Carina Leagues Club outlines the move from spreadsheets to real-time reporting and stronger governance.
“There’s definitely been a shift. Increased regulatory requirements are flowing through to boards, and that means more is expected from management when it comes to reporting and oversight.” – Caleb Kirchen, Group Account & Finance Manager, Carina Leagues Club
Across Australian clubs, this is becoming increasingly clear. Financial reporting is no longer just about closing out the day. It’s about delivering accurate, defensible numbers in an environment where expectations around compliance and governance continue to rise.
Growth introduces complexity.
Operating across gaming, food and beverage, functions and family entertainment, Carina Leagues Club has grown into a large, multi-faceted venue with 242 employees, with expansion underway. With a second site secured and development approval pending for a third, the club’s operational footprint is increasing rapidly.
But with growth comes complexity.
As expectations from boards and regulators continue to rise, the need for accurate, consistent financial reporting has moved beyond operational convenience and is now a governance requirement.
An auditor’s perspective on risk.
Before joining Carina, Caleb spent close to a decade auditing financial processes across Queensland and New South Wales clubs. From that perspective, risk isn’t typically in the final numbers, it sits in the integrity of the process behind them, including how data is captured, reconciled and controlled.
Across Australian clubs, financial processes sit within a regulated environment, particularly for venues with gaming operations. Clubs are required to maintain accurate reconciliations, retain auditable records, and operate within frameworks such as AUSTRAC’s AML/CTF obligations. All of which demand consistency, traceability and strong internal controls.
“It’s not enough for numbers to “balance”. They need to be defensible under audit, while also being readily available in a format that clearly explains the story behind the figures.” From Caleb’s perspective, this is where spreadsheet-based environments begin to introduce risk.
Manual processes, disconnected systems and editable data layers can lead to:
- inconsistent reconciliation practices
- limited audit trails
- reliance on key individuals
- and data that can be altered after the fact
In a compliance environment, those gaps matter. For clubs operating in cash-intensive environments, the ability to demonstrate control, accuracy and transparency is becoming increasingly important from a governance standpoint.
When spreadsheets stop keeping up.
Carina’s financial processes evolved over time from spreadsheets layered across multiple systems and workflows. As systems multiplied, payroll, trade reporting, cash recyclers, the gaps became harder to ignore. “We had multiple systems, and spreadsheets sitting across everything. It didn’t clearly show daily performance, and there was always the risk of errors or manipulation” Caleb explains. Without a clear, centralised view, daily performance wasn’t immediately visible. Teams were often working with delayed or inconsistent data, making it difficult to act in real time.
During implementation of a new system, it also became clear that spreadsheet-based reporting was prone to both manual error and inconsistency, incorrect data often flowed through to accounting systems.
Improving control and confidence.
The decision to move away from spreadsheets wasn’t just about efficiency. It was about control. For Carina’s leadership team, the goal was to create a single, reliable source of financial truth, one that could support both operational decision-making and board-level reporting. That decision was also shaped by the limitations of the existing system. The club had invested heavily in a spreadsheet-based approach (spending close to $35,000) but it had become difficult for teams to understand, maintain and trust.
“The spreadsheet system was too large, too complex, and too prone to errors for where the club was heading.”
In practice, this meant critical financial processes relied on a small number of individuals who understood how the spreadsheets worked, creating both operational risk and inefficiency. By consolidating financial data into a single platform, the team now has access to accurate, consistent data in a format that is easy for the wider team to use and understand.
Quantifiable impact, immediately.
One of the most immediate impacts was time. Daily reconciliation, which previously took between two and four hours, is now completed in around 30 minutes.
“What used to take two to four hours is now done in half an hour.” That reduction is saving the club approximately $150 per day in wages, equating to over $50,000 annually.
With faster access to accurate data, the team can now act on performance in real time, adjusting rosters, identifying issues earlier, and making more informed operational decisions.
Strengthening governance and reducing risk.
As clubs grow, so does the importance of control. For Carina, one of the most significant improvements has been the ability to reduce operational and compliance risk. Wirely enables clearer segregation of duties, ensuring financial processes are shared across multiple team members, rather than sitting with a single individual.
“It helps prevent one person holding all the knowledge. If someone leaves, the process doesn’t leave with them.”
This not only reduces fraud risk, but strengthens auditability and business continuity. At the same time, documentation and reporting have become more consistent, with key financial records centrally stored and easily accessible when required.
As the industry continues to evolve, expectations are rising.
Carina’s experience reflects what many clubs are beginning to realise. Spreadsheets still have a place, but for growing, multi-department venues, they are increasingly difficult to maintain, govern and scale.
“For very small clubs, spreadsheets might still work. But for clubs looking to grow and move forward, they’re not fit for purpose anymore.”
Financial systems are no longer just about recording what happened. They’re about providing real-time visibility, stronger control, and confidence at every level of the business.