Avenues Financial

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an information services company that creates real estate and area guides.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Avenues Financial?

We hired them to help with accounting and bookkeeping during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They conducted job costing, budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management.

What is the team composition?

We just worked with one person.

How did you come to work with Avenues Financial?

It was a referral from a friend of mine, so I trusted them. On top of that, they were reasonably priced.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $500 a month. Their annual fee is about $6,000–$7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020 and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve been extremely happy with the quality of their work and their turnaround times. They make things easy for me.

How did Avenues Financial perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, we had a face-to-face meeting to discuss what we needed. Since the pandemic began, we’ve been holding Zoom meetings.

Communication has been awesome. Transparency is one of their strengths. They always let us know what they’re working on and when we can expect them to complete it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Unlike other providers, I don’t feel like they’re nickel and diming me. I also feel relieved that they’re able to work with my tax accountant so I don’t need to be super involved in the process. Now I don’t have to worry about it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything they need to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re organized and you prepare the information they need, they will know what to do and you’ll get a better result from them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive VP at a marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Avenues Financial?

We had problems with accounting and knowing exactly where our books stood at any given point. We had problems with forecasting and budgeting too.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Avenues Financial helped fix our problems, bringing clarity to our books. They cleaned up our ledger accounts and books, which helped with our reporting. Since they fixed our accounts, we've been able to collect accurate financial reports and make business decisions. Their team also helped prepare taxes and business strategies, and continue to support our accounting needs.

What is the team composition?

I directly work with two people from Avenues Financial.

How did you come to work with Avenues Financial?

One of my business partners found Avenues Financial and brought them into the office. We interviewed them and then decided to engage them. At the time, they directly worked with our accountant to correct our books. After everything was correct, we decided to exclusively work with Avenues Financial.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000–$50,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership began around January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We now have books that contain accurate data for us to rely on. We now know which segments of our business are producing profit and which aren’t. They’ve been nothing but phenomenal. I trust our books more than I ever had in six years and trust that we can make decisions based on those books.

How did Avenues Financial perform from a project management standpoint?

Avenues Financial manage everything possible by themselves. When they need help, they ask us. We have meetings every quarter with them during which they provide financial reports. Their team’s always available via Slack. They’re extremely responsive, so communication’s strong. If needed, they come to our quarterly board meetings too.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The level of detail their team provides distinguishes them from other providers. They’re hands-on and willing to learn about our business. Their team knows our business well and helps us make decisions about it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly can’t think of any constructive feedback. They’ve gone above and beyond.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them. Even if you don’t know anything about finance, they’ll help you. Ask them questions because their team’s knowledgeable. I’ve learned a lot from them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Rise Authority is an SEO agency that specializes in link development and authority building. I am the business manager, responsible for everything from daily operations to client relationships and back-office management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Avenues Financial?

We hired Avenues Financial to handle the company's bookkeeping, accounting, financial analysis, forecasting, and job costing.

What were your goals for this engagement?

Rise Authority doesn't have an internal accountant or financial analyst, so we needed to outsource everything accounting-related to a financial expert. The goal was to partner with a reputable, dependable accountant who could handle these critical functions with minimal oversight.

This ongoing engagement has a significant impact on the success and profitability of our business, so partnering with the right accounting professional was crucial.

SOLUTION

How did you select Avenues Financial?

Avenues Financial was referred by a trusted business partner. We sought bids and offers from multiple companies to ensure we'd get a fair price, though we ultimately made the final decision based on quality and reputation.

Describe the engagement in detail.

This is an ongoing project, so the scope of work is fluid. Each month, Avenues Financial handles the company's bookkeeping and accounting using Quickbooks. They also help us with financial analysis and forecasting using Microsoft Excel models and collaborative Google Sheets trackers.

Rise Authority is a fast-growing company that's constantly expanding our team of internal employees and external contractors, so the FP&A services are especially valuable. Avenues Financial also assists our company with job costing, which is critical for our ongoing investments in software development and web development.

Describe their billing or cost structure.

Fixed monthly rate

What was the team composition?

Nicole is my sole point of contact, which makes it easy to stay in sync when you're just working with one person.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

Avenues Financial has done an excellent job at managing our ongoing accounting and FP&A needs. They always meet their deadlines, and it's wonderful to be able to rely on them completely to take all accounting matters off of my desk.

Nicole has met and exceeded our expectations. The financial insight she's provided is invaluable to our operations and growth strategy, and she's even helped us improve internal processes to make things run more smoothly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I communicate with Avenues Financial via Slack, email, and by phone. It's great being able to communicate with Nicole via Slack, as that's our go-to communication portal inside the company. Being able to actively collaborate with Avenues Financial using Google Sheets has been fantastic.

We use Google Drive to save and share invoices. Nicole is very responsive, always getting back to me in a timely manner when I reach out with a request or question.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I'm most impressed with Nicole's reliability and responsiveness. It feels like she's an internal employee working in our company.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nicole does an excellent job and there isn't anything I'd ask her to do differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a company that provides SEO and PPC management services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Avenues Financial?

We’d struggled with handling our bookkeeping for quite some time, specifically around our job and job costing. So, we were looking for a firm that could handle those needs. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Avenues Financial does our bookkeeping, forecasting, and budgeting among other financial needs. This also includes strategic advisory such as analysis on job costing and recommendations. The team uses a couple of different accounting tools, but the primary is QuickBooks Online.

What is the team composition? 

We’re in contact with a CPA who goes over our reports. However, I’m sure that there’s a team behind her that’s creating the reports.

How did you come to work with Avenues Financial?

It was through a referral. At the time, we’d had a few failed attempts with other service providers, so we’re glad that things are going well with Avenues Financial.

How much have you invested with them?

They charge a fixed rate of $1,500 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around December 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With Avenues Financial’s job costing, we could identify specific jobs or projects that were less profitable or cost us money. As a result, we’ve made quite a bit more money this year because we have that financial data and analysis.

How did Avenues Financial perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very organized. We typically interact through email, and the communication is crystal clear. Once a month, we’ll get on a phone call to go over our reports as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest highlight is their ability to provide the job costing reports as well as forecasting our end-of-year net profit. That has been super helpful for our executive team because it allows us to make strategic decisions based on data.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve done a really good job, especially considering that we went through four bookkeeping companies before them.