Author: Mark Byrd

Mastering the Art of Billing: A Controller’s Blueprint for Success

Written by Mark Byrd on February 4, 2023. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

As your business grows, so does the complexity of your billing process. A manual system for billing is easier when your transaction volume is low, and your company is just getting off the ground. However, as time goes on, this isn’t a viable solution or a good use of your time as a controller.

Streamlining the billing process will maximize efficiency, reduce errors, and help you achieve unparalleled results. If you’re looking to improve your existing billing processes, this guide will provide you with a blueprint for success.

Billing Technologies and Integrations

Integrated applications and digital tools build a connected environment that makes the billing cycle easier to manage, so take the time to assess your tech stack.

After you’ve done that, what exactly should you consider for your solutions?

Smartsheet — Promote collaboration and productivity. Smartsheet delivers a content management platform that helps you track projects and connect with your team.

Harvest — Keep your team on top of project budgets with intuitive workflows, and track billable time with a web-based timesheet. Quickly create client invoices based on your team’s time and expenses.

Hubspot — Improve client relationships and efficiently collect and organize client data. A dedicated CRM software lets you streamline the onboarding process, review trends in customer lifecycles, and access customer data needed for billing purposes.

Salesforce — Avoid billing and approval delays, improve cash flow, automate the quote-to-cash process, and get real-time visibility into customer and transactional data.

Scalable Invoice Automation

You’ll want to be sure that whatever technology-driven plan you have in place for your invoicing and billing strategy is scalable. Manual, disconnected, or siloed applications will make growing your business —and handling multi-entities— very challenging.

Using an automated and centralized billing system like Sage Intacct can help you avoid these common problems:

Disappearing Invoices
Missing Invoice or Customer Data
Improper Reporting (Errors!)
Recurring Mistakes

Even a seemingly minor error in your invoicing could impact your bottom line and affect your customer relationships. Sage Intacct is a feature-rich, cloud accounting system that easily adapts and configures to your needs, reducing risk and allowing you to focus more on strategic accounting work rather than wasting time searching for that missing invoice.

Forward-Thinking Mindset

Handle complex billing operations with seamless integrations, leading software tools, and automated workflows. Sage Intacct is a game-changer for controllers who want to take their billing process to the next level. By being better prepared for future growth and scaling the business, you can shift towards a forward-thinking mindset in your role as a controller, and free up your time to focus on the bigger picture.

Get started with Trusted CFO Solutions to learn more about transitioning your billing process to Sage Intacct.

Sage Intacct: Powerful Accounting for Multi-Entity Businesses

Written by Mark Byrd on February 3, 2023. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

When a business enjoys continued growth and success over a period of time, it might eventually become a multi-entity business, encompassing multiple subsidiaries, divisions, or brands.

Multi-entity expansion is undoubtedly exciting for a company that was once a fledgling. However, it results in a new set of challenges pertaining to efficiency and organization. What may have worked for one business in one location might no longer be sufficient as that same business scales.

Accounting is one area that multi-entity businesses should approach differently than those with singular locations. Their financial operations are more complex, as each location or brand’s transactions, currency, and decentralized payables need to be accessible to the parent company.

Seem like a tall task? With sophisticated software like Sage Intacct, it doesn’t have to be.

What is Sage Intacct?

Sage Intacct is a cloud-based accounting software that specializes in financial management for large-scale companies. It is a highly effective tool that gives financial teams a bird’s eye view of multiple business locations, working to streamline and consolidate data across accounts.

By using Sage Intacct, multi-entity businesses can:

Manage each location with one centralized login/account;
Review business progress both individually and as a whole with global reporting features;
Quickly and automatically toggle between currencies.

Ultimately, Sage Intacct software is capable of consolidating data for hundreds of entities within minutes, boosting productivity by more than 50%.

Why Do Growing Businesses Choose Sage Intacct?

Newly-expanded and established multi-entity companies alike choose Sage Intacct for the many benefits the program provides. These include:

Easily Scale Businesses/Drive Growth

With advanced tools that promote stronger efficiency and sharper insight, business owners can put themselves in a position to drive growth rather than merely cope with it. Using outdated programs to track KPIs and run financial reports is not sufficient to keep up with significant progress, as running older software is likely to result in wasted time.

Alternatively, software solutions such as Sage Intacct allow businesses to log, store, and access all of the data they need at the touch of a button. This streamlined approach makes it possible for companies to spend more time and energy on growth-oriented objectives.

Consolidate Quickly & Accurately

Consolidating financials across company branches or unique brands is a brilliant shortcut that allows parent companies to view important information within seconds. With Sage Intacct, new entities may be set up instantly with configurable rules for inter-entity transactions, bank accounts, and more.

Essentially, any new units of a multi-entity business can be set up to inherit existing lists, process definitions, and charts of accounts. The act of centralizing payables and receivables also becomes a simplified process rather than a tedious task.

Improve Productivity

Sage Intacct automates the complete array of accounting processes from basic to complex, so business owners can improve productivity in the following ways:

Multi-currency accounting that makes globalization easier and more accurate;
Automated financial consolidation tools that save time and reduce errors;
Increased visibility with flexible, updated reports across entities;
Time savings of hours or days creating, troubleshooting, and reconciling inter-entity transactions.

If simplified expansion is among your top goals as a business owner, reach out to learn more about harnessing the power of Sage Intacct today.

Facing Your Financial Fears: Credit Control and Debt Management

Written by Mark Byrd on February 1, 2023. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

Managing credit and reducing associated risk can be daunting for many business owners. CFOs and CEOs look to controllers to manage day-to-day financial operations. They rely heavily on controllers for spearheading strategic planning related to the business’s financial health.

The scope of a controller’s responsibilities varies from one company to the next, but they all play a role in financial reporting and debt management: brokering loan agreements and collecting payments owed on behalf of the company. As organizations grow, it becomes more difficult to manually track customer payment histories, available credit limits, payment patterns, and review aging reports —all of which controllers need for guiding company leaders and decision-makers.

We have included some of our best practices and software tips for controllers so your financial team stays on top of credit processes and accelerates cash collections.

Optimize Credit Management Policies

A company’s billing and collections policy should be an extension of the business plan. Start by assessing your current policies for internal credit management and mitigating credit risk. What is your process for sending initial and recurring invoices? How are you maintaining a record of client data? Can you scale your credit management process?

On average, companies write off 1.5% of their receivables as bad debt. If you are running into issues with manual entries and the hassle of chasing down payments that have missed the deadline, automating your collections will free up your team and empower your business to make better decisions while mitigating the risk of bad debt.

Accounts Receivable Software

It may go without saying, but you can’t accurately manage your credit without understanding how much cash is coming into the business. By actively monitoring your receivables, you’ll identify outstanding payments and actionable items faster rather than waiting for major credit concerns to arise when payments remain overdue.

Efficiency should be top of your list when looking to improve credit management and collections. With accounts receivable software, you’ll see considerable efficiency, accuracy, and recordkeeping improvement.

With Sage Intacct Accounting, you’ll be better equipped to:

Know what money is coming in (and what money isn’t!)
Improve and streamline recordkeeping
Strengthen internal controls
Seamlessly integrate cash processes with other business systems
Shorten invoice and payment cycles, increasing cash flow and decreasing credit liability

Real-Time Payment Tracking

Shocking as it may be, 93% of businesses experience late payments from customers. Delayed payments are one of the biggest pain points in credit management, which is why it’s so important to keep up with unpaid invoices. Often, manual invoice processing causes payment delays, exposes you to a heightened risk of fraud, and results in errors that strain supplier and customer relationships.

Sage Intacct helps streamline payment tracking with customizable workflows, real-time data, and automated decisions based on custom parameters, so you never forget to follow up on an overdue invoice. Controllers can set billing cycles and monitor risk thresholds at any given time for a more proactive payment tracking process.

Don’t let credit get you down or feel trapped within spreadsheets. With a cloud-based platform that supports credit management processes from end to end, you’ll be better prepared to promote long-term success. Contact Trusted CFO Solutions to learn how Intacct can help your team accelerate cash flow while accurately monitoring customer credit issues.

Monitor Your Cash Flow Like a Pro: Insider Tips & Best Practices

Written by Mark Byrd on January 31, 2023. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

There is one universal truth we can all agree on in business: money matters.

You must spend money to make money and to do that you need a healthy cash flow. However, cash flow is the number one reason businesses fail. It directly contributes to the long-term success of a business and impacts nearly every decision. Eighty-two percent of those that fail do so because of insufficient funds and cash flow problems.

Formal Cash Management Procedures

Getting the right balance of cash isn’t always easy. Consistent procedures and a realistic picture of your working capital will prevent funding shortfalls and keep your business afloat during financial downturns.

Formal policies and procedures allow for better control over your cash so you can quickly identify risk and uncover potential problems within your accounting structure.

However, manual workflows are still common among businesses, and this could be hindering accuracy and productivity as you work on maintaining a healthy cash flow.

Best Practices for Financial Clarity and Cash Flow

With software built for cash management, you’ll get the complete picture of your financial position without all of the tedious backend work.

Here are a few best practices that you need as a controller and financial manager for a better cash management workflow:

Get to know the numbers. Review your cash flow statements early and often — make this a regular basis.
Automate your accounts payable processes. Let your software automatically handle every step of the payment process, from capturing invoice data to payment controls, so you don’t fall behind or get caught up on tedious approvals.
Plan for future expenses. It’s not enough to know where your current expenses have been allocated, you must continually think ahead.
Reconcile bank records in seconds. With Sage Intacct’s accounting software, your team will no longer be limited by hours spent reviewing transactions and making manual adjustments in spreadsheets and bank portals.
Welcome slow and steady growth. You’ve heard the saying, slow and steady wins the race. Well, your business is running a marathon, and if you aren’t prepared to handle rapid growth, it’s a recipe for disaster and cash flow burnout.

The 13-Week Forecasting Model

This model helps businesses create a reliable budget and get an accurate picture of their current financial state. Thirteen-week forecasting allows businesses to plan ahead, giving insight into the most effective use of funds in the following quarter.

With a 13-week cash flow forecast, you’ll be able to:

Plan quarterly budgets
Analyze weekly details
Identify cash shortages
Minimize risk

Sage Intacct provides the tools, real-time data, and automation needed to make cash flow planning easier than traditional forecasting methods.

More Than Monitoring: A Trusted Solution

Problems with cash flow won’t go away on their own. With proper planning, policies, and solutions in place, you’ll safeguard your long-term success and be positioned for positive growth. Leverage Sage Intacct to automate manual tasks, create cash flow statements, strengthen internal controls, and increase cash visibility.

The Real-Time Visibility of Sage Intacct Opens New Doors for Your Family Office

Written by Mark Byrd on January 28, 2023. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

Reporting and investment fund management can easily become overwhelming, complicated, and difficult to manage without the right tools at your disposal. Every family office should invest in technology best suited for their clients, capable of managing diverse portfolios and demonstrating healthy returns.

Real-time visibility is a game-changer for family offices, and one that is fueling better strategic planning for wealth management. Sage Intacct’s cloud accounting solution addresses the challenges of navigating venture investments and helps eliminate the headaches of limited financial insight.

Major Challenges for Family Offices to Overcome

Family offices have a unique set of challenges they face regularly. They are competitive, often high-risk businesses that explore a variety of investment opportunities and fund management strategies for their clients.

So, what are the most common obstacles family offices face, and how does Sage Intacct’s real-time visibility help to overcome them?

Increasing complexity of reporting. While public and private assets are rarely centralized or limited to a single revenue stream, having a complete view of a family’s wealth is a challenge. You need the visibility to show your clients how their investments have grown over the years and be able to swiftly manage a diverse portfolio.
Investment risk management. Your clients trust you with their assets, so you need to be well-equipped to perform a risk analysis and recognize the impact on their investments. With real-time visibility, you’ll see exactly how funds are performing.
Lack of speed. On-premise accounting and endless spreadsheets require heavy manual data entry that traps you with time and tedious effort. Speed drains, errors happen, and productivity suffers. The real-time visibility of Sage Intacct’s cloud-based platform allows for faster reporting with quick and easy consolidations.
Disparate data systems for asset management. Without a unified platform to offer a single source of truth, managing funds is cumbersome. Keeping up with client data across disconnected systems not only decreases productivity but can be impossible to track down relevant information for critical decision-making.

Real-Time Visibility Matters in a Fast-Paced World

Your most valuable asset is time. By freeing up time, you’ll experience a transformation in your family office accounting, providing more sophisticated wealth planning for your clients. That could include more comprehensive liquidity planning, tax strategy, and being an advocate for your clients’ philanthropic ventures.

According to a recent report published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research and KX, real-time data is having a big impact on revenue. Eighty percent of companies reported an increase in revenue as a direct result of real-time financial visibility.

The benefits include:

Better accuracy for the financial state of affairs
More strategic decision-making based on real data
Faster recognition of the best-performing investments

Unlock Better Fund Performance and Investment Opportunities with Sage Intacct

Do you need more clarity for your fund performance?

Sage Intacct allows you to gain better visibility and insight with just the click of a button. Powerful tools like multi-entity consolidations, real-time dashboards, and a fully integrated cloud platform let you deliver your family office clients a comprehensive fund management solution.

Accelerate Your SaaS Company’s Growth with Sage Intacct

Written by Mark Byrd on January 13, 2023. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

When launching your SaaS company, you’re focused on increasing revenue, landing new logo’s, and adding users to support the business in its early days. Now that you’ve found market fit you’re entering the growth stage. Your investors want to see efficiencies & a set of monthly metrics that confirm the business is trending in the right direction.

Stepping Up Your Growth Stage Strategy

During this stage, profitability and scalability will be the driving factors in your decision-making process. The growth stage for SaaS companies is key to positioning your business for future success. It’s during this stage that you consider additional investments to help you prepare for rapid growth while building on your current SaaS offerings.

While your existing customers give your company credibility, management should focus on the future and have a set of tools to track how short term goals are trending against actual results. Your first step should be to get up close and personal with your finances to identify areas of opportunity and understand your business performance.

The right accounting software should give you a competitive edge, delivering a range of accounting capabilities unique to your SaaS business. You shouldn’t be spending hours manually pulling data from multiple systems only to have this data siloed in versions of Excel or Google sheets. Quantitative and qualitative data should be able to flow seamlessly into the accounting system through a robust ecosystem of vendors. From sales (Salesforce/Hubspot), to A/P (Bill.com/Routable) to A/R (Harvest), this ecosystem provides for the continuous flow of data to the general ledger. The final result should be a quick and easy manipulation of this data into a dashboard that provides valuable insights to management.

The Right Software is Smart Software

The features available in QuickBooks may have been reliable up to this point, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that’s all you’ll ever need. Now that you’re entering into the growth stage of your business, it’s time to retire your outdated accounting software and take advantage of a more capable solution —QuickBooks no longer fits the bill.

Sage Intacct, a cloud-based subscription billing and financial software, brings to the table new or improved:

Efficiencies – With better metrics and instant access to real-time data, critical KPIs are easier to review and offer more significant insight into your daily decision-making. This allows for better forecasting and creating accurate what-if scenarios to boost efficiency.
Integration – Free up cash flow and streamline the entire subscription billing lifecycle with powerful integrations like the native Salesforce.com CPQ integration. With one single platform to use, you have all of the subscription billing features you could possibly need at your fingertips.
Automation – Remove the costs associated with manual billing and complex financial tasks. Automate renewals, investor reports, and ASC 606 revenue recognition for better accuracy, compliance, and efficiency. You could reduce your monthly close time by more than 80%!
Management – Better visibility with Sage Intacct Dashboards offers improved management for multiple revenue streams and better control over your cash flow.

Go Beyond Customer Acquisition with Sage Intacct

The growth stage will have you focused on decisions that impact scaling your business and promote rapid customer acquisition. Sage Intacct is uniquely built to help you achieve your SaaS goals and experience substantial growth while boosting customer retention and the lifetime value of your customers.

Don’t let your finance team get bogged down by spreadsheets, inflexible systems, and unreliable data. Contact us to learn more about how Sage Intacct will prepare you for your next stage of growth and allow your finance team the flexibility to focus on more important strategic activities.

Employee Retention Credit – Do You Qualify?

Written by Mark Byrd on November 28, 2022. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a stimulus government aid program established by the CARES Act. It is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that businesses can claim, and can recoup up to $26,000 per employee.

Who is the ERC Program For?
This program was created for companies that showed a decline in revenue, changes or adjustments in standard business operations, or partial/full business suspension during the Covid-19 pandemic and paid employees on W2 payroll during the years 2020 and 2021.

Is ERC like PPP?
No, The PPP is a loan program that provides funds to small businesses to help them keep their employees on the payroll. The ERC, on the other hand, is a tax credit that businesses can claim for eligible wages paid to employees during the pandemic and do not need to be repaid. Businesses that filed for PPP are also still eligible to receive ERC.

Did the business employ W2 employees in 2020 or 2021?
Did the business experience a decline in revenue during those years?
Did the business experience a change in standard operations during those years? Some examples include:
- Change in business hours
- Partial or full suspension of your operations
- Shutdowns of your supply chain or vendors
- Reduction in services offered
- Reduction in workforce or employee workloads
- A disruption in your business (division or department closures)
- Inability to visit a client’s job site
- Suppliers were unable to make deliveries of critical goods or materials
- Additional spacing requirements for employees and customers due to social distancing
- Change in job roles/functions
- Tasks or work that couldn’t be done from home or while transitioning to remote work conditions
- Lack of Travel or Lack of Group Meetings

There are various factors that can affect eligibility for ERC. Also, many businesses assume they do not qualify because of various assumptions. Here are some hard facts that will help:

Even if companies received PPP, they still qualify for ERC.
Even if your business did not have a revenue reduction or was deemed essential, they still qualify for ERC
ERC is a refund in the form of a grant and can return up to $26,000/employee ($10,000 is the average for companies that received PPP, $20,000 is the average for businesses that didn’t)
Simple operational impacts can qualify a business for ERC as well such as change in: job roles, business hours, reduction in services or workforce
This stimulus program was established by the CARES Act, it is a refundable tax credit – a grant, not a loan – that your business can claim. The program is based on qualified wages and healthcare paid to employees.
Businesses have until April 2024 to claim ERC retroactively for 2020, and until April 2025 to claim ERC retroactively for 2021. They have the ability to do a look back on their payroll during the pandemic and retroactively claim the credit by filing an amended tax return.
For tax year 2021, the refundable tax credit is: 70% of qualified wages paid per employee (up to a maximum amount of $7000 per employee, per quarter and up to $21,000 for the entire year)
For tax year 2020, the refundable tax credit is: 50% of qualified wages paid per employee (up to a maximum amount of $5000 per employee for the entire year)
Independent contractors (1099) and the compensation paid to these individuals are not eligible for ERC
Typical turn around times for funds to be collected from the ERC program is 3-6 months.

Next Steps – to learn more about the ERC and if your organization qualifies, please contact Trusted CFO Solutions.

Take Back Your Time With Outsourced Accounting

Written by Mark Byrd on October 20, 2022. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

If your weeks are dragging on and long hours bleed into the weekend, take a minute to reflect. Recognize all of the hard work, time, and effort you’ve put into your business, and be prepared to make some changes to continue to grow, scale, and evolve.

No one wants to be stuck in the office late on Friday or feel like there’s so much more to do on the weekend. Now is the time to take back your Saturdays! Start doing what you love rather than burning the midnight oil by outsourcing your accounting.

Give yourself the gift of time and get back as much as 20 hours of your week.

When Time is Money

As a business grows and evolves, the pace and workload of running that business get even more demanding. A small, in-house finance team may start to feel the pressures of a growing business, and if you are still doing your own accounting, you could be losing hours of time —and money.

It’s okay to let go. Your time is better spent on more important business functions and taking time for yourself. Hiring an outsourced accounting firm gives you the freedom to do just that while leaving your financials in the hands of professionals.

The Hidden Advantages of Outsourced Accounting

Working with a full team of in-house accountants comes at a high cost to your business. With a staff accountant or bookkeeper, you have to consider things like hourly wages, productivity, overhead, time, and training.

While it might make sense to hire internally when you’re starting out, outsourcing offers more than the average bookkeeper and keeps your accounting simple while still giving you full visibility into your financials. Some of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your accounting include:

Lowering costs
Improving productivity
Gaining lost time
Faster decision-making
Ongoing guidance
Back-office support

A growing business is constantly waging war by continuing to manage limited time and resources. Outsourcing goes beyond time savings and eliminates the risk associated with inefficiencies while giving back your weekends.

Free Yourself With Peace of Mind

Go on that weekend fishing trip you’ve always been dreaming of, and enjoy your renewed peace of mind. With a trusted accounting firm in your corner, be confident to run a successful and scalable business. Open yourself up to new opportunities by outsourcing with Trusted CFO Solutions and make your job easier.

We take advantage of the latest tools and powerful technology to handle all of your unique accounting needs. Along with the guidance of our skilled team of accountants, our accounting solution provides actionable insights, maximizes profitability, and saves you time. Contact us to learn more.

What to Look For in an Outsourced Accounting Firm

Written by Mark Byrd on October 3, 2022. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

Many growing businesses have recognized and harnessed the benefits of outsourcing their accounting services. Rather than hiring full or part-time accountants or bookkeepers as permanent staff members, it often makes more sense to simply outsource—from both a monetary and scaling perspective.

Unfortunately, the accounting field is experiencing a bit of a crisis, with nearly 75% of the CPA workforce having met retirement age in 2020. What this means is that finding an experienced firm with qualified accountants has become much more difficult than in years past. A business should be looking for a mix of strong experience, technology, and reputation when enlisting the services of an accounting firm.

Read on for recommendations and tips regarding outsourcing the best accounting firm for the job.

Up-to-Date Software & Technology

There’s a lot of sophisticated financial and accounting software available, so it makes sense for a business to employ an accounting firm that uses the best possible programs. A strong accounting software should include:

Core financial functionality (accounts payable, receivable, order management, purchasing)
Reporting
Billing functionality (revenue recognition, sales and use tax, spend management)
Advanced functionality (dynamic allocations, fixed assets, inventory management).

The more up-to-date the technology an accounting firm uses, the more a business can count on them for efficiency and accuracy.

Wide Array of Services

Ideally, an accounting firm will offer more than just basic bookkeeping. In fact, their services should fit all of a business’s requirements; otherwise, they may be spending more than what they are getting in return.

A highly effective firm with a wide variety of services should offer both accounting and planning tools for a business to balance their budget. Whether or not a company uses all of the offered services is a different consideration, but being able to select what is necessary is more important than not having enough options. It’s also important that a firm implements and manages their software and accounting functions on a business’s behalf—it should not be the business’s responsibility.

Seasoned and Qualified Professionals

The individuals working for an accounting firm should be highly qualified professionals—preferably CPAs who have earned their license through years of education and experience beyond college.

How long an accounting firm has been in business matters, as well as which industries they have traditionally serviced. If a firm has previous industry-specific experience and knowledge of the business they are working with, they are more likely to understand that business’s pain points and unique challenges they face.

Undivided Focus & Attention

Finally, any outsourced accounting firm should dedicate hours of time and individualized attention to the business that enlists their services. A strong commitment to client satisfaction is paramount.

Moreover, the professionals working at a firm should exude an attitude of true partnership. While transactional business models work, nothing takes the place of a more personal approach that is unique to a particular firm. Interactions become much more seamless, and trust comes more naturally, between businesses that regard each other as people behind the company.

The type of accounting firm a business chooses to hire will be specific to their needs; nevertheless, it helps to screen by certain credentials. Contact CFO Solutions to benefit from proven strategies, infrastructure, and standardized processes designed to help clients run successful and scalable businesses.

Effective Accounting Beyond Your Average Bookkeeper

Written by Mark Byrd on October 1, 2022. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

When a business enjoys increased growth, certain tasks can suddenly feel more time-consuming than ever before. With new demands that arise from a growing customer base and more orders, a small team must adjust to changing dynamics while continuing to run the business smoothly.

One secret to long-term business success is effective time management. When business owners and teams have strong time management skills, more work is completed in a shorter amount of time. Unfortunately, research conducted by Harvard Business Review indicates that employees spend roughly 41% of their time on activities that could be handled competently by others. Proper accounting is one such example.

While every business needs a bookkeeper to manage payments, billing, and cash flow, entrepreneurs should consider outsourcing their accounting needs. Taking this step is a great way to free up time to focus on continued growth strategies, making the business the best it can be.

Why Outsource Accounting?

Hiring an in-house accounting professional, such as a CPA, might make sense for certain businesses. However, for a steadily-growing business facing increased demand and spending, outsourcing your accounting services is a good way to keep focus high, organization strong, and costs manageable. This is especially true as accounting becomes more complicated with business expansion—multiple entities require more than basic Excel spreadsheets for advanced accounting accuracy.

A professional accounting service will work with a business closely to ensure that it is not losing money, and to make certain that the best possible financial decisions are being made. Additionally, outsourcing could mean that important financial tasks receive greater focus and attention, while a business is able to save money on a part-time or full-time employee salary (and associated onboarding expenses).

Another reason why outsourcing accounting services can be beneficial is that they often have access to some of the best software solutions for a fraction of the cost. Small business owners can avoid the hefty price tag and time commitment of installing sophisticated programs on their own.

Outsourcing is Embracing the Growth Mentality

If a business is experiencing steady, predictable growth every year, it will need to shift from the more base “survival” instincts it started out with to a growth mentality. A mindset of growth is categorized by flexibility, resilience, and a healthy risk tolerance, to name a few.

It will always be a risk to try something new, but in the case of a growing business, trying new things—and trying new things often—is necessary for success. While hiring part-time or full-time accountants is perfectly reasonable, adopting a more flexible financial model is more beneficial for a company in the long run. Outsourcing financial services enables a business to scale without increasing its employee headcount, or its number of fixed salaries.

Ultimately, pursuing outsourced accounting services paves the way to better time management, potential dollars saved, and a more flexible work model for a growing business. Trusted CFO Solutions can help entrepreneurs work toward these efforts. Contact us to learn more.

Going Beyond Budgeting With a Better Planning Solution

Written by Mark Byrd on September 26, 2022. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

This year is coming to a close, and for many of us, that means it’s budgeting season. If you dread this time of year and the pressures of budget changes and new demands, you are not alone. Most companies — about 90% of businesses with 50 to 200 employees — still use Excel for their budgeting and planning, although they continue to report major pitfalls with time-consuming processes and reporting delays.

Without a solid foundation to build your 2023 budget, you risk missing opportunities and losing revenue. The good news is there are better alternatives for your budgeting and planning that won’t have you working long nights and weekends.

Putting an end to wasted time and spreadsheet madness is key to the success of your growing business. If you’re struggling to use Excel for your budgeting, it’s time to move beyond spreadsheets and invest in something better.

Let’s take a closer look at the features of Sage Intacct Budgeting and Planning, a powerful yet easy-to-use financial solution.

Convenience and Accuracy in a Single Secure Solution

Your budget is constantly in flux, needing updates and revisions as the year continues. With the growing need for changes and mid-year adjustments, it’s critical that you have access to a single, up-to-date system.

Version control is a common issue with Excel Spreadsheets and one riddled with manual errors and discrepancies that keep you from focusing on your business goals. With Sage Intacct, you don’t have to worry about users updating the wrong spreadsheet or sending out an outdated report.

By eliminating spreadsheet errors and having the convenience of real-time reports in a single financial source, you’ll regain confidence and ensure your numbers accurately reflect your budgets.

Collaboration Across Departments (—And Multiple Entities)

Your business needs the clarity and insight for multi-level planning and budgeting. Strategic planning becomes a complex and tedious process when there are numerous spreadsheets, multiple sets of numbers, and several documents to sift through.

Sage Intacct helps you easily collaborate and plan across departments in real time. Eliminate the need to consolidate multiple-entity data and get a simple view of your budgets to prepare for the big picture. Seamless collaboration ensures transparency, improves communication, and keeps your business on track.

Simple Automation for the Planning Process

Save time and say goodbye to all-nighters. With the powerful automation that Sage Intacct brings your business, you’ll simplify the budgeting process and save hours. In fact, it reduces the time you’ll spend on budgeting and forecasting by 50%.

With the time saved from the planning process, you can refocus on more valuable work. With additional what-if scenario modeling and forecasting capabilities, start preparing your business for growth in 2023.

This is the year to take control of your business accounting. Spreadsheets lead to too many errors, which reduce confidence and result in misguided decisions. By knowing exactly how and where you’re spending your money, you’ll make smarter, more informed decisions.

Contact Trusted CFO Solutions to learn more about budgeting with Sage Intacct and improve the financial health of your business.

3 Warning Signs Pointing to Outdated Accounting Software

Written by Mark Byrd on September 15, 2022. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

Do you feel like your financial software could —or should— do more? Does it lack essential functions for promoting growth, or is Quickbooks struggling to keep up with your daily operations?

As your business grows, your accounting solution should scale and grow with you, but this isn’t the case with older, outdated software. Accepting that it’s time for an upgrade is a tough but necessary pill to swallow. Recognizing the limitations of your financial software is the first step toward taking charge of your business.

So how do you know when you’re due for an upgrade? Let’s explore these three warning signs that suggest it’s time for a serious change.

Rapid Business Growth

Growth is good, and we want you to grow, but it’s also sure to highlight areas of your business that need work — such as outdated software and limited capabilities. Expansion contributes to a profitable business, but if you don’t prepare to handle rapid growth, you will ultimately hurt your bottom line and prevent your business from reaping the benefits.

As your business grows, multi-entity consolidations will be key to understanding your financials from both an entity and a corporate level. Outdated systems have difficulty connecting your separate business entities into one unified solution. With split operations, there is an increased risk of inaccurate, error-prone data and a considerable loss of productivity.

Lack of Financial Visibility

Spreadsheets can only tell you so much at a glance and cannot address complex accounting issues. Without a streamlined, comprehensive look at what your business is spending and earning, you may face the following challenges:

Unattainable real-time performance tracking
Time-consuming process for creating manual reports
Data errors and reporting inaccuracies
Lost revenue opportunities

Compliance is Difficult to Maintain

Your system should work for you, not the other way around. With robust software capabilities, the headache of maintaining compliance is a thing of the past. It’s hard to keep up with changing laws and constant updates of current GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) standards and financial regulations. If your accounting system can’t keep up, it’s time for a change.

Many businesses will put off upgrading their system for as long as they can to offset the cost of more capable and advanced accounting software. However, putting a necessary upgrade on hold is even more damaging to your potential profits, while noncompliance leaves your business vulnerable to major fines and litigation.

Sage Intacct: The Software You Can Trust

With the right software, you’ll save hours on manual work and say goodbye to endless spreadsheets. Sage Intacct, the leading financial management solution, automates your financial statements, giving you true insights into your business’ real-time performance.

Sage Intacct delivers powerful, customizable dashboards at your fingertips. With easy viewing of both high-level and granular data, you’ll be able to instantly generate reports that reflect a more accurate snapshot of your business.

Stop letting outdated financials and underwhelming software hold you back. Contact us to learn more about how Sage Intacct takes your business to the next level.

Growing Your Family Business Using Technology

Written by Mark Byrd on February 23, 2022. Posted in Trusted CFO Solutions Blog Posts.

Family Businesses often start out on a shoestring budget and have to watch how every penny is invested. Regardless of the size of your business, you still have to have a bookkeeping system to manage your financial transactions. As your company grows, your needs typically change.

Many small businesses will grow to the point where they need to consider hiring a Controller or CFO. At this stage, identifying all of your needs and the correct software tools can save you thousands of dollars in time and staffing costs.

Choosing the correct accounting system and software tools is the most important step you can take to set your business up for financial success. The right system will efficiently integrate your bookkeeping, payroll, financial reporting, tax reporting, and much more. This will allow your team to forecast future financials, ensure compliance, and provide good data for future planning and business strategy.

So how do you determine what financial or accounting tools will fit your company best? Well, if you want to continue to grow, one important consideration is scalability. Will the solution you choose be able to keep up with your company’s growth? Cheaper solutions may look good at the outset because money may be tight, but they may not be able to handle all the tasks you will need in the future. If you must change systems, this can be very time-consuming and more costly than getting the right system from the beginning.

Another important consideration is working through the functionality you need now and in the future. What will your business look like in one, three and five years? Are you opening new locations? Are you acquiring other entities? If so, can your current system handle this type of growth and complexity?

For most businesses, taxes are often a matter of incredible frustration and confusion. Tax laws are constantly changing, and compliance can become a huge ordeal and cost you money in terms of staffing to deal with it, especially if your business sells in multiple states or internationally. The time to address taxes is now and later. Look for a software solution that can handle your taxes, is continually updated, and keeps you in compliance at home and abroad.

Can one person manage all of your financial duties? Depending on the size and complexity of your business, it may be possible with the right system tools such as Sage Intacct.

A robust accounting system such as Sage Intacct can handle back-office accounting, payroll, and HR to taxes and benefits, financial reporting, and more. Some systems make it so easy that even one person can manage it all. Now that can spell significant savings for a small business. You may pay more for the system initially, but your payback and ROI will be recouped faster, so remember that not all systems are created equally, and not all systems provide you with the same return on your investment.

Finally, make sure to speak to others who have significant business experience using the systems you are considering and get their feedback and experiences using the system.

The future for your small business can look very bright with the right accounting solution in place. It will help you with your strategic vision and financial forecasting while managing the day-to-day accounting, business needs, and reporting with speed and ease.