Ken Kaufman, CFO at Community Dental Partners is a 100% remote CFO for his company and has built and scaled a successful remote-enabled finance team. I chat with him to learn more about how he built his team, and advice he would give other CFO’s who want to accomplish the same.
Show Notes
Episode Content Outline
- General Discussion
- Building a Remote Finance Team
- Ken to give overview of structure of current team
- Ken to talk through closing calendar structure
- How do you manage your close calendar?
- What are the critical monthly deadlines?
- When are the books closed?
- The Virtual Assistant to the CFO
- How do you currently leverage a virtual assistant(VA)?
- Their duties/responsibilities?
- Gaining trust with a new VA
- When should a CFO hire a VA?
- Effective communication with your VA
- Finding a VA
- Project Manager
- What is the purpose/role of the PM
- Structure
- Onshore vs Offshore
- Which roles are better suited for Offshore/onshore?
- Issues to consider when choosing whether to find onshore/offshore remote talent.
- Recruiting
- Onshore
- How do you interview for remote finance hires?
- What do you look for in a remote candidate?
- What are the warning signs that a candidate isn’t suited for remote work?
- What working hours expectations do you set with your teams? Especially offshore or people who are in different time zones?
- What do you recommend for equipment policy for your onshore hires?
- Offshore
- Where to look when searching for Offshore help?
- Tips for interviewing/etc.
- Paying Offshore contractors/tax issues?
- Using an agency vs direct contractor hire
- Using part-time contractors?
- Onboarding/Training
- Once you have hired people, what advice would you give regarding the onboarding and training process in a 100% remote environment?
- Maintaining Culture and Morale
- How do you build and maintain relationships with a 100% remote team?
- What do you do for team building, etc?
- How do you gauge if an employee is at risk of leaving or is having an issue with engagement?
- Is there an expectation to have the onshore team at the same place together at some interval (once or twice a year?)
- Summary:
- Advice for those building a team from scratch
- Advice for those who are transitioning from a local team to a remote team
- Running a Remote Finance Team
- What is your meeting cadence with your team and how often do you touch base?
- Dealing with time zone differences
- How do you keep on top of your team?
- How do you know if deliverables are being worked on, and your team is running efficiently?
- What tools do you use to run your team?
- Task Management?
- Communication?
- Document/workpaper storage?
- Monthly Accounting Calendar?
- Any other considerations?
- Wrap Up
- What are your top “Do” and “Do not” regarding managing a remote finance team?
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