After 15+ years watching operations teams struggle to get straight answers about their own spend, I decided to build the solution myself.
The short answer
I built OmniPATH because the people who run sites and the people who run the numbers never see the same picture, and I’ve been on both sides of that gap. Operations thinks in suppliers, sites and stock. Finance thinks in ledger codes and cost centres. Without a bridge, decisions get delayed, made on gut feel, or not made at all. OmniPATH is that bridge: real-time spend visibility in the language operations uses, with the control finance needs.
“Can you explain what food cost is?”
A few years back, a support ticket was escalated to me. A chef at a busy restaurant in Canary Wharf had just been promoted. His new responsibility was to improve food cost. His email to our support team was five words long:
“Can you explain what food cost is?”
Here was someone brilliant at their craft, good enough to earn a promotion in one of London’s most competitive dining scenes, handed a financial target with no training in what it meant. No explanation of how to calculate it, no benchmark to aim for, no visibility of the numbers that would tell him whether he was winning.
That moment crystallised something I’d seen throughout my career. The gap between operations and finance isn’t just frustrating. It costs businesses money every single day.
Profit you can’t see is tax you can’t plan for
In one of my early ventures, I couldn’t afford close accountancy support. Contact with my accountant was the odd question and a compliance check. It’s an irony of business: you need close guidance most when you can least afford it.
At year end, my accountant looked at the numbers and congratulated me on a very profitable year. I felt great, for about thirty seconds.
Then came the Corporation Tax bill. It was huge, and there was nothing I could do about it. Cash I could have reinvested through the year, in systems, people or stock, went to HMRC instead.
If I’d seen where I was heading, I could have made different choices. But my experience was all front office: clients, growth, delivery. On the finance side, I was flying blind. By the time the picture was clear, it was too late to change course.
More finance people didn’t close the gap
A decade later, in a different business, I had two internal finance heads and an external firm. A significant investment in finance.
The visibility gap was still there. I sat in board meetings staring at spreadsheet printouts with backward-looking commentary. We could see the numbers and hear the explanations, but it still didn’t add up to a big picture.
I’m a visual person. I think most people in operations are. We think in flows, patterns, cause and effect. A table with no benchmarks, no metrics and no trends tells you what happened, which as an owner you already sense. It doesn’t tell you whether that’s good, bad or indifferent.
Whether you have finance people in the building or rely on outside support, the gap persists. I never got what I was looking for. That’s why OmniPATH exists.
Thursday, 2pm, and the account’s on hold
I love a pub, so here’s the scenario I think about most.
There’s a big match on at the weekend. You want plenty of drink in, because it’s going to be packed. You call your supplier to order.
“Sorry, your account’s on hold.”
You ask finance why. They need to run a report. It’s Thursday, and the cut-off for next-day delivery is 2pm. The report lands at the end of the day.
Now every option is bad. Pay over the odds for a rush delivery, if there is one. Take the next delivery slot, which may be after the weekend. Or scramble for a new supplier at short notice. Run short on the biggest trading day of the month, and you don’t just lose revenue. You lose the regulars who came for the atmosphere and left disappointed.
The same scenario plays out across hospitality, care and retail: anywhere operations depend on finance for answers they can’t reach themselves.
Why is the finance-operations divide a systems problem?
Because it isn’t about people. It’s about what each side can see.
We’re all human. A standing order carries on after it should have stopped. A supplier quietly puts up their prices. None of that is anyone’s fault, but if you don’t study it, you can’t influence it.
The research says my experience is common. KPMG found only 38% of finance and operations leaders were very satisfied their KPIs aligned. In UK hospitality, the average business runs four systems, and only one in three trusts the data they produce.
Operations teams think in categories that match how they run their sites. Finance teams think in ledger codes. Neither is wrong. They just need a bridge.
What does OmniPATH change?
OmniPATH gives operations real-time visibility of their spend in language they understand, while finance keeps control and oversight.
- No more three-week waits for a report. Spend, budgets and bills due are visible as invoices land.
- No more cat-and-mouse clarification. Every invoice is read to the line, assigned to a site and routed to the right approver.
- No more 50/50 guesswork. Price rises, duplicates and slipped standing orders are flagged before they cost you.
- Answers, not printouts. Ask a plain-English question and get the answer with the rows to prove it.
When you can truly see what’s happening, in real time and in terms that make sense, you can influence it. You can course-correct before small problems become big ones. You can invest through the year instead of paying tax on profits you didn’t know you’d made. You can run your business instead of reacting to it.
Built for Operations. Trusted by Finance.
Related reading
- Bridging the Gap between Operations and Finance
- “Just tell me the answer”
- Calling Time – Money Running Thin in Hospitality
FAQ
Why was OmniPATH built?
OmniPATH was built to close the gap between operations teams, who make spending decisions, and finance teams, who record and control them. Its founder experienced that gap first-hand, as an entrepreneur, a business owner surprised by a year-end tax bill and a board member reading spreadsheets that explained nothing.
What is the finance-operations divide?
It is the disconnect between the people who buy and the people who account for spend. Operations thinks in suppliers, sites and stock; finance thinks in ledger codes and cost centres. Without a shared, real-time view, decisions are delayed or made on gut feel.
Why is spend visibility important for operators?
Because you can only influence what you can see. Real-time visibility lets operators spot price rises, stop forgotten payments, avoid account holds and plan cash and tax through the year rather than discovering problems at year end.
Who is OmniPATH for?
OmniPATH is for multi-site operators in hospitality, care, retail, construction and education, where many people buy from many suppliers and operations depend on finance for answers.