Are the Right Seats in the Room?
What's the difference between an Apprentice Carpenter and a Lead Carpenter? Or a Lead Carpenter and a Project Manager? We're betting you can easily answer both questions. Fair enough. So how about these: what's the difference between a CFO and a Controller? Or a Controller and a Staff Accountant? Or a Staff Accountant and an A/P Clerk?

An Accounting Department is built in the very same way you build teams for the field. The right mixture of skill sets, in the right quantities, to meet the demands of the work to be done. We'll guide you through the process of designing and right-sizing your back office to suit your needs.

Are the Right People in Those Seats?
You'd never expect that an Apprentice Carpenter could do the job of a Project Manager, right? By the same token, a Staff Accountant shouldn't be expected to be able to do the job of a CFO. Or a Controller. 

Once we've determined the skills you need and the quantities you need them in, the next step is to determine whether you have the right people for the seats. Here we'll review your current staff and determine if they're qualified to sit in one of the seats we've created. And to the extent one or more don't fit, we'll guide you through the process of either repurposing, retraining or replacing.

And here's where things can sometimes get difficult. The ultimate success of the department we design and implement for you will require that it be  overseen and staffed, on a go-forward basis, by professional construction accounting personnel who are appropriately educated and trained and who have prior work experience commensurate with the position they will be tasked to hold in the department.

Yes, we guarantee our work. But what we cannot guarantee is that your wife, your nephew or someone else whose sum total prior work experience in construction accounting is as an A/P Clerk will somehow be magically transformed into the CFO or Controller of your company because we left some checklists, policies and procedures behind when we finished.

Bottom line: we must insist that you respect and follow the advise we give you regarding who's qualified to work in your Accounting Department and in what capacity. To the extent you choose to act contrary to our advise, any guarantees we make regarding the ultimate success of that department are void.

And, Lastly, Should you Consider Outsourcing?
You're a General Contractor. Or a Homebuilder. In other words, you're an onsite guy and your work paradigm has been informed by an entire career that has revolved around you having to be physically present on a job site to get things done. We get it. And we respect and appreciate those who simply cannot fathom outsourcing all or part of their back office to a remote firm like ours. However, if you can fathom it -- or if you will entertain the thought experiment -- we should discuss outsourcing.

Because outsourcing is often the best solution. Why? Because every General Contractor or Homebuilder needs and benefits from having an Accounting and Finance Department that's fully staffed with a variety of talents ranging from CFO to A/P Clerk. But only the largest General Contractors and Homebuilders can justify the cost of hiring multiple, specialized heads to work full time. Which is where an outsourced solution excels; all of the positions get filled by appropriately educated, talented and experienced construction accounting professionals and you pay for only the time you actually need and use.