Fueling growth with intelligence: Propane company taps AI and automation for smarter operations
A major propane supplier modernized operations by unifying fragmented systems, automating reconciliation, and unlocking AI-driven insights.
About
The company is a midstream wholesale propane supplier serving customers across the Mid-Central and Eastern U.S. With strategic access to pipeline, rail, and marine supply points, they manage end-to-end logistics to ensure reliable, on-time delivery. Their services also help customers optimize supply positions, improve reliability, and manage cash flow more effectively.
10+
systems unified into a centralized, AI-ready architecture
70%
reduction in manual reconciliation time
Real-time
insights delivered through natural-language queries and live dashboards
Challenge
The company operated with more than ten disconnected systems, including accounting, project management, document automation, payroll, tax compliance, billing, and document management stitched together through a patchwork of CSV imports, SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) drops, and scheduled syncs. While these systems supported daily operations, the architecture was highly fragmented and manual, consuming significant time and resources. Reconciliation processes were labor-intensive and error-prone, with teams spending hours resolving data mismatches across platforms. The lack of real-time data flow led to limited visibility, making it difficult to proactively identify and address operational or financial issues.
To grow efficiently and sustainably, they needed to modernize operations by unifying data and automating workflows. Their goals included gaining real-time visibility into financials and operations, enabling proactive detection of issues, and establishing a scalable foundation that reduced friction and improved overall efficiency—all without replacing their existing ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), eOne, which remained the central financial and operational hub.Solution
We structured a solution around four key pillars:
- Expand and standardize data ingestion
Data ingestion from core operational and financial systems—such as eOne, Smartsheet, ClearDox, QuickBooks, KeyBank, Avalara, and Ignite—would be fully automated, reducing reliance on manual exports, uploads, and ad-hoc tools like Zapier. Missing data sources, such as terminal lifting reports and ACH statuses, would be identified and integrated. Adoption of existing tools such as ClearDox would be reinforced to ensure comprehensive digitization of vendor invoices. - Automate and improve reconciliation workflows
Reconciliation processes across critical system pairs (e.g., eOne QuickBooks, eOne KeyBank, eOne Smartsheet) would be automated. Validation layers would be added to catch formatting errors, missing data, and duplicate entries before ingestion. Rule-based logic and exception alerts would replace manual matching, allowing teams to identify and address issues earlier in the cycle. - Introduce a centralized data lake layer
A unified data layer—using platforms such as AWS S3 with Athena, Snowflake, or PostgreSQL—would serve as a central staging and monitoring environment. This layer would consolidate outputs from eOne, Smartsheet, QuickBooks, KeyBank, and expense systems, enabling both operational quality assurance and historical reporting from a single, trusted source. - Enable AI and LLM-powered insights
An interaction layer would be built to support natural-language queries on operational and financial data. Leveraging embeddings and vector search, users could receive proactive risk insights such as unmatched payables, underperforming contracts, or ACH (Automated Clearing House) failures. These insights would be delivered directly to operators and leadership through chat, Slack, or dashboards, enhancing decision-making with minimal friction.
Results
- Operational excellence thanks to seamless, automated workflows that minimize manual effort and empower mobile, exception-based management
- Real-time business intelligence via live dashboards and natural-language queries deliver proactive, data-driven insights across the business
- Scalable operations with standardized systems support high-volume growth, fast onboarding, and built-in compliance without increasing headcount.
- Competitive differentiation via modern, responsive operations accelerates sales cycles, enhance customer experience, and attract top talent
- Strategic capabilities thanks to AI-driven tools enable smarter forecasting, risk management, and scalable growth through advanced analytics
Moving forward, the company is positioned to leverage automation and AI to run leaner, respond faster, and scale with confidence across its expanding footprint.
