There’s a term that we use internally at VenturePack quite often: “right size accounting.” Right size accounting means not overdoing it in the accounting department for young businesses, while producing financials that are professional, compliant, make tax time a snap, and can drive a solid valuation in a future fundraising or sale process.

Our CFOs also have experience in larger companies, running larger staffs and more complex systems than QuickBooks. We have to dial down or streamline processes in order to be a high quality provider that is still affordable for small and mid-sized business clients.

While we strategize with client CEOs about their business valuations, growth plans and staffing, we tend to also translate growth plans into what that means for the accounting processes and systems.

Here are some of the areas that come up for examination regarding right size accounting processes quite often:

Perhaps the hardest call to make is the timing on these accounting transitions. Consistency is important to lenders, investors, CPAs and acquirers. There are certain things they just don’t teach in accounting school. Broad operational experience gives outsourced CFOs the insight to know the evolution the company is facing and the ability to facilitate and support the client every step of the way because we’ve been there. That’s where having an experienced CFO that can design systems with the future in mind can really pay off.