The Silicon Review
Too many companies today have accounting and finance support which isn’t nearly as effective to measure up for success in today’s digital age. Wrong people, inefficient processes, and disparate information spread across multiple systems consume time and make it difficult for executives to understand how their business is performing. This is where Consero is making a world of difference for companies by changing the way they address their finance and accounting needs through Finance-as-a-Service (FaaS).
Consero’s FaaS has revolutionized the way businesses build and maintain their finance function. FaaS works on delivering a fully managed back-office solution through personalized financial guidance, daily transactional bookkeeping & accounting, and a single software interface with real-time access to all your financial data. In addition, the company’s FaaS solution also provides a predictable and cost-effective service-based pricing model.
What makes Consero’s FaaS unique is that it combines the traditional CFO, controller, and bookkeeping services with proven processes and integrated software with digital workflows. This means that the clients gain enterprise-level financial visibility and operational controls at a fraction of the time required to set up and manage an internal team and finance function.
“Our unique combination of team plus technology provides greater value than traditional outsourced accounting,” explained Bill Klein, President of Consero. Along with the efficiency and quality advantages offered by the FaaS solution, customers are also able to achieve these results much faster than by doing it themselves. The FaaS model means that middle-market growing companies can get both an enterprise-level and an economical finance & accounting function without building from scratch and bringing equivalent expertise in house.
Consero’s FaaS solution is being utilized by companies like BigCommerce, Idera, Leading Reach, and MedFirst Primary & Urgent Care. They get the benefit of experiencing Fortune 500-level finance and accounting without worrying about managing a department’s salaries, benefits, software, and equipment. This frees entrepreneurs to focus on the strategic work of growing the business while knowing that the back-office transactional tasks are being handled.
Disrupting FaaS
In order to grow, small and mid-market companies need greater financial visibility, improved scalability from an operations standpoint, and produce outputs at a lower, more predictable cost structure. Consero was established in 2006 to address this gap.
The company started its journey in the FaaS space with the goal of providing small and mid-market companies with a better alternative to building and maintaining an in-house finance function. Since then, Consero has expanded its solution by offering strategy and funding services, operational, financial services, controller services, bookkeeping, and administration services, and debuting its proprietary cloud-based software platform appropriately named, SIMPL®.
“Our technology is called SIMPL®, which is a Cloud Software Platform that gives you 24/7 access to everything from financial dashboards with real-time information to transactional level details to support documents all in one place,” said Scott Tynes, CEO of Consero. SIMPL® helps Consero’s customers know where their business is at today, understand how they’ve performed over time and clearly see where they are headed. They can also interact with business and finance teams, and easily take action to keep the business moving forward.
SIMPL® includes Sage Intact in its, finance & accounting software stack. Sage Intacct is an enterprise-grade cloud accounting software. In 2021, Consero acquired the assets of Positive Venture Group (PVG), Canada’s market leader in full finance outsourced services. The Ottawa-based PVG complements Consero’s offerings with its Canadian-outsourced finance market knowledge as well as its deep experience with NetSuite’s business management platform.
The Consero Difference
Consero doesn’t just drop off another piece of software to be dealt with by the management team. Instead, the Consero team learns a company’s needs, implements systems and processes, plugs into a single, simple, intuitive dashboard or financial console, and supports it with a live team of experts to manage the daily finance and accounting tasks. SIMPL® provides real-time data that clearly communicates the company’s financial health to even the most non-financial executive.
It’s quite simple – as a company grows, SIMPL® grows, adding capability without complexity. New information all rolls up to the single, simple dashboard. As ever, Consero’s finance experts are also on standby to assist with various F&A needs as they arise.
“Consero’s FaaS solution is being utilized by companies like BigCommerce, Idera, Leading Reach and MedFirst Primary & Urgent Care.”
Focus on Data Management and Compliance
Consero looks at data management and compliance holistically, which means that they have people, processes, and technology that help them implement and monitor this more effectively.
“From a people perspective, we have built out an information security team. One of their main responsibilities is to own, define, and monitor the data assets needed for the organization,” mentioned Scott Tynes, CEO.
Moreover, Consero has governance processes to ensure that the data assets they have defined are accurate and adhere to regulations. To help make this easier, the company has implemented software that helps its teams collaborate around the data assets needed to give them better reporting and metrics around the overall data quality.
In 2020, Consero announced their System and Organization Control (SOC) 1 certification to clients, becoming the first mid-market FaaS provider to do so.
SOC 1, which is an internal control audit engagement, provides assurance that Consero has robust controls around the setup and administration of the software stack provided to their clients. It also reduces work and audit fees for clients as compared to building and supporting their software stack in-house or through other traditional service providers. The SOC 1 certification is required for public companies when a private vendor impacts the publicly traded company’s financial data.
“Consero’s objective is to free business leaders from the expense and headaches of managing the finance and accounting function so they can focus on the strategic activities that drive business growth,” said Bill Klein. “This new SOC certification means our clients can be assured they will have robust controls around the setup and administration of the software stack that supports their finance and accounting function, without a drain on their time or capital.”
The Road Ahead
For over a decade, the expert team at Consero has refined processes and incorporated software to provide stakeholders with clear insight into company performance and guidance to identify opportunities that can improve performance.
Through the combination of enterprise-level, industry-leading software and a dedicated team of experienced finance professionals, Consero delivers the services necessary to support a company’s daily operations, accelerate growth, and prepare their clients for the future.
The company is truly disrupting the way Private Equity and Venture–backed businesses, along with Investment Management firms, set up and scale their finance department. Consero’s FaaS model combines cutting-edge technology, processes, and people in a fully-managed solution to deliver precise financial visibility and improved operational scalability.
Consero will soon be launching a new tool in their software stack. Their FaaS offering will include both best-in-class cloud-accounting software, which will mean that not only Sage Intacct will be offered, but also NetSuite will soon be included in Consero’s already impactful tech stack.
About the Leader
Scott Tynes, CEO
Scott has more than 20 years of direct finance and consulting experience with companies ranging in size from emerging technology businesses to Fortune 500 companies, including IBM. Prior to founding Consero, Scott was Director of Finance at Trilogy Software where he led efforts to build their off-shore finance team and led efforts to acquire and integrate over 15 acquisitions.
Scott has been an active board member of the Austin Technology Council, which is a non-profit organization focused on being the leading unifying voice for tech companies in Central Texas.
He holds an MBA from the University of Texas and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business from Rice University.
“The company started its journey in the FaaS space with the goal of providing small and mid-market companies with a better alternative to building and maintaining an in-house finance function.”
