FirstBank Southwest’s Success with ART
FirstBank Southwest was chartered as the First National Bank of Ochiltree in 1907. FirstBank Southwest has nine banking center locations in Amarillo, Booker, Hereford, Pampa, and Perryton, Texas, and has expanded to the DFW Metroplex, Austin, and San Antonio metro markets with Loan and Deposit Production Offices. FirstBank has $1.6 billion in assets; when they were approaching the billion-dollar asset mark they recognized the need for a better solution for their month-end close. This led to their search for a tool and consequently adoption of SkyStem’s ART
Cayla Maestas, the Controller and Senior Vice President of FirstBank Southwest, has shared a few of her favorite aspects of ART. To start, the amount of time that ART has saved her team have been outstanding and can be attributed to several components of the software. One of the top reasons she gives is the ability to give auditors and examiners access to the system, meaning the team no longer must spend time pooling information for them to review, rather the auditors can access ART and extract the information on their own.
As they are currently transitioning for upcoming retirements, the tasks and checklist’s ability has been immensely useful for a seamless transition. Additionally, she shares that ART is user friendly and intuitive to us. However, if for some reason she needs help within the system, the support group is always available to help and responds in a timely manner.
As Cayla is coming from a reviewer and approver standpoint, she notes that it is an efficient system to see where everything is in the process all at once. While there are so many reasons she loves ART within her accounting process, she lastly notes that it is beautifully consistent; the reconciliations all look the same regardless if they are from the loan or the mortgage department. ART has really helped improve their process and the team has been pleased with this investment.
