AppleCare’s finance team wasn’t just missing out on insights contained within accounting data. It also had patient billing information tied to electronic medical records that could be used to understand business performance in close detail. It was critical for AppleCare to get an accurate and timely view of metrics like cost per visit or a breakdown of outpatient procedures by type. Working with Consero gave AppleCare the ability to calculate those KPIs quickly using data that AppleCare had been collecting for years.

Introduction

As CEO of AppleCare Doctors in Savannah, Georgia, Chase Finley was too tied up in the daily grind of finance and accounting management to focus on almost anything else. Short on time and resources, it wasn’t just a struggle to find the most capable doctors and nurses, Finley explained – it was also difficult to find the finance and accounting staff and systems that support them.

“From the inception of the company, it has been difficult to hire high-caliber talent in rural South Georgia,” Finley said. “Simply put, it is hard finding and retaining talented finance people.”

While AppleCare is headquartered in Savannah, the third-largest metropolitan area in Georgia, it currently operates 13 clinics throughout the region, with a staff of around 170 serving approximately 150,000 patients per year. AppleCare needs to manage annual revenues of around $17 million, along with the myriad rules and regulations governing health care administration.

That’s why Finley and Greenridge Investment Partners, the private equity firm that supports them, brought in Consero to streamline their financial processes and capitalize on the data they were already collecting.

“Without Consero, we would’ve been in a significant bind,” Finley said. “In many aspects, there’s been a night-and-day difference.”

Diagnosing a broken F&A function

With years of experience in health care administration, Finley came on as President and COO of AppleCare in 2013. Almost immediately, he realized that the company’s finance and accounting processes would put a damper on its plans to grow and expand geographically. In fact, Finley said he essentially had to act as the de facto CFO and even CEO in the understaffed organization.

“That’s not abnormal for smaller, growing companies, but I had to bridge the gap between what our controller was doing and what a CFO would do in a larger company,” Finley said.

Meanwhile, AppleCare’s controller was stuck in the mud of transactional accounting work, the type that is essential to maintain cash flow and produce necessary reports, but only consumes time and effort without adding value. This left little room for the forward-thinking work that charts a course for the long-term viability of a company.

“Growth development and planning was all pro forma, and things like income statements or working capital needs were on my plate,” Finley said. “Neither of us were the people with the right credentials to do that in the best way possible for the company.”

According to Jack Cardwell, who works with AppleCare as co-founder and partner of Greenridge Investment Partners, this situation was making things difficult for his team to do what was best for the company, too. As the board of directors for AppleCare, the role of Greenridge is to allocate capital and seek the best possible outcome from their investment. But as Cardwell explained,

“If you don’t know what the score is, you can’t deploy the right strategies.”

The situation Finley and Cardwell found themselves in is not unusual among finance chiefs. A survey of U.S. CFOs from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business estimated almost 90 percent of firms do not pursue value-enhancing projects. This is primarily due to a lack of available finance talent, and almost no spare time to devote to forecasting and planning.Working beyond their capacity, Finley and his miniscule finance team were treading water. Mired in the trenches of transactional work and basic reporting, they could not deliver the actionable information Greenridge needed to make high-level management decisions. Cardwell noted that Greenridge analysts would also need to spend time verifying the accuracy of the data, leaving little room for any kind of forecasting or planning.

“We were doing basic accounting, working in the GL [general ledger] just to piece the financials together and make sure we were confident with the numbers,” Cardwell said.

Where Consero comes in

AppleCare’s finance team wasn’t just missing out on insights contained within accounting data. It also had patient billing information tied to electronic medical records that could be used to understand business performance in close detail. Particularly in his role as COO, it was critical for Finley to get an accurate and timely view of metrics like cost per visit or a breakdown of outpatient procedures by type. Working with Consero gave Finley the ability to calculate those KPIs quickly using data that AppleCare had been collecting for years. Finley and Cardwell agreed that the value of Consero’s services was not borne out in cost-savings alone, but in the time and effort they can now devote to ambitious expansion plans. By the end of 2017, AppleCare will have opened five new clinics in the span of a year and continuing to provide the best possible care to the patients they already serve.

Making these plans come to fruition while keeping the rest of the organization humming along would’ve been difficult for Finley, Cardwell and AppleCare had it not been for Consero.After closing two older clinics in August, AppleCare and Greenridge had to juggle even more moving parts involved in consolidating financial records and preparing for upcoming acquisitions. Finley knew he would need to free up his controller to handle the complex work involved with this process, including:

• Reconfiguring AppleCare’s bank line of credit to free up cash in advance of acquisitions.
• Routing accounts receivable payments to new entities.
• Creating or tweaking forecasting models.

Before bringing Consero into the fold, Finley confided that his controller would have been tasked with much of this work in addition to routine transactional tasks – and they still wouldn’t have time to understand where the business was headed financially.

“The main benefit of Consero came from lightening the load off our day-to-day operational functions,” Finley said. “Taking that off the plate of folks locally allows us to focus on fine-tuning new financial models as we grow and develop.”

Time-savings add up

Prior to working with Consero, Finley estimated that at least 25 percent of his work week was spent on some of this transactional work. Already putting in at least 60 hours of work in an average week, he would sometimes need to spend nights and weekends poring over reports and checking their accuracy.

Now, Finley and his finance team can offload or automate much of that work thanks to Consero’s intuitive integration between back-office accounting data and the reports that go out to Finley and Greenridge. Finley said he could always count on his controller to get work done on time, but that he and the Greenridge team now felt much more confident in the accuracy of their reporting, allowing them to understand the bigger picture behind the numbers.

“We aren’t in the GL nearly as much now,” Cardwell said regarding how streamlined his relationship with Finley and AppleCare has become. “Consero gives us a baseline set of financials that we can be confident in and make projections from, instead of trying to recreate history.”

Another major hurdle facing AppleCare and Greenridge involved the limitations of their accounting software. AppleCare had been using QuickBooks to support its basic back-office accounting functions, but very soon after beginning his role at the company, Finley realized it was poorly integrated and flawed from the start. They could no longer add new accounts to their system, and it was soon clear that the AppleCare team would need to undergo the monotonous task of switching to a new platform.

Consero not only provided them with that platform via Sage Intacct, they also completed the integration and data transfer at least one month sooner than Finley had expected.

“Any implementation takes some effort and commitment, but I would say Consero working with us through this migration off QuickBooks on to Sage Intacct was as smooth and seamless as it could’ve been,” Finley said. “It was done in record time. We thought there was no way it could happen in less than 90 days, but Consero delivered and made it happen within 60.”

Thinking ahead with Consero

With such a massive project out of the way so quickly, and now taking advantage of Consero’s forecasting capabilities, Finley and Cardwell agreed that both of their teams were already noticing improvements in their operations.

“When the back-office is not working, it takes up time from work that can actually move the needle for the business,” Cardwell said. “Businesses in growth-mode can’t afford that wasted time. Consero gives Chase the freedom to focus on those critical initiatives, and we have already covered ground that I don’t think we would have covered.”

That makes Consero’s financial solutions just as valuable to private equity firms like Greenridge as it is for AppleCare as it evolves to meet the needs of its patients.

“We had strategic partnerships in development for the last 18 to 24 months before Consero came in in June,” Cardwell said. “[As of October], we are only a couple of weeks away from closing those deals. With all the time Consero is saving us, I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

The ultimate benefit to AppleCare is that Consero’s “Finance as a Service” model gives them less backward focus and more forward focus. There is more trust in the numbers and less time validating where they are. Today, AppleCare spends more time on where they are going.

Every turnaround CFO has a story to tell. Many have walked into chaos and have taken years to establish order. As the newly installed CFO of Betteridge Jewelers, Nick Fischer was faced with many key tasks, from getting up to speed with the company’s financials to organizing accounting records. Beneath all of these was one key objective: Growing Betteridge from an annual revenue of approximately $100 million to around $500 million in 10 years.

If he was to achieve this goal, Fischer knew he had no time to waste. He had to help streamline and improve their key finance and accounting procedures in an accelerated timeline. With that task checked off, Betteridge sets its sights on the kinds of transformation growth that would make that 10-year sales goal possible.

PLAYING F&A CATCH-UP

Prior to joining Betteridge in 2016, Fischer came through the FP&A ranks with Nordstrom and Capital One, allowing him to get a first-hand look at what separates typical F&A practices from top performers. From his education and professional experience, one adage from business management guru Peter Drucker always stood out in Fischer’s mind: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” However, upon taking the reigns at Betteridge, he found there were plenty of measurements falling through the cracks.

“After I started at Betteridge, I began working with the interim CFO, and very little was being measured or analyzed,” Fischer said. “The former CFO was doing a cash flow forecast from memory, and making multimillion-dollar decisions in his head. I had never seen anything quite like it before.”

As a middle-market retail chain with a history stretching back more than a century, Fischer and the organization as a whole had some catching-up to do. Having outgrown Peachtree accounting software, Betteridge was stuck in a holding pattern common among many businesses of its kind: too big to make a quick strategic pivot, but too small to take advantage of their successes.

From a F&A perspective, Fischer needed to quickly implement a scalable operating model and business planning practices to have any hope of reaching the company’s $500 million goal. He needed the right people, proven processes and best-in-class technology to get a world class finance & accounting capability.

“The executive team was accustomed to looking at revenue and expenses only twice per year, many months after the fact,” Fischer said. “We needed a robust financial measurement infrastructure in place to successfully navigate our business transformation.”

MANAGING THE UNMANAGEABLE

After years of completing these tasks by hand or even from memory, Fischer and Betteridge were going to need help wrangling everything into one centralized format. To do this, Fischer knew to look outside the company. He came across a CFO.com article titled: “One Way to Stay Focused on Growth: Outsource Accounting.” and decided to explore a new option that he didn’t even know existed. “We needed a strategic partner to help us build a world-class finance and accounting capability, and Consero proved to be the perfect fit,” said Fischer.

Although he had experience with outsourced F&A providers at previous positions, Fischer knew that working with an outsourced team could be difficult, especially for such a sensitive business function. And an even bigger challenge would be first convincing the Betteridge executive team to sign on.

“Outsourcing routine business functions is common and I’ve had good experiences in the past, but what sets Consero apart was having one point of contact that established a proactive business understanding and partnership with us,” Fischer said. “Working with Consero’s VPs of Finance takes the pressure off, and as a CFO or CEO, knowing you will be dealing with a finance pro is a big differentiator.”

For Betteridge, that pro was Consero VP of Finance Robert Witt. Upon first being partnered with Fischer and Betteridge, Witt knew he faced a tall order. Having far outgrown Peachtree, the company was mired in ages-old, nonstandard financial data that needed to be corralled. Beyond that, Betteridge was not positioned to pass a formal audit, which would make any lending or equity transactions extremely difficult.

“They were not able to obtain useful, accurate, and timely financial information of any kind,” Witt said.

Fischer admitted that he himself was wary after choosing to partner with Consero and beginning the task of migrating Betteridge’s accounting operations over to Consero’s financial management platform, including the Intacct accounting system. With a timeline of just three months to complete the transition, Fischer assumed such speed was optimistic at best.

“Initially I was skeptical. I didn’t understand how that was feasible, but we delivered right on time,” Fischer said. “After starting the migration in January [2017], we went live in April, even completing a second project to clean up and audit 2016 data at the same time.”

POSITION FOR BETTER DECISIONS

While migrating Betteridge financials over to the Consero platform, Fischer and Witt also worked to clean up the previous year’s data to prepare it for reporting and auditing. This job could have consumed several months of time on its own, but it was completed concurrently with the transition project. As Witt explained, Consero’s fine-tuned systems and transition process made it possible to complete both projects on time.

“We focused on cleaning up only what was essential to pass an audit and get them the historical perspective needed to start looking forward,” Witt said. “Being able to quickly bring the right resources and a comprehensive pre-built financial management platform to the table as needed in support of their needs is a core element of the Consero model and something Betteridge can look forward to as they execute their strategic objectives.”

From there, Fischer was able to easily set up a weekly cash flow forecasting model and had just finished compiling the company’s first monthly financial report. Rather than working with only a broad overview of mismatched data, Fischer and his team could now go line-by-line on a monthly or weekly basis for real-time updates on earnings, expenses and objectives. This gives him the crucial ability to take a step back from the numbers and quickly make strategic decisions.

“The evolution of finance has brought strategy to the forefront. It is less of core finance & accounting. The finance team in any business needs to be a strategic partner now more than ever,” Fischer said. “That means the CFO needs to drive strategy through their financial capabilities and worry less about routine bookkeeping.”

Without Consero, Fischer estimated these projects alone would have taken more than 12 months and required hiring a controller along with numerous staff positions. Instead, Betteridge avoided organizational bloat, utilizing Consero’s pay-what-you-need model to build out only as much as they needed. But it wasn’t purely the cost savings that ultimately sold Fischer on Consero.

Consero has allowed Fischer to be a thought leader for Betteridge.

“The people, process and technology that they bring to the table are very aligned with processes of enterprise companies. The time saved, the ability to scale and the talent Consero provided were the biggest factors for us,” Fischer said. “Working with them has been a refreshing experience, and it’s given us a better way to make decisions.”

Before working with Consero, Phil Murray, VP of Finance & Administration, was challenged with high volume transactions and a limited team with processes and controls that needed improvement. It became time consuming to moderate processes and work at the transaction level. He was not sure if Consero could take their half-baked processes and run with them. During implementation, they discovered that it took 6-8 weeks to accomplish what would have taken 6-8 months to do on their own. Consero brought better systems, processes and software that KIMBIA didn’t have the budget or expertise to implement on their own. The result was progress and a streamlined accounting function. Now, Phil has a level of comfort to step out of the accounting function and operate in a more strategic role.

Streamlining Systems to Speed Growth

Succeeding in the world sometimes takes real vision, but accomplishing any worthy goal usually also requires a keen attention to detail. Recently, Kimbia learned that lesson – by outsourcing key finance & administrative activities to Consero, the organization allowed its financial executives to refocus on higher impact, strategic objectives.

Kimbia is in the business of helping others do good work. They offer innovative online fundraising and crowdfunding solutions for nonprofits, higher education and community foundations by building brand awareness, deepening donor relationships and strengthening lifelong loyalty.

The company’s tech-based platform supports fundraising across a range of channels, from the web and mobile devices to social media, search engines, peer-based efforts, and more traditional methods. Kimbia backs those techniques with advanced benchmarking and analytics, supporter conversion and retention programs, and strategic fundraising planning.

This best of breed, omni-channel approach is winning converts and raising significant funds for organizations and institutions nationwide. In fact, Kimbia supports more than 19,000 customers, including the American Red Cross, Smithsonian Institution, UC Berkeley, American Heart Association, and many regional and metropolitan foundations.

By helping others succeed, Kimbia has enjoyed real growth and profitability. That very success, however, created real challenges when it came to managing its own accounting processes and financial strategies.

This is the story of how this tech-driven startup got out of the weeds and freed its executives to focus on the strategic future.

About Kimbia:

Kimbia provides an online fundraising and crowdfunding platform, plus digital services that are built with one goal in mind: to help their customers grow their revenue. Technology should not hinder the donor or participant experience. It should speed and enhance it.

Kimbia’s better fundraising solutions help organizations quickly find, convert and retain more of their best customers and supporters, those who are acquired online and share their mission of the organization across many channels and continents.

Kimbia Needed Robust, Scalable Finance and Administration Capabilities

To support customers and fundraising programs, Kimbia must handle, track and understand a truly massive volume of transactions each year. That accounting challenge is further complicated by large monthly and seasonal fluctuations in donation volumes.

“Our biggest problem was process definition,” says Phil Murray, Kimbia’s vice president of Finance and Administration. “We lacked the processes needed to maintain visibility and control over those seasonal, high-volume transactions.”

In the past, the company relied on a small staff, limited budget and brand-name software applications to handle the load. Those resources yielded standard reports, as well as acceptable levels of information and insight at the P&L and statement level. However, as Kimbia grew and its client base and transaction volumes also grew, the limitations of those legacy systems became increasingly apparent.

The company lacked clear, up-to-date insights into cost and profitability performance at the departmental, program and customer levels.

Kimbia’s small internal finance team did not have deep expertise in data management and analytics. The group could not easily flex to meet huge variations in monthly and seasonal workloads. Murray recognized a real need to strengthen internal controls and create more consistent processes to better document key customer transactions.

“It became very painful,” he says. “I was spending a tremendous amount of time monitoring processes, right down to the transaction level. For the good of our customers, and for our company, I had to get back to focusing on strategic, business-level issues.”

That’s when Kimbia called on the financial and administration experts at Consero.

CHALLENGE:

• High Volume of Transactions
• Lack of Process definition
• Limited Expertise of Back Office Team
• Spending too much time on tactical

“If I am going to continue to be a financial executive in a large competitive market, the Consero solution is the only way to keep me strategic and out of the weeds.”
– Phil Murray (Vice President of Finance and Administration)

Combining People and Technology in a Managed Solution

Consero Global helped Kimbia rise to a higher level with a dynamic, real-time finance and administration (F&A) solution. That solution leverages industry-leading software and a dedicated team of professionals to deliver true financial insights and control.

Consero solutions can meet virtually any F&A requirement, from invoice processing and payments to payroll, account reconciliation, month close and other back office capabilities. The company backs those basic services with customized analytics, financial modeling, forecasting and other high-level financial services.

“When we came into Kimbia, we worked pretty quickly to take a complex business and apply fairly standard Consero processes and procedures,” says Elliot Brubaker, director of Design and Implementation with Consero. “We then adapted those standardized solutions to meet Kimbia’s specific process control and documentation needs.”

Consero built scalable processes, capable of handling Kimbia’s enormous seasonal and cyclical swings in transaction volume. Consero then tweaked existing processes to gain greater visibility, ensure accuracy and strengthen critical reporting capabilities.

Founded in 2006, Consero specializes in helping companies, just like Kimbia, scale quickly, while also reducing general and administration costs. Here, the result freed up valuable resources to drive Kimbia’s top-line growth.

“My main concern going into the relationship was that our existing processes were far from perfect,” says Murray. “It was a pleasant surprise when Consero actually began improving those key processes as part of its implementation. Within a short six to eight weeks, Consero took us to a place we had not been able to reach in six to eight months.”

CONSERO SOLUTION:

• Dynamic, real-time finance and administration (F&A) solution
• Standardized processes, a scalable finance application and a dedicated staff
• Customized analytics, financial modeling, forecasting and other high-level financial services
• Flexible model that allows Kimbia to scale up or down quickly, and meet seasonal and growth requirements.

Optimization is not a problem with Consero.

“We don’t expect clients to have perfect processes when we start an implementation,” says Brubaker. “We are very comfortable with optimizing things throughout the deployment.”

Great Results … For Clients Who do Good Work

Kimbia realized immediate benefits from this outsourcing relationship.

The Consero finance & administration solution gave Kimbia greater visibility into performance across departments, expense types and customer segments. This flexible model allows Kimbia to scale up or scale down quickly, and meet seasonal and growth requirements. Consero’s volume software licenses translate into real cost savings for Kimbia and other clients.

According to Murray, the Consero team is highly professional, and responds quickly to questions or to resolve potential issues. He says the quality of basic transaction processing is very good, standardized reports are consistent and easy to use, and the Consero team can generate customized ad hoc analysis when needed.

In addition, he was surprised at how well Consero understood Kimbia’s business, and how proactive the Consero team was at suggesting possible improvements.

“My focus is no longer on daily or even monthly deadlines – Consero handles all of that,” he says. “Our nonprofit customers are focused on doing good work in the world. With Consero, I can focus on supporting those good works and driving strategic initiatives for our business.”

Solid F&A outsourcing to Consero allowed Kimbia to spend more time with its customers and get back to its core business, a true win-win relationship.

“If I am going to continue to be a finance executive in a large competitive market, the Consero solution is the only way to keep me strategic and out of the weeds,” says Murray.

Sunstone Yoga was faced with rapidly growing requirements for F&A services, both at the corporate level and for a diverse group of franchisee owners. While evaluating various service providers, Sunstone Yoga executives soon realized they wanted a service solution based on a team of F&A professionals dedicated to their specific business. Sunstone Yoga viewed this dedicated resource model as a strong predictor for higher service levels and greater satisfaction among its franchise owners.

Based on these factors and others, Sunstone Yoga selected Consero as its outsourced F&A service provider.

Consero provides Sunstone Yoga with greater flexibility in financial and administrative management

The business situation

Recently, Sunstone Yoga was faced with rapidly growing requirements for financial and administrative (F&A) services, both at the corporate level and for a diverse group of franchisee owners. The company understood the benefits of outsourcing F&A services, so it began a search for an experienced service provider solution that met the following criteria:

• Frees owners to focus on more strategic business activities
• Delivers greater scaleability and lower costs than an in-house solution
• Provides efficiencies and consistency across all corporate and studio entities

While evaluating various service providers, Sunstone Yoga executives soon realized that they also wanted a service solution based on a team of F&A professionals dedicated to their specific business. Sunstone Yoga viewed this dedicated resource model as a strong predictor for higher service levels and greater satisfaction among its franchisee owners.

Based on these factors and others, Sunstone Yoga selected Consero Global Solutions as its outsourced F&A service provider.

About Sunstone Yoga

Sunstone Yoga is a privately-held retail yoga company that has both corporate- and franchisee-owned studios. Executing against its plan of establishing yoga studios across the United States and creating a national brand, Sunstone Yoga has grown rapidly over the last few years, with 16 studios currently in operation. Along with providing yoga classes and teacher certification, Sunstone Yoga sells a wide array of merchandise including clothing, books, food, beverages and other items.

A full team dedicated to the success of Sunstone Yoga Consero provides Sunstone Yoga with a full team of seasoned experts in F&A, to handle all of the activities required by their finance function at both the corporate and franchise level.

Along with the dedicated service team, a Consero Engagement Manager is responsible for managing the Consero team, providing first-tier account support, conducting periodic account reviews, and driving client success. Every member of the dedicated Consero staff reports directly to the Engagement Manager, helping to ensure that issues are addressed promptly and that all goals are met according to plan.

Working closely with Sunstone Yoga executives, the dedicated Consero team has created consistent, scalable processes to support functional F&A areas for all corporate and franchisee locations. These functional areas include:

• Revenue accounting
• Accounts payable and receivable processing
• Travel & expense processing
• Bank and credit card reconciliations
• Payroll administration and payroll accounting
• Sales tax calculation and filing
• Weekly, monthly, and consolidated financial reporting
• Budget, forecast, and variance reporting
• Audit support

In addition to supporting these key functional areas, Consero also utilizes its best practice expertise to drive further process and productivity improvements. Because Consero works with both corporate and franchisees, efficiencies gained in one part of the business are quickly leveraged across the entire enterprise.

Results: significant cost savings and benefits across the board

With Consero, Sunstone Yoga was able to outsource all of its corporate and franchisee accounting as well as to establish a comprehensive set of financial analytics and dashboards—ultimately saving the company over $500,000 in F&A costs each year.

For both Sunstone Yoga and its growing family of franchisees, benefits include:

• An improved franchisee model: Providing Sunstone Yoga with a unique, standardized service offering to attract new studio franchisees and support growth
• Greater strategic focus: Allowing studio franchisees to focus on building their business instead of spending up to 25% of their time on non-revenue generating F&A tasks
• Enhanced scaleability: Supporting rapid scaling of Sunstone Yoga through a standardized set of F&A practices
• Better business decision making: Giving corporate management consistent data and analysis across all studios to support informed decision making

With Consero, Sunstone Yoga now enjoys a strategic F&A solution, helping to support and grow their enterprise both now and in the years ahead.

Challenge

• F&A support required for a growing number of franchisees
• Owners needing to focus on growth rather than financial administration
• Growing operational and process demands
• Limited visibility into finances at the corporate level Consero Solution
• Customized processes and financial controls
• Scaleable financial technology platform
• Client-defined periodic reporting at corporate and franchise level
• Dedicated, fully managed F&A service team
• On demand, variable cost solution

Benefits

• A unique and attractive service offering for franchisees
• Up to $500,000 in reductions for F&A
• The ability for owners to focus more on strategic business decisions
• Salability supported by a standardized set of finance and accounting practices
• Best practices provided by Consero finance professionals
• Greater efficiencies and consistencies across all corporate and franchise entities

“Consero was able to provide us with a corporate F&A solution superior to other vendors while offering an equally effective solution to our franchise studio owners. Our franchisees can now focus on growing their businesses and not worry about necessary, but non-strategic back office functions.”
– Brandon Hartsell (CEO, Sunstone Yoga)

For more information

For more information about Consero Global Solutions, contact us at US (800) 913-8702 or by email at info@conseroglobal.com.

ABOUT CONSERO

Consero was founded in early 2006 with the goal of providing superior finance and administration (F&A) solutions to small and growing companies at a reduced cost. Since then, Consero has grown to be recognized as the #1 provider in the industry by independent publications like the Black Book of Outsourcing. Consero’s unique Empower Financial Platform helps growing companies to address complex finance requirements, scale finance operations quickly and cost-effectively, and deliver best practices to support strategic decision making by C-level executives.

Consero helps TESTCo improve cash flow processes and focus on business growth

The business situation

TESTCo realized the need for a better finance and administration solution. Senior management was overburdened with overseeing general accounting tasks, bookkeeping chores and structural financial decisions.

“We would spend almost two days of every week just managing the accounting function,” explained the company’s CEO, Jeff Hotz. “It was distracting us from our primary objective – building the business.”

At the same time, TESTCo recognized the need to enhance several of its accounting and financial processes. The company wanted to switch from cash accounting to accrual accounting, but it lacked the resources to handle the transition in-house. TESTCo also wanted to streamline accounting by replacing physical checks with electronic payments.

A more structured process in place for roll-ups and reporting was another key requirement.

“I like knowing the financial status of my company,” explained Hotz. “But I don’t like to spend time managing all of the invoicing, reconciliations, recording of expenses and so forth.”

Hotz added that he needs all financial housekeeping to be completed at the beginning of each week. “By noon on Monday, I want to know exactly what the financial situation for my company is,” he stated. “That includes what investments I can and can’t make, and how to move forward.”

Finally, TESTCo wanted to improve cash flow by sending invoices out according to an extremely tight schedule. Their billing cycles end on the last business day of the month. This means that they need invoices to go out no later than the second day of the next month in order to meet their customers’ bill payment cycles. “This invoicing happens twice a month, and it’s really frantic,” said Hotz.

About TESTCo

TESTCo delivers both manual and automated On-Demand Software Testing solutions for websites, applications, user interfaces, automation tools and more. Based in Austin, Texas, TESTCo helps customers around the world eliminate software testing problems, slash support costs by up to 50% and achieve their release date commitments — all without the risks, frustrations and un-predictable results so common with many other testing vendors.

The Consero solution

TESTCo found the solution they needed with Consero. In fact, Consero has been able to meet every one of TESTCo’s general accounting needs and more. Hotz was immediately impressed with the ability of Consero professionals to hit the ground running.

“We took the Consero team through our step-by-step billing approach. They were able to quickly follow our highly complex invoicing and reconciliation processes,” said Hotz. “Within a month, Consero had completely nailed it. They made everything happen quickly and easily, and their accuracy has been overwhelming.”

Consero now helps TESTCo in ways that go far beyond general financial and administrative tasks. For example, the Consero team performs thorough analysis on the relative impact of making various decisions. They also coordinate with the company’s CPA when it comes time to factor in tax issues. “Consero is always fully aware of what we’re trying to do from tax management, cash flow and accrual management perspectives,” Hotz stated.

In addition, TESTCo relies on Consero for complicated process development. “We needed additional help to get our cash management under control,” said Hotz. “Consero assigned one of their senior managers to our account on a part-time basis to analyze the problems we were having. The manager looked at the problem, worked on it for a week and found the right answer. That type of on-demand accounting expertise is incredibly valuable.”

Consero also implemented an electronic payment solution for TESTCo. The Consero team queues checks for payment, and the TESTCo team logs into a Web-based system to approve them for payment. There’s no more paper to be pushed around the office or driven to the bank. TESTCo employees can now focus on their core assignments because the financial matters are completely taken care of.

Challenge

• Limited productivity due to paper-based bookkeeping
• Financial distractions hindering business growth
• Strict demands for invoice scheduling and processes
• Difficulties in cash management
• Errors with balance sheet reporting

Consero Solution

• Completely outsourced finance solution including standardized processes, a scaleable finance application and a dedicated staff
• Fully managed delivery of timely and accurate financials
• Invoicing and reconciliation processes fully transitioned to the Consero team in 30 days
• Control over complicated cash management
• Implementation of scalable digital processes

Benefits

• CEO now able to spend more time on financial strategy, resulting in: – Increased gross margins – Increased net margins – Improved cash flow
• Cumbersome invoice and expense handling chores now eliminated
• Year-round support provided to meet TESTCo’s needs

Improved decision-making and “top-notch” service from Consero

The TESTCo management team now spends only two to three hours a week on finances, and that amount of time is extremely productive. “We’re actually making financial, ROI and analysis decisions rather than managing the accounts payable or accounts receivable process,” said Hotz. “As a result, we’ve significantly improved our gross margins, net margins and cash flow.”

All these benefits for TESTCo are backed by Consero’s dedication to flexible service. “My Consero team works as long as it takes to make sure that we get the financial and operational reports when we need them,” Hotz stated. “Their service is always top notch.”

For more information

For more information about Consero Global Solutions, contact us at US (800) 913-8702 or info@conseroglobal.com.

ABOUT CONSERO

Consero was founded in early 2006 with the goal of providing superior finance and administration (F&A) solutions to small and growing companies at a reduced cost. Since then, Consero has grown to be recognized as the #1 provider in the industry by independent publications like the Black Book of Outsourcing. Consero’s unique Empower Financial Platform helps growing companies to address complex finance requirements, scale finance operations quickly and cost-effectively, and deliver best practices to support strategic decision making by C-level executives.

Synergis Education Solves Unique Problems with Outsourcing Strategy

Synergis Education (Mesa, AZ) is a tech education firm that has been expanding rapidly. With rapid growth, and a lack of defined policies and procedures, operations became very complex. The company has unique, varying partner/customer agreements–which require complex and detailed operations support, marketing, IT, intellectual property management, and equity arrangements.

It was important for Synergis to quickly ramp-up financial operations to support their coming revenue growth while leaving top management to focus most of its time and energy on penetrating the market and maturing their business model.

About Synergis:

Synergis provides an integrated suite of services that continue throughout the full student life cycle.
Synergis helps its partners to develop on-ground, online and hybrid degree programs to better serve the ever-growing non-traditional, adult learning population.

Finding a Progressive Solution

Scott Wenhold is the CFO of Synergis and he came up with a unique, progressive solution.

He partnered with Consero Global, a Finance & Administrative (F&A) firm, to offload the backroom accounting functions. Together, they rapidly redesigned and deployed an optimized, scalable finance infrastructure. Austin based Consero Global worked together with Synergis as one team to solve tough problems.

“What Synergis did was really born out of necessity,” Wenhold explained. “As a young company, we did not want to invest our capital into non-revenue generating assets, whether those assets were people or systems. The Consero model that we adopted is very scalable and cost effective but also flexible enough to adapt to our dynamic environment.”

The flexibility of the outsourcing model has kept pace with business changes in a very seamless, cost-effective manner. It also allowed them to quickly fill finance or administrative needs that required a specific skill set or expertise on an on-demand basis. This is a common problem to fast-growing companies.

Four Key Milestones

1. Achieving Timely, Accurate Financial Reporting

Wenhold and his combined team achieved four key milestones. The first was timely and accurate financial reporting—from audited GAAP financial statements to visibility into customer/partner performance and cost management.

Before Wenhold implemented outsourcing, this was a big struggle. “We are a multi-site, multi P&L organization,” said Wenhold. “When I first got here, we were struggling to close the books on a monthly basis, calculate revenue, and deliver the partner (client) reports–so they could close their books in a timely manner, and calculate revenue.”

This started creating significant relationship issues with their customers. Outsourcing brought a huge improvement.

“We are now closing the clients’ books, and delivering all the required reporting within the first four days following month-end close!” Wenhold exclaimed. “It’s all done, tick and tied, and delivered—which I think is absolutely outstanding!”

2. Revamping Operations Support

The second milestone involved operations support, allowing Synergis to meet contract requirements. Wenhold’s combined team improved reporting, data integrity and visibility, internal controls, and operations performance. They also developed revenue recognition programs—very important for auditing–and customer/partner required reporting.

“With the outsourcing partnership,” Wenhold reflected, “we were able to improve the integrity and timeliness of our financial statements. The year-end audit–ensuring financial statements are GAAP compliant—was almost a non-event this year. We were able to gain greater visibility into customer performance and cost management, from an operations standpoint. That has led to improved insight. We can make faster course corrections with respect to managing customer profitability.”

CHALLENGES:

• Lack of timely or accurate financial reporting
• Not meeting client’s contract requirements because of limited visibility, poor internal controls and operations performance
• Difficult accounts payable process in a decentralized environment
• Not meeting compliance and board requirements

“Not only is it cost effective,” Wenhold remarked, “but it keeps our processes standardized even though all of our client contracts are very different”.

3. Getting a Handle on Accounts Payable

The third important milestone Wenhold’s combined team achieved was getting a handle on Accounts Payable management—including purchase order processing.

“This whole accounts payable and purchase order process is extremely critical for us,” Wenhold explained, “especially in a decentralized environment, or a multi-geographic site environment in which we are operating”.

All Synergis’ accounts payable is now managed and processed by Consero who established a formalized process for onboarding new vendors or suppliers.

“We have a purchase order matching process,” Wenhold told us. “The processes and Consero systems inject a certain structure and discipline throughout the organization that provide a long runway into what we might be spending—and then what we will actually be spending, and when. It allows us to maximize the accuracy and length of our cash planning and forecasting activities.”

4. Ensuring Comprehensive Due Diligence, Audit, and Tax Prep Support

The fourth milestone involved due diligence, audit and tax preparation support—allowing Synergis to obtain funding, meet Board of Directors requirements, and file tax returns.

Initially Wenhold was greatly concerned about how the outsourcing model, which also stores accounting information in the cloud, would handle the challenges of an audit. But it worked out very well.

“The Consero team obtained the prepared by client list, prior to the start of the audit—our first annual audit,” said Wenhold. “Then they provided the necessary materials to the auditors upon their arrival. Everything was ready to go as soon as the auditors showed up!”

CONSERO SOLUTION:

• Completely outsourced finance solution including standardized processes, a scalable finance application and a dedicated staff
• Fully managed delivery of timely and accurate financials
• Implemented cloud technology including A/P workflow automation, e-payment solution and document storage
• Fully documented all processes and created calendars and checklists for all key deliverables

Working ahead like this drives efficiency and reduced stress. Creating a single point of contact also eliminated confusion from multiple parties interacting with an outside auditor.

Wenhold also noted, “When your books are in the cloud, all the data is centralized in a flexible to upload and retrieve format. Your auditors don’t need to go hunt down the fixed asset accountant to answer questions, and then track down the revenue recognition accountant for other questions. Instead, it’s a very flexible and centralized process.”

“We’ve been through multiple annual audit cycles now, with no issues,” said Wenhold. “The outsourcing model allows us to meet all of our investor and lender deadlines with respect to GAAP reporting and other internal reporting. It allows us to respond very nimbly to future fundraising due diligence, as well as deliver to the board of directors their reports in a timely manner, and provide the necessary data to file all of our federal, state, and local tax returns.”

The Verdict: Quality Outsourcing Yields Impressive Results

It is clear that Wenhold’s progressive attitude towards quality outsourcing has certainly helped him achieve some impressive results for Synergis.

“The ability to understand the business, record and report the business, has less to do with where the accounting and finance folks sit,” Wenhold concluded, “it has more to do with the quality of the people, processes and systems involved.”

Wenhold went on to say, “We consider ourselves extremely fortunate in that our team at Consero is a group of very dedicated, competent professionals, leveraging a platform of best-practice based processes and robust applications.”

“The ability to understand the business, record and report the business, has less to do with where the accounting and finance folks sit,” Wenhold concluded, “it has more to do with the quality of the people, processes and systems involved.”
– Scott Wenhold (CFO Synergis Education)