Shawnna Weber is the host of Faces of Finance Podcast and the CEO of Edgewood Business Solutions, a business consulting, accounting, and bookkeeping firm that challenges the traditional transactional model of financial management. She founded this company in 2011  with the goal of developing a long-lasting consultative relationship with clients that allows them to decrease their expenses while driving profitability. 

Shawnna and her team have managed over $60 million in assets across their client base and negotiated and implemented strategy, saving companies over $1 million over the past six years. 

Podcast

Summary

• The Beginning Grind
• The Team Dynamic
  • Deliverables
• Bringing In CFO Services
• Keeping Connected With Loom
• Weekly Meetings

Resources

• Jetpack Interview With Veronica Wasek
• How to Create a Culture of Effective Communication In Your Firm
• 5 Ways to Stay Connected to Your Bookkeeping Clients

The Beginning Grind

Shawnna recalls how in the beginning, she would have a lot of referrals from CPA firms  but have to work on site. She recalls how exhausting it was, stating, “I was going and working onsite probably 30 to 40 hours a week to multiple clients. It really felt like I was having multiple jobs.”

But as she built rapport with her clients, she moved toward working offsite. To help ameliorate uncertainty and doubts the clients had, she was sure to mention that they could try the new work arrangement for a few weeks: if they dislike it, just let her know. In the end, she was more productive, and the clients didn’t contest her working offsite.  

The Team Dynamic

As Shawnna’s workload increased, she hired new team members. She again addressed her clients’ concerns by offering up her direct contact information and assuring that she would oversee the team members’ work. 

Today, her team comprises four employees and uses independent contractors as needed. All four are Accounting Executives, so they all do similar types of work. If someone were to take vacation, with our workflow software, she’d be able to have someone else take over that work. In this sense, one can imagine that there is a lot of cross-training, but all team members are equal at title as Accounting Executives and can take over any of the clients’ work at any time.

Deliverables

The team does all of their financial statements, and they have transitioned to explaining the details of the financial statements to the client using Loom. Some clients will go into their own accounting software and some don’t, so there is care to provide information both ways. 

Besides monthly and quarterly financials, Edgewood Business Solutions does payroll. And yet, still, sometimes they offer strategic advice as clients seek to grow their business. Shawnna explains:

We’re getting together all the documents, we’re doing cashflow projections. We’re doing all the things for PPP forgiveness. So there are a lot of different aspects, but having that information in a workflow software is really key.

Bringing In CFO Services

When is the best time to bring in CFO services? Shawnna explains that sometimes it’s “scoped out” through the accounting services; sometimes CPAs will make a referral because even though there may be an in-house bookkeeper, they still need a little extra help.

Usually, the kind of help requested centers around growth: how to add new employees, investigating what’s happening with bookkeeping and communications. At times, the recommendation for their services may come to the client through their bank.

Shawnna is confident in her team, and when asked where she managed to find such capable CFOs and contractors, she answered, “Usually it’s industry groups. So I’m in a lot of industry groups, and I find that there’s a lot of talent within those groups.” She mentions a few: Profit First Professionals Group, The Accountants Coffee House, and the Virtual Bookkeeper Biz Group. Generally, Shawnna explains that it’s important for her team to continue to actively participate in industry groups.

Keeping Connected with Loom

In addition to delivering financial statements and personal information to clients through Loom, Edgewood Business Solution also uses Loom videos in its workflow software to deliver training material. This is super helpful when trying to onboard someone, do cross-training, or transferring knowledge so that someone can actually take a vacation. In addition to there being a video for training, they also include information about the client’s financials.

Loom is a central point even for the growth and development of each of her team members, and one could argue that it is also a strategy for effective communication in her firm. Every Accounting Executive has to create and deliver content to their clients using Loom. This offers two very clear advantages: 

1. First, clients may not always be aware of the opportunities presented when a report is delivered via email. The video format allows the firm to be proactive instead of reactive in informing their clients and avoiding awkward conversation.
2. Secondly, many CPAs and CFOs within the industry struggle with communicating pertinent information to clients in a clear, understandable manner. Shawnna’s team develops this skill while presenting their work on Loom for clients. In addition to communicating clearly to clients, they must also communicate what they learn with each other. 

Weekly Meetings

When asked about how much time per week is used for meetings, Shawnna explained that it may vary between 5%-15%. The reason for such a discrepancy is due to the types of meetings she has with her team members.
She and her team have weekly traditional meetings where they share their struggles and successes. But as you may have guessed, she also asks, “Did you learn something that you can share with the group?” This gives each team member an opportunity to showcase their leadership potential while also fostering solidarity.

We’ve created a culture where if someone has a question or wants to learn something, there’s open communication for that. What I think is key in building a team is really asking the questions and allowing that conversation and communication.

However, there is also room for one-on-one discussion to address pertinent, unique topics or trials. One significant value of one-on-one meetings is the ability to dig deep in training employees in developing the skills to communicate with clients. One-on-one meetings may not always be necessary, which explains the 10% difference alluded to earlier, but Shawnna takes special care not to go more than a week without one-on-one conversations. 

There was a lot of valuable information presented in this podcast not covered in these notes, so definitely listen in! If you would like to reach out to Shawnna Weber personally, you can connect with her on LinkedIn. She is more than willing to answer questions, even divulging information about her tech stack, if you send her a private message. You can also follow her on Instagram at @Edgysolutions.

Brady Meaux is the founder of the accounting firm Meaux and Co. This interview was special because we could dig into the technology stack Brady uses for his own business. This is the perfect podcast for those curious about how to make automation work even for start-up businesses and firms, demystifying what applications he uses and how he connects them to automate different tasks. In this episode, he shares what he thinks about automation and weaving apps together, which is definitely ahead of the technology curve.

Podcast

Summary

• Meaux and Co: Beginnings and Marketing Strategy
• Tech Stack
• Automation

Resources

• The Liberating Guide to Adopting New Tech for Accountants
• Use These Automation Tools for an Unstoppable Accounting Firm
• Why Accounting Firms Need to Embrace Technology

Meaux and Co: Beginnings and Marketing Strategy

Meaux and Co started as a side gig back in 2015 before finally becoming his primary source of income mid 2018. Its major services fall into the following categories: financial management and accounting oversight, tax planning and preparation, and tax resolution. Their marketing involves a lot of word of mouth, starting with friends and acquaintances, and then growing organically. However, most of their clients are small businesses making $3 million and less.

Brady started with his wife, who is also a CPA. Early on, they were working together at a large firm in Louisiana. Several people who knew them firsthand for their stellar performance and reputation would come to them to ask general questions. Of course, performing such advisory tasks was the beginning of a new side gig which would later become a full-fledged business venture. 

Because of their success in marketing primarily via word of mouth, they approach other options with caution. For example, currently, they are experimenting using Facebook, but Brady explains that they’re “just trying to see if it’s worth it.” Brady expands:

“I think [Facebook] will [worthwhile] be at some point, but right now [in 2020], and since 2015, it’s all been word of mouth. Referrals from current clients and the other people who we haven’t worked directly with just know the type of work that we do.”

Even though they can draw in clients with word-of-mouth marketing, they also leverage their technology stack and automation to aid in their marketing strategy. As you will soon see, there are several tasks that can be automated that will help you reclaim valuable time, regardless of the size of your firm.

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In this podcast, we interview Yoseph West, and he is taking on business banking…which is a big deal! Yoseph’s vision is the start of a new trend that we must talk about. He is the co-founder and CEO of Relay Financial, but he has a rich career history: former Head of Marketing at Hubdoc and Director of Product Engagement at Wave. 

Podcast

Summary

• Banking: The Central Nerve For Small Businesses
• Relay Financial Customer Promise
• Should My Clients Use This?
• Avoiding the S-Word

Related Posts

• The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Accounting Firm Owners
• Bank Feed Software for Accountants
• Software Guide & Reviews For Accountants, Bookkeepers, CPA Firm

Banking: The Central Nerve For Small Businesses

Yoseph focuses a lot on small businesses and amply understands how business is not just business: it’s personal. As such, Relay Financial seeks to be the backbone for small business growth. Yoseph specifically states, “the small business back office has changed over the last five years except for one, which is really the nerve center…small businesses like bank accounts.”

Unfortunately, the data and information that banks stow away is incredibly siloed. Relay connects key systems that further aid in creating financial visibility. Yoseph divulged that part of this system is to build an accounting automation platform within the virtual bank. This helps to create a unique value customers can appreciate. Yoseph said, “not only are we one of 15 banks in the U.S. that actually has a direct bank feed into QBO and Xero…[but] alongside Wells Fargo, Capital One, and PayPal, we’re also actually the first bank in the world to integrate into those accounting platforms to pull in on paid bills and help automate payables.“ 

Relay Financial Customer Promise

While Yoseph began explaining how Relay Financial works, he noted just how low the quality of bank statement information is on the banking side. Furthermore, when a business owner looks at their bank account to size up how much money they have, it’s not an accurate portrayal. While one may have $20K in the bank account, they are not able to readily tell that there are several smaller bills totalling $10K around the corner. The first rule of creating that visibility is managing your cash flow wisely. Relay helps businesses to create the financial visibility so you’re in tune with where your cash is flowing.

In addition to this visibility, Relay offers customers a three-point promise.

• Collaborate with your team. Relay allows you to collaborate with user permission, which can include a partner portal.
• Manage your bills. With Relay, you can manage all of your bills and have integrated Xero and QBO for free. You also get free ACH.
• Manage all spending from your Relay accounts. Manage access to your banking and to issue debit cards.

Speaking of security, funds deposited are FDIC-insured up to $250K because of Relay’s work with Evolve Bank and Trust, a bank in Tennessee founded in 1925. This offers an extra layer of security for firm owners, accountants, and bookkeepers.

Should My Clients Use This?

We get it: trying something different can be unsettling. There are several reasons why clients should be using Relay, but we will focus on just three, of which one has already been mentioned.

1. Security. A dirty—unsecure—little secret is that accountants may share banking information in unsafe places, like notepads . Relay sidesteps this issue with the aforementioned collaboration portals. Clients can similarly get their own portal. 
2. Reliability. All of the data fed through QBO and Xero is standardized, and reliable; it’s software-to-software. 
3. The data is high quality. For example, when you deposit a check, it’s normally numbered in sequential order (1, 2, 3, 4, etc). However, with Relay, the payer’s name, amount, date, and memo are all available and passed into your accounting. Even credit card transactions are standardized with category information, which is especially a plus for accounting and bookkeeping.

Avoiding the S-Word

Without a doubt, this product offers amazing benefits to clients, but in the dark shadows still lies a looming elephant. Should clients switch from their current bank accounts to Relay? Yoseph doesn’t necessarily think so:

Treat the word switch like a four letter word. Never say it. In fact, in demos, I might say ‘never say it’…because the way we should position Relay is a complement to your existing banking.

Instead, Yoseph recommends identifying a particular challenge and using Relay to resolve that problem. Here are three uses that Yoseph focuses on when presenting Relay to potential customers.

1. Accounts Payable automation with next-day payments. Centralize unpaid bills, setup financial controls with approval workflows, and pay vendors quickly and easily.
2. Cash management. Customers can use Relay’s collaboration features to aid in cash or business management and enjoy audit trails on transactions.
3. Expense management.
4. Many people want to be able to issue cards to their employees without all of the extra hassle. Of course, as mentioned earlier, Relay allows account holders to issue cards and set spending limits.

Pro Tip: It’s generally better to highlight the value that your product or service can offer without necessarily advocating for separation from the competition. In this case, Yoseph explained that customers will begin to trust you and your product, and if they save money, that will speak volumes for your service or product:

“They never formally switch [to Relay], but organically they made the switch, and we can see that in the data. It comes across in terms of business transactions.”

With that being said, we have a list of comparable services that you can compare with Relay Financial. Comparisons are between Hubdoc, Leger Sync, Auto Entry, Bill.com, and Receipt Bank, and while they may not necessarily be exactly like Relay Financial, you can have a clear understand of why we need to talk about Relay Financial as a forerunner in a growing trend. 

To learn what’s up next for Relay, listen to the full episode! If you would like to reach out to Yoseph directly, he can be reached via email at yoseph@relayfi.com.