Finatics Accounting Solutions Inc

Outsourced bookkeeping for growing firms

Finatics Accounting Solutions is a Canadian accounting firm that works with small and medium-sized enterprises. Rather than placing a full finance department inside each client, it operates as a virtual accounting team in which bookkeepers, payroll specialists, controllers and fractional CFOs work on the books remotely and alongside the owner. The firm says its aim is accounting that is reliable, efficient and affordable, with the systems and controls a company needs as it expands.

The website invites prospects to book a discovery call. Finatics says it tailors each package to the organisation in front of it, because no two companies manage their finances in the same way, and it presents this as the reason its solutions are assembled piece by piece rather than sold as a fixed menu.

Month-end, payables and receivables

The bookkeeping work starts with accounts receivable, which keeps invoices issued and money collected, and accounts payable, which keeps supplier bills recorded and paid on time. Month-end processing closes each period so that the figures can be read, and year-end file preparation assembles the records an accountant needs for the annual return. Regulatory compliance runs alongside this, so that filings and remittances follow the rules the client has to meet.

Reporting that supports decisions

Clients receive financial reporting and key performance indicators, which show owners how the business is doing between sets of annual accounts. Board reporting is prepared for organisations that answer to a board, and government compliance reports are produced where a regulator requires them. The firm describes these reports as a way of making timely decisions rather than looking back once a year.

Inventory, capital assets and costing

For firms that hold stock or own equipment, the team tracks inventory, manages capital assets and works out costing metrics, which show what each product or service costs to deliver. Cash flow management is listed among the solutions, and the firm states that it handles regulatory filings as part of that work. Its stated experience reaches into packaged consumer goods, freight haulage, courier work and the moving trade, and the site lists specific solutions for each of these industries.

Payroll and controller oversight

Payroll is run by dedicated payroll specialists, and a controller takes responsibility for financial reporting and regulatory compliance across the books. Where a business needs direction rather than transaction processing, fractional CFO support brings strategic financial planning, which the firm describes as preparing the client for the future.

The team's background

The team holds CPA and CGA designations. The biographies on the site describe earlier careers across food, housing, government, transport and manufacturing, along with experience of major software conversions, the design of month-end schedules and the transfer of finance functions from one team to another. The firm's own description is that its people learn new software quickly and are used to working across several industries at once.

Software and reporting tools

The team works in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, and uses Dext, SOS Inventory and Fathom reporting. Its systems specialists write custom reports, set up interfaces between applications and maintain existing accounting systems, and they list experience with SQL, Crystal Reports, SSRS reports and Excel macros. Upgrades to newer applications are handled in the same way, so a client moving to a new package keeps the same bookkeeping team.

Finatics Accounting Solutions Inc, known as Finatics, supplies outsourced accounting to small and medium-sized businesses. Its virtual team works alongside clients and sets up the systems and controls they need in order to grow. Solutions are tailored, since no two organisations have the same needs.

Services

• Bookkeeping: accounts receivable and payable, month-end processing and year-end file preparation.
• Payroll: handled by dedicated payroll specialists.
• Controller services: oversight of financial reporting and regulatory compliance.
• Fractional CFO support: strategic financial planning for the future.
• Reporting: key performance indicators and management reports for timely decisions.

Clients

The firm describes experience across several industries, including consumer packaged goods, trucking and freight carriers, courier services and moving companies. It supports businesses at different stages of their life cycle.

Key facts

• Team: bookkeepers, payroll specialists, controllers and fractional CFOs.
• Approach: a virtual accounting team working alongside the client.
• Credentials: one team member completed the CGA designation in 2006, now the CPA designation.