but I knew we needed something to link to Dynamics, cut down the duplication and save time.”
With the assistance of Interdyn CFO Consulting, Robinson was introduced to WennSoft Job Cost. She was happy with the positive impact WennSoft made from the first project she utilized the solution.
“We started out small,” she recalled. “We have a number of museums that require renovations or updates. The first WennSoft project was for a $100,000 job helping us get ready for bigger jobs as we went along.
“From there, we built two mini-golf attractions and a family arcade center. Each of those were $2 million - $5 million jobs.”
At the time, the “bigger job” Robinson thought was on the horizon was another new Ripley aquarium. Instead, the call was made to construct the lodge in Niagara Falls.
“The job posting created for the lodge was opened for two years,” Robinson said. “We had one full-time accountant dedicated to it. Using Job Cost, every Friday we provided a report to the owner, the corporate office and all the vice presidents. The report discussed the budget, committed costs, any change orders for that week, current expenses paid, remaining amount to be spent, etc.
“By the end of the project, the weekly report was running 200 pages.”
Turning a job into asset
Though the construction project is complete, Ripley’s use of WennSoft Job Cost for the lodge continues.
“Once the lodge – or any project – closes for us it becomes an asset,” Robinson said. “On an older project, if we need to replace the carpeting at an attraction we need to look through spreadsheets and hope that we have a record somewhere that tells us about when the carpet was bought, who we bought it from, etc.
“Today, I can go to a carpet cost code and see who did the job, when and for how much money.”
Branching (back) in to publishing
In 2004, Ripley brought back in-house the publication of their annual, popular “Believe It or Not!” book.
“I went back to Interdyn CFO Consulting and said I need something to track production and inventory of these books,” Robinson said. “They said I already had the software I needed thanks to WennSoft. It was suggested I track each new book we publish as a separate job. I never would have thought of that.” Every cost for each book goes through Job Cost, including all revenues pertaining to the book. Robinson can reference a report by the job number, view the revenue from last year, the year-to-date figures for the current year or its history.
“The book goes in to inventory once the costs are completed,” Robinson said. “All costs related to printing and selling, and the costs associated with selling, run through the job. Those jobs never close as there are re-prints, new revenue, etc.”
The projects have been successful. Since bringing publication back in house, Ripley has sold more than two million books.
Ripley Entertainment continues to grow around the world, and WennSoft Job Cost remains a part of that growth.
In March 2008, Ripley completed renovation on its museum in San Antonio, including opening a second facility across the street from the original attraction. With a total cost of more than $4.5 million, Robinson and her team continued to implement Job Cost to chart the project’s progress.