Jitasa

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a circus school and theatre company. We teach circus skills to over 1,000 students annually and produce professional theatre productions in Chicago. I’m a member of the executive team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Jitasa?

We hired Jitasa so that we could have clean, accurate, and professional accounting with as little friction and as little work for the artistic side of our organization as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Jitasa handles our organization’s accounting needs. They manage all of our bookkeeping, account reconciliations, tax preparations, and payroll. They also help us with our annual audit. Their team does all of the work using QuickBooks, Gusto, and Bill.com.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with two people from their company on a day-to-day basis: an account manager and an accountant.

How did you come to work with Jitasa?

We did our own research on the top companies that do this type of work for nonprofits. We also looked at both local and national companies, but we eventually decided to work with Jitasa because of the quality of the interactions we had with their people during the sales process. They’re not the first fully outsourced accounting firm we’ve worked with, but we’re incredibly happy with our choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $40,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together with Jitasa in September 2021, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Since working with Jitasa, we’ve seen a significant increase in terms of efficiency — as a matter of fact, the time spent on accounting tasks has been reduced by 60%.

Moreover, all of the staff we've interfaced with from their team have been excellent, kind, calm, thoughtful, reassuring, and totally competent when it comes to understanding accounting and what we need to do to be successful.

How did Jitasa perform from a project management standpoint?

So far, there’ve been no issues when it comes to getting deliverables on time. Also, there are times when we’ve provided things late to them, but their team has always been flexible and accommodating, and efficient. For communication, we usually use email and video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What’s most impressive about Jitasa is the quality of their staff. During the onboarding process, their expertise became most evident when they gave really thoughtful, open-ended questions that allowed them to quickly get to the heart of our work and create really good systems that would enable us to manage our financials more efficiently.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything that Jitasa could improve on at the moment.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Make sure to be transparent and open about creating new business processes because even the smallest changes in a process can deliver a lot of returns when it comes to staff efficiency and morale.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Executive Director of Friends of Israel Sci-Tech Schools. The organization is the US representative of the Israel Sci-Tech Schools Network, the largest educational system in Israel, educating 100,000 individuals, 10% of all Israeli middle and high school and community college students. Our goal is to raise funds in support of STEM education, infrastructure development, curriculum, pedagogy and more.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Jitasa, and what were your goals?

In spring 2021, we hired JITASA for our daily bookkeeping and accounting needs. They were recommended to us as being an effective vendor for a small nonprofit such as ours. Prior to JITASA, our accounting function was outsourced to a consulting company. We hired them to facilitate our daily transactions and create seamless business practices.

SOLUTION

How did you select this firm and what were the deciding factors?

Our auditors suggested several accounting firms to interview. I consulted with other nonprofit colleagues to see who they used. I interviewed them for size, fit, scale and scope. As a small nonprofit with a board of 7 and a staff of 1, I did not want to be lost in a firm that dealt with larger clients. Jitasa seemed to coordinate work for many small nonprofits and their references were excellent and spoke of the level of support they provided.

Describe the engagement and overall scope of work in detail, including the stages of the partnership and any software or documents used.

We went through a very thoughtful and coordinated process for JITASA to learn about the organization, discuss our needs, and tailor a program to support us. This began with several sales calls, after which I made 3-4 reference calls to current clients. After signing, we went through a 1-2 month to transfer management of our systems in a very methodical way to their systems, introducing me to the team who would support me, and answered every question I had.

We created a system of transferring and uploading documents, gaining access to Quickbooks, bank accounts, our database, and other systems, and set up a schedule of cost centers, and they trained me on how to use their internal systems for uploading materials for revenue/expenses once daily activities began.

Describe their billing or cost structure.

We pay a very affordable monthly fee for their service and it is worth every penny.

How many resources from the firm's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I started with a sales rep, followed after signing the agreement, with a team of 3-4 people who worked with me. An account manager, supported by a team. What is helpful with JITASA is that their staff is located over multiple time zones and internationally, meaning the work always gets done in a timely manner. At this point, there is an account manager and a team who supports them. I email my main contact and a general email for my account and always get timely responses and the answer I require.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the engagement or general feedback about the services?

They switched us from cash to accrual accounting. They provided monthly reports and adjusted them as we requested until they were what we needed. They are responsive when we ask questions. When one team member is out of the office, because there is a general email system, I always feel supported.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

During the summer, I requested a series of forecasting reports to help me project a different business model for how we fund our organization. While it took us some time to figure out what was needed, and we had to get an additional team member involved, they were patient, and respectful and really went out of their way to try to understand what it was I/we were looking and adjust their styles to compensate. In the end, they created the documents we needed to help clarify our request.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are very responsive to my requests. The system to share and upload revenue and expenses and make comments is very easy to use. I am not an account and this was probably the part of my role I was afraid of, but JITASA has made it easy for me. The systems are intuitive, and the staff is friendly, helpful, and very responsive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I have no constructive criticism for JITASA. I enjoy working with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're an educational 501(c)3 nonprofit. I set up all our technology, business processes as second in command to the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Jitasa, and what were your goals?

When Jitasa came onboard to take over our bookkeeping and accounting, things were a mess. All I wanted was for someone to straighten things out, but Jitasa took us quickly beyond triage to a sustainable and healthy organization of finances. Jitasa straightened out our chart of accounts per industry standard best practices and made sure that our procedures had appropriate segregation of responsibilities. Since then, they have been our ongoing accountants.

SOLUTION

How did you select this firm and what were the deciding factors?

We considered several options within our budget and chose Jitasa based on reputation, a referral from our then-auditor, and price.

Describe the engagement and overall scope of work in detail, including the stages of the partnership and any software or documents used.

The relationship started with Jitasa sorting through the mess left by our prior accountants. What 4 people could accomplish in the prior system, Jitasa handled quite easily and much more affordably. Their representatives did data entry at the start, but once they had ample time to understand our in-house processes and technology, CRM, etc., they made fantastic recommendations that, when implemented, reduced days of work per month! Over time, by embracing Jitasa's strong and sane structure, we have been able to continuously innovate and improve processes. It took some time to get a system that is as efficient as ours. I wanted to get everything "right" up front and have them instruct us for practices, processes and systems. While they did provide scaffolding and some constraints, many things in our unique business case had to be up to us, and it was only through experimentation that we smoothed things out over time. It was well worth it.

Describe their billing or cost structure.

We are billed monthly for the services Jitasa provides. The rate is a tremendous value for the services we receive.

How many resources from the firm's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We mainly work with two people: an account manager who oversees the relationship and an accounting associate with whom we work closely on a regular basis. We feel like both of them are part of our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the engagement or general feedback about the services?

We are very pleased with our spotless books, accuracy of financial data, timliness of reports, and absolute confidence in the integrity and accuracy of our books. I find it hard to imagine a scenario where a company like ours would be better served by another vendor or by an in-house team. Our auditor was dubious about our working with an offsite accountant, but after her experience with Jitasa and seeing the technology and processes in place, she is more than satisfied. In fact, the auditing firm said that not only are we the most technically advanced organization they've worked with, our financial management is exemplary as well.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We communicate almost entirely by email. Despite our representatives being in different time zones (one in Europe), we have established a helpful cadence in communications. Our reps think ahead as well, communicating clearly exactly what they need in order to provide us support.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I was skeptical that we could work effectively with a company completely off site, but I'm a convert. They balanced bringing us up to industry standard while being flexible enough to work with our unique business needs.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The only thing that could have gone better would be if they had provided us with resources or best practices for adapting to a paperless workflow on our end. Every business is different, and if I were in their shoes, I wouldn't want to get my hands dirty in another business' systems/ops either. However, after working with us for a number of months, they could assess where the problems were with our unique business case and provide recommendations for improvement. I was quite stressed that they requested a retooling of sorts, many months into our partnership. (I had hoped that the implementation was over!) HOWEVER, the changes we implemented per their recommendations brought errors nearly to zero and have saved us DAYS of labor every month, so all was quickly forgiven!