Accquip

What risks would you to take to ensure your agency survives? 🤔

If you could predict the exact date your business would run out of cash, would you be willing to take those risks?

Too many digital agencies play it safe and unwittingly contribute to their business’ stagnating decline 😖

The culprit?

👉A lack of financial clarity and foresight👈

💸What are your gross margins vs what should they be?
💸How many days until you go bankrupt?
💸Which projects were wildly profitable and which ones tanked?
💸What is the #1 priority in your business right now?
💸When should you hire your next employee?
💸How much should you budget for sales & marketing?

☝️These are questions that give you clarity to keep you from stagnating.

They are also the types of questions we answer with you on a weekly and monthly basis.

If you're sick of the complete lack of responsiveness from your current accountant, it’s time to switch.

We work with software dev agencies, design agencies, marketing agencies, and other digital agencies who have reached $500k+ in annual revenues. 

Bootstrapping requires a responsive finance partner with experience in this space, as your cashflow situation is likely to change on a weekly basis.

Working with Accquip, you'll know the exact date your business will run out of cash 📅

We'll work together weekly to strategize the actions you need to take to ensure you stay properly capitalized and running for the foreseeable future.

We'll also work on retrospectively analyzing project profitability so you know which clients and projects to pursue in the future (and which to avoid at all costs).

We're a full-service shop, so we take care of the BORING but important financial aspects in your software business:

👉Payroll & payroll tax compliance
👉Accounting & bookkeeping
👉Client billings
👉Budgeting

DM me to learn more.

Founder

The DevLaunch Podcast

Podcast Host

Tax-Minded

Tax-Minded is an exclusive community of finance professionals committed to advancing the practice of tax. 

Here, tax pros become tax bros, sharing knowledge, offering mutual support, and growing together. All the positives of public accounting without the burnout and office drama

Whether you're seeking expertise or camaraderie, you'll find a space that feels like a team of co-workers and friends, all focused on helping you excel in your career.

Versique Search & Consulting

Director Of Accounting

Salo

Finance Consultant

C.H. Robinson

-Led a team of four corporate accountants and managed the global intercompany network of over 30 accountants worldwide.
-Developed and implemented a standard intercompany accounting process, including the creation of video learning content to educate users on how to reconcile intercompany, the institution of a standard 
monthly calendar cycle and monthly newsletter, and the establishment of global KPIs
-Spearheaded the development of a comprehensive global intercompany policy, gathering industry best-practices through continuing education courses and interviews with finance professionals from other 
organizations, organizing a cross-functional committee of key stakeholders within C.H. Robinson’s finance functions, and publishing the policy on time
-Administered global account reconciliation SOX program (utilizing BlackLine), conducting periodic training events for end users, establishing alternative review procedures for auto-reconciled balances, and leading a team to provide general support services for end users
-Facilitated the global implementation of the Oracle Account Reconciliation Cloud Service (ARCS) tool, developing standard corporate training materials, conducting both train-the-trainer and end user trainings, coordinating project timelines and communications, and determining the policies that inform 
the technical setup of the ARCS environment
-Performed monthly close processes surrounding ASC 606 revenue recognition

Corporate Accounting Manager

Salo LLC

Salo, LLC is the leader in driving business outcomes by leveraging talent in finance, accounting and human resources; as well as finance and accounting search services. Our award-winning firm is among the fastest-growing contract staffing companies in the country with offices in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago.

To learn more about the Compass Program, please visit: http://salollc.com/finance-job-placement/compass-program/

Compass Program Member

Grant Thornton LLP

Audit Senior Associate

Wilson Aesthetics, LLC

For my part as Co-Owner, I took an active role in reviewing accounting records for completeness & accuracy, aided in the preparation of taxes, developed the pricing of photography packages, and established the company budget.

Co-Owner

Accounting Intern

Fractional CFO & Business Coach to AMBITIOUS software dev agency owners | Build your dream business without selling your soul to VCs | I offer a course for beginners to learn DIY bookkeeping | 😎 Girl dad

Digital agencies are brutal 😩




What other business deals with as many feast & famine cycles?

🙅‍♂️None🙅‍♂️

It is an easy model to start…
…but requires balls of steel to endure.


Here are THREE questions to ponder:

1️⃣ Does my accountant know how to keep me in the game?

2️⃣ Are they giving me the advice I need to grow without dying of revenue indigestion?

3️⃣ Have they helped me plan my exit?



Be real with yourself.

If you answered “no” to all three…
you’re playing with fire. 🔥 

Agency work is tough as it is.

Get the right advisor in your corner.


There is a light at the end of this tunnel.

It’s up to you whether it’s
blue sunny skies ☀️ 
or a train 🚂 

Tony Wilson, CPA, CMA

Orbital Cards

Provider of pre-paid card services to UHNWI clients.

Aiteo Consulting

Aiteo Consulting provides CFO and related accounting, financial and advisory services to start-ups and scale-ups in tech, fintech, financial services, digital assets and beyond. Services covered include short-term fundraising, financial, tax and due diligence assignments, as well as longer term advisory assignments. There are too many to mention them all - some *HIGHLIGHTS* are noted below

CFO, accounting, advisory and fundraising services to startups and scaleups. 

Fractional CFO services provided to a variety of businesses including Training & Development, Recruitment, IT services, B Corps. Areas addressed have included pre-merger due diligence, transaction business valuation, finance heatmap assessment, finance roadmap development, cost & process management, finance infrastructure development.

Fractional CFO Services

Advisory services to founders & board of a developing international FinTech, Payments & Social Media group

* Develop the application for the Group's UK listing & fund-raising plan, including engagement with key advisers, ensuring rigorous and planned approach to regulators & institutions. Development of FCA eligibility review documents.

* Engage & appoint key institutional relationships, including legal, listing, banking, regulatory, accounting/audit and systems providers.

* Finance & compliance functions. Set up new London-based Group finance & compliance functions & develop policy, process, people and systems.

Advisory CFO services - International FinTech, Payments & Social Media group

Advisory services to the Group CFO, co-ordinating a number of key projects across the organisation.

* Finance function. Assess current structure, responsibilities and processes. Devise plan to re-structure to improve effectiveness. Execute plan with new, clearly defined functions & international recruitment to deliver unified Group function across timezones.

* Process re-design. Evaluation of all Group accounting processes, assess for effectiveness, enhance control and effectiveness by automation and process re-design, and move processes to developing Group shared service centre.

* Strategic projects. Working with external advisors to define Group inter-relationships in support of an optimised transfer pricing policy. Reduction of £10m pa inter-group tax flows.

Advisory services, Ebury

Preparation of dynamic consolidated model for diverse cross-jurisdictional property investment Group to support significant debt fundraising (€100m multiples) with focus on enhancing debt ratings and reducing cost.

Advisory services, Aggregate Holdings

Preparing financial plan and associated investor materials for start-up bank. Support for pre-application to PRA.

Advisory services, Knabu Bank

Start-up custody service for digital assets including crypto-currency.

* Fundraising: interim funding and a major investor round (£5m) including investor meetings, scenario planning, convertible bond structures, maintenance of complex cap. table.

* Financial planning: new financial model (bottom-up revenue drivers, cost & headcount planning, regulatory capital). 

* Tax: successful submission and approval of EMI, EIS schemes; R&D tax planning; VAT structuring and planning for partial-exemption operations; corporation tax year-end submission.

* Management accounting: developing the finance function, including management reporting and control, integrated three-way cashflow forecast. Implementation of NetSuite ledger system.

* Reporting: Board & audit committee papers and presentation. IFRS year-end accounts and audit.

Interim CFO - Koine Finance

Portfolio CFO service for fast-growth SME currency platform, part of the OpenPayd group. Built up finance function and worked with cross-border team of developers to automate and control transactional system processes.

Interim CFO - SettleGo

Portfolio advisory role for a scale-up fintech payment services provider (now known as OpenPayd). Developed accounting, controls and implementation for treasury systems (TreasuryXpress) and developed governance model and process for Treasury function.

Advisory services to Group CFO, Clearsettle

Lead advisor to VC investor. Advisory work to assess entry to accounting systems market. Market review, functional capability recommendations, recruitment advisory. Product launched in 2018 as Solna.

Advisory services, Stockhorn Capital

Review of market dynamics, key players and financial impacts arising from collateral and regulatory capital savings.  Set up & recruitment of finance function across jurisdictions (UK, Lux, CH, US), including transfer pricing strategy & implementation. VAT partial exemption structuring & VAT reclaim. Implementation of SAP Business ByDesign.

Advisory services to Group CFO, NetOTC

Acuity Associates

Acuity Associates assist businesses by providing skills-assessed CFOs and FDs pre and post liquidity event. It has also developed The Acuity Method™ which validates CFO and FDs skills against the five skill dimensions highlighted in Acuity's white paper "The 5D FD".

CFO - Fractional

* Represented Finance in all aspects of change management; member of two of the Group’s senior management committees and all change programme boards, ensuring budgetary control and appropriate resource allocation / prioritisation for annual Group change portfolio of over £100m.

* Led the Finance function’s contribution to the Group’s complex capital planning process following the introduction of new requirements from UK, US and EU regulators. Developed capital models, scenario plans and stress tests for supervisory review and presented to regulatory supervisors.

* Member of the Group’s transformation steering committee, representing Finance through fundamental re-organisation and transformation. Delivered control, reporting and governance for the programme through leadership of highly qualified team.  Annualised transformation savings of > £35m (10%). 

* Provided lead finance support for a number of corporate transaction initiatives, including the Group’s eventual transaction with LSEG. Delivery of medium-term financial plan over several planning cycles, including market analysis, revenue progression, strategic cost impacts and capital plans. 

* Delivered finance change programme, working with senior internal and external stakeholders, to deliver cost transparency through detailed business and functional analysis, requirements building, vendor evaluation & selection and the implementation of enhanced and robust planning tools.

Finance Director (Finance Executive & Operations Executive committee member)

Lloyds Banking Group

* Lead responsibility for business partnering, financial control and management of the £0.5bn change agenda (in particular the HBOS Integration agenda) for Consumer Banking.  

* Set up senior stakeholder relationship structures between business delivery, product areas, finance and change areas.  Partnered HR to develop plans and control implementation.

* Delivered forecasting and reporting capability for costs and benefits to ensure programme directors were sufficiently informed of risks, opportunities, governance and delivery issues.

Head of Integration Finance

* Strategic cost management of £360m cost base supporting the delivery of £25m savings in 2007 and £35m savings in 2008. Progressed to lead position managing £1.6bn direct and indirect cost base in 2009.

* Delivered step-change improvements in analytics to support business decisions, with insights of product costs by distribution channel (branch, telephony, mailing, etc.), building links across product, operations & portfolio teams within the Group.

Head of Operations Finance (Cards & Payments, Consumer Banking)

Interim finance manager for card acquiring business line.

Finance Manager

Liberata plc

Implemented and embedded corporate governance framework for newly formed private equity outsourcer.

Head of Finance Change - Risk & Governance

Barclays

Portfolio delivery management and control of key tranches of £500m strategic investment programme, including Risk, Telephony IT and Systems Integration areas.

Senior Manager, Strategic Change

Design & delivery of finance function for joint venture distribution company.  Finance leadership on management committee covering strategy formulation, execution and finance management / control.

Senior Finance Business Partner - Woolwich

Group and Business Partnering roles within finance function and mortgage lending business line.

Finance - Various Roles - Woolwich

Redland

Internal audit of head office, regional office and site operations across UK, US and France.

Group Internal Audit

Fractional CFO, interim CFO and CFO-as-a-Service for startups and growth businesses. SME, Family Businesses, Growth Businesses including working to exit / IPO.  Pre-revenue - £300m T/O. Wide industry experience including Financial Services, Tech, FinTech, FX, Digital Assets, Web 3.0, Property, Asset Leasing, Hospitality, Education, IT services and beyond. I am a CIMA Member in Practice (MiP) & a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant (FCMA). Call me on 020 7846 0151.

Financial, tax and due diligence assignments including company set up / structuring, fundraising, business and financial planning, cloud-based accounting & tax compliance. 

Start-up, Technology, Business Planning, Financial Planning, Management, Transformation, Change Management, Tax Structures, Clearing, Exchanges, Regulatory Capital, Strategy, EMIR, Dodd-Frank, Cost, Professional Services, Investment Banking, Retail Banking, Finance Systems, FCA, Bank of England, BoE, Cryptocurrency, Custody, Digital Assets, PE, VC

Career Summary

Most recently, ten years in consultancy turbo-charging Finance for fast growth start-ups and scale-ups. Start-up finance support, including financial investor presentations, benefits storyboard, accounting & finance function set-up, finance systems implementation and corporate risk governance set-up.

Prior to this, group-level OpCo / FinCo leadership for finance, including strategy, commercial development, operations, financial budgeting, planning and reporting & control. 

Experienced change management operator, bridging finance and change communities and delivering real value. 

Significant cost management / reduction experience in retail banking, financial services and technology environments, spanning front office operations, distribution channels, risk, technology and property areas. 

Corporate and commercial finance experience covering investment/divestment reviews, commercial pricing, business profitability, operational performance, treasury management. 

Development of corporate-level finance and operating governance mechanisms within closely scrutinised control environments. 

International business experience, with French to business standard.

taplio

The Battle

Tony Wilson, CPA, CMA

Jonathan Smith

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