Westside Financial

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Coalition, and we do website development and online marketing. We have 80 full-time employees and work with a wide variety of clients. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with your accountant?

In our accounting department, we have a few team members who work full-time, entering all the data and keeping everything up-to-date. We’re in a very competitive industry, so we require lots of custom reports. We maintain a wide variety of important reports, such as a retainer reports, tracking hours by website projects, and a lot of other operational reports that our accounting department is also responsible for. 

SOLUTION

What does your accounting firm provide for you on a normal basis?

Before Kenny [Founder, Westside Westside Tax and Accounting Services] started his firm, he worked for me full-time for several years. He set up our whole accounting process and all these custom reports. He’s continued to do so over the last year and a half since he started his own firm. He operates as a remote, contract CFO for us, and he oversees everything we do in accounting. He makes sure the reports are accurate and double-checks what my team does. A big thing he does is to help us with taxes.

We have team members all over the world, so we have a very complex accounting process. Kenny set up accounts with the tax collection departments in probably 20 different states. He talks with many different countries. He understands how to move money overseas cheaply and effectively and how to deal with their taxes, legal issues, and all that sort of stuff.

How did you come to work with Westside?

I relied on my previous relationship. Kenny has earned my trust and gone above and beyond many times. He’s a very sharp dude and somebody I trust to handle this work.

How much have you invested with Westside?

I think we’re paying around $500–$1,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve worked with Kenny since he started his firm 5 or 6 years ago, and our relationship is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

One thing I think is incredibly important is ongoing education. Kenny has continued to pursue that. He has his CPA license, and he’s now getting a CFP [certified financial planner] certification. He’s constantly learning new things by going to conferences, finding out about arcane tax rules and accounting ideas, then applying that to his customers. We’re constantly benefiting from Kenny’s drive to learn and get better.

Do you know if he’s using any payroll tools, such as QuickBooks, or is the work custom?

He uses a few different tools. My company uses QuickBooks online, and he’s very familiar with that. He now uses a software for accounting and another for tax, but I don’t remember the names.

Are you able to measure the impact on your company and bottom line?

It’s massive. He’s enabled us to be able to hire people remotely in other states and countries while dealing with the tax, accounting, and legal issues that have come up through doing so. He’s done a great job. Without that, our expenses would be far higher, and the operation just couldn’t run the way it does.

Are there any areas Westside could improve?

Kenny’s been getting a little busier, and response times could improve a little bit, but he always gets everything done that we need.

What advice would you give a potential customer of Westside to get the most out of the relationship?

You definitely need to walk Kenny through the full business model that you have to give him a complete understanding, and a way to tie his accounting and tax knowledge to your business.