The Accountrepreneur LLC

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a beverage company.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Our business was growing, and we didn’t have the internal capacities to handle our bookkeeping and financial knowledge needs, so we needed someone to assist us in that area.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Accountrepreneur LLC does accounting services for us. They do basic bookkeeping, including accounts payable, so they receive all of the invoices from our suppliers. They also process those bills in a software system and manage them through approval. In addition to that, their team does month closures where they close our books every month and analyze our financial statements to prepare them. Overall, they take care of general company bookkeeping for us.

Their team also provides outsourced CFO by analyzing our financial statements to give recommendations on what we should or shouldn’t be doing — they attend our board meetings to make their suggestions. 

In terms of technologies, they use QuickBooks, Excel spreadsheets, and Bill.com.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with Alex (Founder) and Megan (Senior Manager).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

They were referred to me by someone who knew about their work.

How much have you invested in them?

We pay them a monthly retainer of around $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

They’re always 100% on time to complete our monthly financial reporting and statements. Also, they’re accurate on accounts payable and receivable processing. 

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

I rate their project management abilities very high; they’ve held up our game in terms of understanding the financial flows of our business and cost savings opportunities to make us more efficient as a company. Their team is also good at proactively seeking out improvement areas so we can make our customers win.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very entrepreneurial-minded, which is outstanding. Other providers operate just within the box, but The Accountrepreneur LLC seeks out opportunities and constantly looks for improvement areas or recommendations to do a better job. Overall, they go above and beyond the call of duty to support us, and that willingness to exceed our expectations is what makes them a great partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on — they’ve been stellar with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that there’s a good handover and knowledge transfer — that’ll set you up for success. Also, make sure that everyone involved in the process has a chance to know the key touchpoints and establish a relationship — the stronger the relationship, the better the teams can operate together in the future. Having formal kickoff meetings can be useful.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I serve as the CFO / Finance lead for a CPG company that has grown from pre-revenue through acquisition by a larger strategic.

For what projects/services did your company hire The Accountrepreneur LLC, and what were your goals?

While the business was small, there was a need for accurate bookkeeping that we could be confident in taking through an acquisition in the future, but we did not want an internal hire as the quantity of work did not fit a full time position.

However, the stakes were high and we needed someone that with the experience in the industry to ensure an audit trail we could trust.

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

We selected The Accountrepeneur because they knew the industry deeply, had experience in taking companies through the same steps and projected confidence in the knowledge of the accounting detail required.

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

Alex and his team served as the full accounting department from early on through the diligence period of the strategic acquisition. This included reconciliations and detailed tracking of details, as well as A/P and payroll.

Describe their billing or cost structure.

The monthly rate covers most "typical" months and gives us confidence in planning. During the due diligence leading up to the acquisition there were obviously some added expenses, but those were very reasonable for the time commitment we needed.

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

Two, the founder and a day to day accounting resource.

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

Accuracy of their day to day work is hard to measure, but it would not be a stretch to say that they saved us $15k+ in just the due diligence period not having to pay the CPA firm to help manage the deal.

The monthly cost is less than the two roles we would have needed to fill to provide the services in house, but their level of experience wouldn't have been anywhere near our budget if we had to hire directly. Like I said, hard to measure, but it was not all about cost savings.

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

Amazing at communication. They monitor email daily and never were more than a few hours from responding to a request to at least give us a solid timeline to completion.

The monthly accounting closes NEVER extended past the 5th business day and usually happened within an hour or so of them receiving the final document that they needed to complete their work.

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

Their knowledge of the space they were working in was most impressive. Too many accounting groups try to focus more broadly than they have the experience and having a partner with their experience through all of the newness and questions of building the company was invaluable.

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

No, not at all. They are by far the best group I wave worked with in this role.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Poppilu, a beverage company.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

I needed someone with strong accounting and financial acumen to manage the finances of my business. I knew how my business was doing, and I relied on The Accountrepreneur LLC to do all my bookkeeping and accounting.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alex (Founder & Principal) and his team are in charge of doing all of my monthly and end-of-the-year reports, as well as forecasting all of my financial statements. They do the profit and loss balance sheet of cash flow and provide us with guidance on how to interpret the numbers to make sure that we’re making the right business decisions based on that information.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with two people from The Accountrepreneur. Alex is my main point of contact, and he has another person on his team who helps out with the work. I have the feeling that this other person does a lot of the stuff that I don’t even know about, but I talk to Alex on a much more frequent basis.

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

They reached out to me through a cold solicitation. A friend of mine that also has a beverage brand was working with them and had a great experience.

They were based in Chicago and focused on small food and beverage businesses. I was comfortable with working with them because they understood my industry — that was very helpful.

How much have you invested with them?

Their services cost around $2,300 a month, which is around $27,000 a year. We’ve worked with them for 2–3 years, so we’ve spent somewhere between $50,000–$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around January 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

I measure the success of our engagement based on their responsiveness, speed, knowledge of the industry, and the presentation of their reports. The Accountrepreneur has been excellent on every front.

In my business, I work with various contractors from time to time. There are very few of them in which I fully trust and keep working with year after year, and they’re one of them.

I’ve been able to rely on their services and never question what they’re doing. I’ve never had to doubt their ability, timeliness, deliverables, nor work — that means a lot to me and gives me great peace of mind.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is perfect. They’re timely and always understand the information that I try to find. They’re also very available. I get to talk to Alex at any moment whether it is by text or phone calls.

We communicate via email, text, and phone, and we hold Zoom meetings where we can share screens to see what we’re working on. We also use Quickbook as our primary tool for reporting.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been most impressed with how well The Accountrepreneur knows my business despite having many clients. As CEO and founder, I try to keep very close tabs on my financial statements and books. I’m always impressed by how much of that detail they know and are able to retain.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If I felt that they had areas of improvement that actually mattered, I’d go to someone else — Alex and his team are fantastic.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Alex’s understanding and knowledge of food, beverages, and other consumer goods startup companies are unparalleled. He knows what he’s doing and truly understands entrepreneurship — he’s fantastic.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Quevos. We make healthy, high protein, low-carb chips made from egg whites.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We needed help with accounting.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They do our monthly bookkeeping for us. The team reconciles the company’s expenses and financial statements in QuickBooks. They also give us financial advice around our spending and cash burn. The team also helps with financial modeling with a robust system which we can use for personal planning and to show to investors.

What is the team composition?

We work with Alex (Founder & Principal) and Jamie (Accounting Analyst).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Alex reached out to us on LinkedIn. He was building his initial base of clients and he was also working with a friend of ours. Talking with that friend gave us a lot of confidence to move forward.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $30,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018, and our work is ongoing.

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

Their responsiveness, accuracy, and speed all meet our expectations. I’m very happy with their work. The Accountrepreneur is the best solution for our accounting since we’re still fairly small.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re pretty good. Anytime we give them a project, they always hit the necessary deadlines. Their work is high quality and they have high attention to detail. I have a monthly call with Alex and we also communicate via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their reliability stands out. I’ve been working with Alex for two and a half years and we get the same level of quality and client dedication as the first day. He’s always quick to respond and available to talk when we need him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times where Alex has come up with an accounting principle for us to use without consulting with me first. He has so much experience that he tends to run with things; there have been a few times where I could’ve used a conversation so I could weigh in on the strategy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of a coconut water company. We manufacture all-natural coconut water and supply it to retailers as well as consumers. 

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

They’re our full-service finance group.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We count on them for all things finance and accounting. They handle all of our payroll, tax, and balance sheet needs. We refer to Alex (CPA) as our CFO because he manages all financial matters, including investor presentations.  

What is the team composition?

We work directly with Alex.

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Alex worked for us prior to forming his company. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have a monthly spend with them and have spent between $50,000–$100,000 to date. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2018.  

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

The quality of work is very high. They keep us ahead and organized in our finances, so we never need to worry. In our business, we need to be raising capital almost constantly. They play a huge role at our company in keeping track of our finances. 

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s incredibly organized and knows our company so well that he can solve problems almost immediately. Additionally, he makes himself very available for us. We rely on him quite a bit but can always get ahold of him. It feels like we’re his only client. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Alex is very important to the success of our business. He’s loyal and honest. We feel fortunate to have him as such a big part of this company. I can’t imagine what our company would be without his excellent services and personal touch.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We are confident and enthusiastic about his services.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend his services to anyone. Alex is knowledgeable in what’s needed to raise funds for early-stage companies. He’s a great partner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Rumi Spice. We’re a consumer goods business importing and selling spices from Afghanistan.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

The Accountrepreneur provides all of our financial planning and management.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team handles everything from our month-end reconciliation, bill payments, and financial forecasting and long-term planning. We use Quickbooks for our overall financial management, and Bill.com to manage bill processing and approval.

What is the team composition?

The majority of our contact is with Alex (Founder). We sometimes have a bit of additional contact with one other person on his team.

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We belong to an incubator that’s based nearby. The Accountrepreneur was doing a presentation for the incubator, which is how I got to know Alex and eventually bring them on board.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $4,400 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since December 2019.

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

The number one thing for us is the quality of financial reporting The Accountrepreneur brings. We get a really tight set of financial reports and metrics as part of our monthly reporting, which is really important and helpful for us. Everything we’ve done with The Accountrepreneur has been on time and accurate. 

They’re also a really good strategic partner in terms of providing guidance and identifying benchmarks. The team has a lot of experience in the industry, so they’re able to really look at it and offer great feedback. They’ve met and exceeded all of our goals.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really strong. The team tends to operate within our ecosystem. Each month they upload our financials to a particular part of our Dropbox, and we find they’re always there and labeled consistently. In terms of organization and communication, they’re always very consistent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve given us easy visibility to all the financial metrics that drive our business. They provide data consistently and in an accurate way, which is what I need from someone who’s managing the financial side of my business. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any major critiques. This has been one of the best consulting engagements I’ve ever had. The Accountrepreneur delivers on what they say they’re going to; it makes it really easy to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what are going to be the most important financial tools to run your business. Then, start with helping them either set those up for you or validate or evolve them, because that’s really what The Accountrepreneur is good at.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a luxury item e-commerce company.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

We previously worked with another company that managed our accounting needs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We fully outsource our accounting work to The Accountrepreneur. Their team provides services ranging from basic bookkeeping to CFO-level support such as strategic finance consulting. They handle account payables and account receivables. Their team helps us with inventory build and projections too. At one point, they also helped us to negotiate with our creditors and vendors.

What is the team composition?

We only work with Alex (Founder, Principal & Chief Numbers Officer).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

I found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $80,000–$90,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2018, and our partnership’s ongoing.

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

Our books are incredibly organized, and our accounts are paid on time. Alex helps with more strategic initiatives such as discussions with creditors. He makes sure that our working capital cycle aligns with our business plan too. Alex is an integral part of our annual planning process. When I pass a task to The Accountrepreneur, I know that they’ll take care of it in a rational way.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Alex keeps a to-do list for every client. Basically, he misses nothing. When I give him a task, he enters it into his to-do list. He’s on top of communication too. When we went through a working capital issue, he hopped on calls on Saturdays and Sundays to strategize with us. Alex is more than available. When he’s not, he’s upfront about it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

At the end of 2018, we had a significant working capital issue. We basically mismanaged the company’s debt-stack. That was right around the time when we brought Alex on board. Even though it was a messy situation, he dove right into it. The Accountrepreneur helped us untangle a lot of mess. He led negotiations with our creditors and helped us strategize a path forward.

Their team distills the information that we provide them and separates what does and doesn’t matter. They tighten our focus to 1–2 pieces of data that really matter. The Accountrepreneur digests information and forms a coherent, focused narrative around numbers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any constructive feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This may be uncomfortable because Alex isn’t an internal colleague. However, give him all of the information upfront. For example, when we want him to build a projection, we give him our purchase orders from the last two years. Give them more data than less.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a food production company.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

I’d previously used three different accountants and wasn’t happy with any of them. We wanted to hand the reins of our accounting, projections, and financial components to someone I could rely on. It was taking up a lot of my time. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alex (Founder) does our bookkeeping. He also helps create strategies for projections, run down bills, and work with distributors.

What is the team composition?

I just work with Alex. Some people on his team do backend stuff, but I only communicate with him. 

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

They came recommended by a peer in the food industry.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together nine months ago, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

Alex has been amazing: the team has gone above and beyond, freed up a ton of my time, and made my life way easier. He’s been super helpful with our financial strategy, fundraising, and even our dealings with investors. He knows the financial components of our business inside and out. Plus. his prices are very reasonable.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s wonderful at meeting deadlines and communication. We keep in touch over email, phone calls, and text.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Alex knows the food industry really, which is what makes him so valuable. He never gets things wrong.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nope. I’d always like to get things at a lower price, but there’s always a cost to good work.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and provide the information and access that he needs to do his job. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former controller of Neon One.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

When I became the controller at NeonOne, I needed some assistance with accounting. When I started, the accounting team in place wasn’t made up of true US Gaap accountants. The team played more of a bookkeeping role, so I was brought in to form true accounting processes.

Neon One was the parent of four different companies that all ran their own set of QuickBooks, so we had to consolidate all of the financials under a brand new system, NetSuite. I brought in Alex (Founder, Principal, & Chief Numbers Officer) to help me get four companies to report in US Gaap.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Alex worked with me and, together, we went through and reconciled every account for those four different companies. He also helped me to create processes on NetSuite and to form a true month-end closed process. 

We worked all the way down the balance sheet, put in reconciliation, and did the basics of accounting to get a consolidated financial set for the management. Additionally, since we were a conglomerate of small businesses that had been acquired, we had to undergo our first audit and needed to do purchase accounting, which is technical and complicated. 

We hired an outside firm to do the actual purchase accounting and valuation work, but Alex took the lead from the accounting side in terms of translating the valuation work into entries. 

What is the team composition?

I only work with Alex. 

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

I know Alex because he used to work for me at a previous company and he was smart and educated – one of the best people I’ve worked with. When he left that company, we stayed in touch.

He was the first person I reached out to when I took on this project. I knew that I needed something quick but I didn’t need a full-time hire. I chose Alex because he’s talented, has a good attitude, and is so patient. 

He can do the basics, but he can also take on complicated tasks such as helping with entries related to purchase accounting. He has a wide breadth of knowledge.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement began in July 2019. I left Neon One about a month ago, but Alex is still providing them with consulting services.

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

Alex has a lot of experience so he can work on his own without much guidance, which is key. He’s self-sufficient, his work is clean, and he always explains what he’s doing before recording the journal entries. He calls to make sure that you understand it. 

Overall, he’s conscientious, diligent, responsible, and knows the right thing to do. He’s probably one of the top two people I’ve ever hired because he’s so self-motivated. Additionally, Alex has a lot of financial skills with cash flow analysis and helping companies try and get funding.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

In the first month, he was at my company about three days a week. As things got to be more under control, he would only come in a couple of days a month. We would always touch base every week to come up with the plan for the week. 

I would always make sure that we had laid out what we needed help with on our end. Alex and I would then go over, especially in the early phases of the engagement, what each party was working on. Additionally, he’s very organized because he works with a lot of clients. 

Even though we have a friendship outside of work, our relationship was very business-oriented. We worked according to a timeline and he always met every deadline. If a deadline wasn’t going to be met or if he ran into anything that complicated the process, he would let me know. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

His ability to remain calm was impressive. When I took on the job, I hadn’t realized that the accounting books were in such poor shape. But Alex helped to keep me calm, laying out the plan clearly. He reassured me that the situation wasn’t terrible.

He’s seen a lot of company’s books, so he has that perspective. He knows when something is a problem. When I thought the books were a huge mess, he was able to take a lot of his experience from working with businesses of all sizes and industries and set a plan.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions, to be honest. I don’t have anything negative to say about Alex. I would hire him to help me with any work in any position.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know your objective. I knew exactly what tasks I needed him for and we had a plan to ramp up the process, and then eventually tail it off. He’s a consultant, so he’s not going to be with you forever. 

Make sure that you have very specific tasks. Additionally, don’t be afraid to challenge Alex. I would recommend him to anyone looking to get a clean set of books.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO of Hello Beverages. We offer fiber-infused nutritional beverage products.

What challenge were you trying to address with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

The Accountrepreneur helps us with a range of accounting services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When the team came in, they basically took over our Quickbooks account. Taking on a CFO-like role, at the end of each month The Accountrepreneur comes in with a complete financial package with about 10–12 different reports. It provides a vast amount of information; looking at it, we can identify margins on each of our clients as well as other details. 

We’ve also begun to raise money, and The Accountrepreneur puts together those reports as well.

What is the team composition?

I work only with Alex (Founder & Principal).

How did you come to work with The Accountrepreneur LLC?

Alex approached me on LinkedIn. I wasn’t looking for accounting services at the time, but I agreed to a meeting anyway. What I saw in the meeting blew me away, and I decided to start working with him on the spot.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in August 2018 and is ongoing.

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

I’m able to send my investors the monthly financial reports they put together, which keeps them informed in a very professional manner. They’re always impressed with how clean, detailed, and up-to-date the information is. 

Their work has also helped us to lower our COGS and ensure all of our inventory was accounted for. It saves me a lot of time. Plus, Alex totally understands CPG. He knows what to look for on all of our invoices and documents, so I can feel comfortable knowing I’m never being cheated on something. The Accountrepreneur picks up on a lot of things I would miss—I wouldn’t work without them.

How did The Accountrepreneur LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

Alex works extremely quickly and always meets our deadlines. His communication skills are great, too. We keep in touch through text messages, emails, and phone calls, and I can count on him to be available when I need him. If he can’t help me out right away, he’s extremely forthcoming and always provides a date when he will be able to.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Accountrepreneur’s services would make any CEO look great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there hasn’t been anything so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Sit down with them and see where your baseline is. From there, The Accountrepreneur will analyze where you and where you need to be, and then they’ll get you there.