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How Castlethorn’s Finance Team Took Control of Reporting and Planning

Castlethorn has delivered residential, commercial, and infrastructure projects across Ireland for more than 35 years. The organisation has steadily expanded its portfolio, adding new developments, new entities, and new layers of activity. As Castlethorn expanded its development portfolio and prepared for the next phase of growth, the finance team identified an opportunity to strengthen group-level reporting and improve the speed and integration of its planning processes. Solver Ireland supported this by building on the strong foundations already in place and delivering a more connected, scalable reporting environment.

The goal was simple: create a more connected reporting environment that could keep pace with the organisation’s growth and give the team clearer visibility without changing the way they already worked. 

The Situation

Castlethorn’s finance team operated with established processes and familiar tools. This approach had served them well for many years. But as the business broadened its development pipeline and added more parallel projects, the team recognised that a more integrated structure would help them work more efficiently and reduce the need for repeated consolidation work.

They wanted a way to maintain the rhythm of their existing workflows while gaining earlier insight across multiple entities. This wasn’t about starting over. It was about building on the systems already in place and shaping them into something more scalable.

To guide this phase, Castlethorn appointed a new CFO with strong experience in structured, multi-entity finance environments. He brought a clear view of how the function could continue developing its processes so that the team had the right set-up for a growing and increasingly complex portfolio.

What Was At Stake

Castlethorn was preparing for a new wave of activity. More projects were entering planning and delivery stages, and the finance team needed a reporting structure that could support these timelines without adding pressure.

The team wanted:

 

  1. smoother consolidation across entities
  2. faster access to group-level insight
  3. easier updating of forecasts and budgets
  4. a consistent environment for producing board-ready materials
  5. a setup that would scale naturally as the organisation evolved

 

Nothing in the existing process was failing. The question was whether it could continue to support the pace of the business in the years ahead.

The Turning Point

Solver became the preferred solution because it allowed the team to keep working in familiar tools while gaining the structure of a more modern reporting environment. What stood out was the practical way Solver Ireland approached the early conversations.

 

Rather than presenting abstract demos, the Solver Ireland team showed examples from real finance environments and practical outputs that aligned closely with what Castlethorn needed. This built confidence that the solution could deliver value early and without major disruption.

 

The decision to proceed was grounded in a shared understanding: strengthen the existing processes, introduce a more consistent group-level structure, and do so in a way that didn’t interrupt day-to-day work.

What We Did

Solver Ireland delivered the project in clearly defined phases, each focused on giving the finance team more structure without increasing workload.

 

Key elements included:

  1. detailed scoping built around the finance team’s existing processes
  2. sprint-based delivery to get the foundations in place quickly
  3. early focus on group-level P&L and balance sheet structures
  4. close communication with Castlethorn’s internal team
  5. minimal weekly time demands from staff
  6. a structured handover that left the team confident in managing the system

 

As with any multi-entity setup, a few challenges appeared early on, such as data access delays and unlabelled databases. Because the scoping was comprehensive from the beginning, these issues didn’t derail the project. Timelines remained steady, and the team always had clarity on what was happening next.

The Result

Castlethorn now works within a more connected reporting environment that supports both immediate needs and longer-term planning.

 

The finance team can:

  1. produce monthly accounts on schedule
  2. consolidate reporting across entities in a consistent structure
  3. update budgets and forecasts more quickly
  4. prepare board materials without last-minute manual adjustments
  5. monitor project-level expenditure with greater visibility

The team continues to use Excel where appropriate but now has a framework behind it that reduces duplication and strengthens oversight.

What They Can Do Now

  1. Bring multiple entities into a single, reliable reporting view
  2. Provide stakeholders with clearer information earlier in the cycle
  3. Update forecasts without repeating manual consolidation steps
  4. Use a system designed to scale as the organisation grows
  5. Build new phases of reporting and planning on a proven foundation

Why It Worked

Several elements contributed to the success of this project:

 

  1. the CFO brought clear direction on how the finance function should evolve
  2. the team stayed engaged and guided the design without stepping away from their daily responsibilities
  3. Solver Ireland scoped accurately, delivered predictably, and worked closely with internal stakeholders

This was not a reset of the finance environment. It was a structured development designed to support growth, improve visibility, and give the team a setup that fits the pace of the organisation.

 

Solver Ireland continues to partner with Castlethorn as new phases are planned and added, ensuring the reporting environment evolves in line with the organisation’s needs.