I Built the First Version to Fix My Own Month-End

I am a wine lover first. I hold a CSW and a WSET Level III, and I can talk about Petit Manseng longer than anyone should. I built Compliance Vine because I wanted the business of wine to leave more room for the part people love.

The problem I kept coming back to was month-end. The sales had happened. The records existed. Yet bringing them together for reporting still took a great deal of manual work.

Where the month went

Working in wine-business finance, I saw how much of the job happened between systems. Sales lived in one place, accounting in another, and the information needed for a return had to be pulled together and checked.

So someone, often me, exported the records, lined up the columns, reconciled the differences and worked out what belonged on the report. Then the next month arrived and much of the same preparation began again.

My background spans tax administration, distribution and retail. I was familiar with the work of getting numbers into a form someone could review and trust. What frustrated me was how often capable people had to repeat the same assembly work before they could use that judgment.

The first version

The first version focused on bringing records together and applying the reporting logic consistently. The idea was practical: use data from the systems the business already runs, prepare the reporting output and make the differences easier to investigate.

That remains the test I care about. Can the person doing the work see where the figure came from? Can they find the missing information? Can they spend their attention on review instead of rebuilding the same spreadsheet?

Why it is called Joy of Wine

Joy of Wine Company is named for what we want to make possible. Selling wine, sharing it and helping someone discover a bottle they love should be enjoyable. The necessary paperwork should take a manageable place in that business.

Our rallying cry is blunter: compliance sucks. It still has to be right. The work we can automate should become easier, and the decisions that need a person should be clear enough for that person to make.

What we have built around that idea

Compliance Vine® is a desktop application for Mac and Windows. It brings together supported transaction and production data, calculates reporting figures, tracks licenses and prepares state and federal reporting workflows. Customer and order data is processed locally in the desktop application.

For supported assisted filing workflows, the application can open the regulator's portal and fill information for review. The person responsible checks the return and submits it.

Compliance Vine LIVE is a separate product for order checks in supported commerce platforms. AI Sommelier® helps people explore wine on websites and in tasting rooms. Each addresses a different part of the same business: helping people sell and enjoy wine while making the work behind it more manageable.

See it on your own numbers

The seven-day trial requires no card. Start with a reporting period you have already filed, import the relevant records and compare the output with the existing return. Investigate the differences with the person who knows your books.

Start the seven-day trial →

Then go pour something good. That is the idea behind all of this.

Cheers, Chris

Christopher Anderson, founder and CEO, Joy of Wine Company, Inc.