Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In this captivating episode of the Count Me In Podcast, we sit down with Timothy Wingate, EA, the knowledgeable founder and president of G+F Business & Financial Consulting LLC. Wingate unravels the tangled web of communications within finance and back office teams, especially within the construction sector. He shares indispensable strategies for leveraging technology to improve these crucial interactions and ensures financial information remains both accessible and secure.
Hear how real-time project management and meticulous bookkeeping are game-changers for cash flow and project success. Wingate, with his expertise, also discusses the art of building trust with clients, fostering an environment of truth and growth. Whether you’re navigating the financial underpinnings of your company or looking to streamline communication, this episode offers a treasure trove of insights for business professionals eager to drive their organizations forward.
Creators & Guests
Guest
What is Count Me In®?
IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) brings you the latest perspectives and learnings on all things affecting the accounting and finance world, as told by the experts working in the field and the thought leaders shaping the profession. Listen in to gain valuable insight and be included in the future of accounting and finance!
Welcome to another episode of Count Me In, where today we're joined by a very special guest, Timothy Wingate, the insightful founder and president of GF Business and Financial Consulting LLC. With his extensive expertise in construction accounting, Timothy delves into the complexities of interdepartmental communication, focusing on crucial links between back office operations and finance teams. In our conversation, Timothy unpacks the transformative impact of technology in streamlining communication and shares effective strategies for safeguarding financial data. Whether you're in the construction industry or keen on enhancing team collaboration and and financial management within your organization, this episode offers valuable insight and actionable advice from a seasoned pro. Let's get started.
Adam Larson:Well, Timothy, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast today as we're gonna be talking about communication between your organization with your your back office and your finance team, and that communication is difficult at times. And so maybe we can talk about some common challenges they're faced when you have you have your back office staff, your people in the field, or your people in the warehouse, or wherever your the the different teams are located. That communication can be difficult at times. And maybe you can talk about some common challenges that happen.
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of challenges. Number 1 is just getting the right code on a receipt, you know, just the the basics of of that. And it it requires 2 people to be communicating, you know, consistently and frequently. So you have to build out systems or channels where that communication can live so that way we know exactly where to seek out that information.
Timothy Wingate:And sometimes it's the accounting team reaching out to someone in in the office or reaching directly to the the manager themselves or the the in my case, I do construction accounting. So it may be reaching directly out to the project manager or have making sure that they're familiar with the systems that we are using to capture that information. And they maybe have some challenges there, so we need to maybe do a training on how to use the system. So, therefore, we can get this information from them that we need.
Adam Larson:That makes a lot of sense because, you know, we're well beyond the days of the interoffice memo that's in a one of those little envelopes that you you wrap it up and you have to put your name on it and you send it out. Right. You know, we're well beyond those days. Right? So Yeah.
Timothy Wingate:You know, what are some
Adam Larson:ways that we can leverage technology to kinda help improve that? You know, you mentioned it's between 2 people, but, you know, sometimes teams are 10, 20, 30 people. How do you, you know, how do you utilize that technology so you can effectively have that good communication?
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. So, I mean, one of the good things is sometimes when you have meetings like like we we're having today on a Zoom platform or a Google Meet, you know, one of those platforms, using a notetaker, it becomes a a a very good tool to use because it's capturing, you know, everything that's being said. So that way, we can now go back and revisit some things that was mentioned, and we don't have to, you know, bother the the person who was in the meeting physically. We can just go back to them digitally and get that information. So that's one one strategy that we use.
Timothy Wingate:Another strategy is to actually use, like, receipt capture technology. So getting the receipts captured by the team and then having them to upload it. So now we have that information, they have that information, and then we can go go from coding from there. So just using the technology that's available in our smartphones Mhmm. And those apps is just a great way to speed up communication and to also get the right communication going.
Timothy Wingate:Those are the 2 primary ways. And then then, of course, you can go a little bit archaic with email and, and and text messages. But we try to stay away from text messages because they get lost. It's not efficient. Loss of communication, loss of translation, those type of things.
Timothy Wingate:So Dex is a receipt a receipt capture tool that we use, and I like that tool a lot. And then we use a notetaker with, called Fireflies. Mhmm. We can capture all the information on those meetings so that way we're not missing something that we can go back and reference it.
Adam Larson:Mhmm. Yeah. Gone are the days they're having to have your notebook out and trying to quickly take notes, and you can get in there and just have the AI make a summary for you. And then you're like, okay. That is what we we did cover that.
Adam Larson:And even Yeah. Some of them even give you next steps, which is It does. Which is amazing.
Timothy Wingate:It does.
Adam Larson:One of the things that I've I've enjoyed, you know, we we implemented a receipt type, like, a a new system. Because I remember when you go on a business trip, you'd have to fill out Excel spreadsheet, maybe take pictures of things. Now you just, you know, upload them in there, put the code in there, submit it. Boom. Bang.
Adam Larson:Boom. Yep. You know, you're already there. And I I think it's really cut down on the time it takes, and so people really don't have excuses. I'm a I I can't get that too.
Adam Larson:All you gotta do is take 2 seconds, take a picture, and upload it. Boom. You're done. So I think that's really advanced, the way we communicate with each other.
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. It is. It is. It's really advanced. And, you know, we still we still haven't gotten rid of the spreadsheet because, of course
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:People still miss taking receipts, pictures of receipts. So we get in there and start coding
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:Accounts and realize, like, hold on. We don't have a receipt for this, so now we have to send them a spreadsheet report. But we're using different, I guess, systems, like, for Google Sheets. You can use Google Sheets where now it becomes collaborative. Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:And they don't have to download anything. You can work they can work updated real time. So the way that those those sheets are are being used looks a little different now, all cloud based. So those type of things. So using that type of technology or those type of softwares is something to be, you know, sought after now.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:You know, it's like I I want to use this. I wanna be up to date with that instead of taking the Microsoft Excel, downloading it, you know, filling it in, saving it, and then uploading it back. You know? So those days kinda work.
Adam Larson:Well and then realizing that somebody else updated the same sheet, and you guys and you guys both like these different times, and you have to reconcile it and figure out who made changes. Right. Right.
Timothy Wingate:So definitely trying to stay away from that. So slowly but surely, we're we're getting away from that as well Mhmm. With our, reporting.
Adam Larson:You know, one thing that I think the accounting and finance team doesn't talk about enough is, you know, when you're working with people who are not in accounting or finance, they don't necessarily understand the importance of, you know, your financial information, keeping it accurate, keeping it safe, and and all that stuff. Are there some strategies that you've implemented to kind of share the importance of that with people who are not financial and saying, hey, this is the like, are there any ways that you've kind of ensured that they're sharing the real time data is very important? And what are some strategy views to do that?
Timothy Wingate:Now to make sure I understand, are you saying with the with the client per se or just within, you know, our office?
Adam Larson:Either way. Either with your client that you're working with or in internal office because, you know, there's people who you know, there's people in your office who may not be with finance or connected to finance. So, like, you know, what are some strategies you work with to educate them in the best way of sharing this data and the importance of it?
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. So we we do a lot of trainings. So we train all the time on how to share share data. We have SOPs on how to share data, keep data, store data. We use a system, we like a gatekeeper, which is called Practice Protect.
Timothy Wingate:Mhmm. So Practice Protect is something that we use where everybody logs in the Practice Protect to get access to everything else in the company. Mhmm. So it allows everything to be protected that way, and we use a lot of different technology that has their own, you know, protections in place like the, you know, 2 two factor authentication. Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:So just making sure that everything that you have access to, that you also need, you know, an authenticator attached to it so that when you log in, it's asking you for that code. It's telling, you know, telling you to put this in, put that in. So that's how you protect that that information. And so we we just try to explain the same thing with the clients. Hey.
Timothy Wingate:Make sure you have 2 factor in authentications. Make sure that, you know, we we get away from a lot of paper because paper, you know, holds a lot of valuable information that could just be easily swiped or burnt or stolen. So, like, move from paper, get things into the cloud. So start, you know, moving those file cabinets onto the cap cloud is one of the safest thing that you could do because that information now becomes protected. You can put all types of firewalls in place to protect that information instead of just having it laying around or someone could just break into your office or an employee can just walk in and take something out of a file cabinet.
Timothy Wingate:You don't even know what they're taking until something happens, you know, and and you discover it.
Adam Larson:That that is truly important. It's funny if you watch spy movies. They're like, I can't find any of their information on the cloud to hack it. Oh, no. They keep it in a filing cabinet, and then they have to break into somewhere and steal a filing cabinet.
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. You
Adam Larson:know, that's like the new joke in these in these movies. But Right. It is very important to have access to all your data no matter where you are. And Yes. And with all the new technologies out there, you know, nothing's unhackable, you know, unfortunately.
Adam Larson:Right. But we have to do we do all the best practices that we can to make sure that it stays that way. But it also allows you to be like, you can be at your home in Florida or be somewhere in Colorado and still access your data and be able to help work wherever you are, which is important.
Timothy Wingate:Man, it's it's the way I live. You know, my my entire practice is virtual. So everyone who works for me works for some remote location. I got, you know, people who are in Ohio, in Cal California I mean, not California, North Carolina.
Adam Larson:Okay.
Timothy Wingate:And then they're here here in Florida. So but some of us, you know, met only once or twice in person. So it just it's a different world today. And to me, I think it's it has opened up businesses to be able to compete Mhmm. On a on a larger scale because you're not bound to your your local demographic.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:And so you can serve different communities, and you can receive help from different communities. Mhmm.
Adam Larson:No. It's it's great. It's great how we've been able to shrink the world in a way by the way we're able to connect, which is truly important.
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. Yeah. We did.
Adam Larson:So, you know, we can't talk about communicating with the field office or or clients just like that without talking about budgeting and forecasting because as organizations, we have to have that budget in place to make sure that we understand our strategy and going forward. You know, are there different tools or strategies that you've taken to help, collaborate with your staff to make budget the budgeting and forecasting process a more stable process?
Timothy Wingate:I mean, the main thing is just clean bookkeeping. Mhmm. You know, making sure that the the month before is closed out, everything is balanced, so that way we can have a solid baseline.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:Is is I always tell people with bookkeepers, what kills a a bookkeeper's, you know, joy in doing the work is rework. Mhmm. So anytime you gotta go back and just do rework or you're catching up, it kills momentum. It delays a lot of things, and it it don't allow us to really forecast. So just making sure that everything is caught up, everything is accurate, allows us to be in position to set a budget.
Timothy Wingate:And then we, you know, we use the QuickBooks tool
Adam Larson:Okay.
Timothy Wingate:Where you can go in there, create a budget for every single chart of account, and start to really plan and make those decisions about growth for the client Mhmm. Which is important, and then also about cash flow, which is probably even more important. So yeah. Yeah. So that's what what what we put in place.
Adam Larson:Maybe you could talk a little bit about the importance of cash flow, especially in your type of business and the way you're working with different construction companies. How would it important to understand how your cash flow works, and how do you how do you maintain that?
Timothy Wingate:Cash flow is huge. Huge. And then when when you're dealing with construction, they have cash flow coming from different projects to support one organization. And so you need to have a good eye on what's happening on each project, so that way you can know you can predict the cash flow from each project to help support the the one organization with the which is the construction company. And so having systems in place to manage projects in the construction world, we we find project management software.
Timothy Wingate:We tend to to lean towards Buildertrend. It it allows the contractor to to be inside of a system that they're familiar with, the terminology, all those type of things. But it also give us financial information that it shoots over to the accounting software so we can actually help them make decisions on how cash flow is is looking. And and we need to probably to make some changes or we need to do this. I can't tell you.
Timothy Wingate:Like, there are some times where I sat in a meeting, and I say, hey. You know, this job is on the bill right now. So it's either one of 2 things need to happen. We need to get them to pay an invoice, or we need to get the the job to a phase quickly. So that way, we can we can we can invoice them, or we need to stop the job.
Timothy Wingate:Mhmm. Because you you won't have the cash flow to support paying, you know, your your your team to go out on this project. So spend more of your resources, finish up another project that's moving, you know, pretty smoothly while you work out some some things over here. So those decisions but if you don't have the information being captured in real time and consistently every week reviewing it Mhmm. Then you you can quickly lose touch of what's happening if you have, like, 5 projects going on at one time, 10 projects going on at one time, how well cash flow is is coming from one project versus the next.
Timothy Wingate:So Mhmm. It's important to have a project management software in place to manage something like a construction company, for sure. Mhmm.
Adam Larson:Yeah. So it seems like communication is is extremely important to keep things flowing smoothly. Otherwise, you have delays. You know, things won't get billed. You'll have things unfinished because and it could come down to just the money's not moving properly.
Timothy Wingate:Right. Yeah. And and you gotta keep an eye out on how that money should be moving.
Adam Larson:Mhmm. And and
Timothy Wingate:then and then also be quick to make a decision about a project so that way you can solve the problem, the cash flow problem.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:Because cash flow is king, working capital is king Mhmm. And a construction company.
Adam Larson:Yeah. For sure. So I can I I understand why you would do lots of education because if you're working with, you know, project managers who are on-site, they not may not be familiar with the project management software? They may not be they may just learn one aspect of it. So you have to keep that communication, keep that education there so that things can flow properly.
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. Because we need to know, like, hey. When you don't do this, it affects the bottom line. Or if you're behind on getting materials, like, you know, you hey. I forgot to order materials.
Timothy Wingate:So instead of it coming this week, it's gonna come in 3 weeks. Mhmm. Well, you may have just pushed the project back 3 weeks. You may have now burnt through 2% of profit, you know, because of that 3 week delay.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:So having them to understand, you know, how the decisions made in the field affect the the numbers and how much money the company makes and earns and and can use to grow. Yeah. So it's just bringing everything full circle, making the connection. Mhmm.
Adam Larson:Well, and it also helps allowing people to see the big picture. Yeah. Because if you do if you delay here, then it delays the next project, which delays more income, and it just it's a it's a stair it's a Yeah. Waterfall.
Timothy Wingate:It's a waterfall. A big one. A big one.
Adam Larson:A very big one, which which they've certainly, like, causes everybody to pull their hair out and be like,
Timothy Wingate:ah. Yeah. It does. It does, man. And it's easy for it to happen and hard to get out of.
Timothy Wingate:Mhmm. Very, very hard to get out of. And sometimes it takes some time. Sometimes it takes, you know, cutting back, and sometimes you may have to cut someone's job because Mhmm. It's gotten that bad.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:So we we we just gotta be careful on you know, we don't construction's a it's a different animal. Mhmm. You know, it's not like, hey. Let's just boost up marketing to sell more product. No.
Timothy Wingate:It's it's not it's not as simple as that. Mhmm. So there's a lot of, you know, human touches involved, and so a lot of room for error. Mhmm.
Adam Larson:Are there any examples you can share that where you kind of fell into that hole what you used, you know, you were able to get out of it, you know, information that you can share? Obviously, you don't have to give names or anything like that. But are there any examples of where you've seen that happen and you were able to climb out of it using some of the examples we've been sharing today?
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. So one in particular was, you know, a client who really didn't didn't know how how the cash flow on one project was affecting all of the other projects. Mhmm. And so we we started to dig into that particular project, but then come to find out that there's, you know, like I said before, a scheduling problem.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:Because people were scheduled to do certain things. And because they did not come when they were scheduled, it pushed it back a week, and then you start pushing back all the other different trades, you know, who are coming after this one trade.
Adam Larson:Okay.
Timothy Wingate:And it's just delaying the project. They saw a project that was supposed to be completed in 5 months took 9, 10 months
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:To be completed. So what happened? You know, you missed out on opportunities to do other jobs that you would had the opportunity to do if you would have completed a project on time or, you know, to or near time. Mhmm. So by identifying that, now that put the owner in position to say, I need to look more into daily logs.
Timothy Wingate:I need to look more into what's happening.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:I need to have consistent meetings with the team every single week about what we should be accomplishing this week. Mhmm. And because of the and by them doing that, it allowed the team to rally together to say, hey, we're gonna make sure we we meet these goals. And then they started to just pick up pace and getting things done on time. And, I mean, it's just a trickle down effect now that
Adam Larson:Yeah.
Timothy Wingate:Now the team is is is just growing now, you know, because everybody finally has like, they like, they found purpose, you know. I know why I do what I do Mhmm. You know, and and how it helps the company. So
Adam Larson:That's awesome. It's it's like it's you you you solve the issue. I mean, obviously, there's nothing you could do. You had to get it done when it got done, but then you're just like, what steps am I gonna take to make sure this doesn't happen again? Yeah.
Adam Larson:And that's a big part of being a leader is is figuring out, okay, what happened? How can we fix this? You know, obviously, people make mistakes. Everybody's gonna make a mistake, but it's what you do after the mistake is the true test of a person, really.
Timothy Wingate:Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely, man. You you gotta be able to persevere. Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:Things are gonna come up all the time. Business is not for the faint of heart. You you have to come in here expecting some sort of failure
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:In different phases of growth. But all those things, you just build upon it. You just build upon it. And I love being a part of you know, as an accountant, you you have a special place in a a client's, like, internal community, like, their their core, their nucleus.
Adam Larson:Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:And so they rely on you a lot. You become confident. You you become a friend in some cases. You know? So it's just a lot that happens with that relationship.
Timothy Wingate:So I take it very serious when I'm, accepted to be an accountant for a company and and vice versa. You know, when a client has been accepted to be a part of the g plus l family, they become family, you know. And I look out for family. I I work hard for family. You know, I make sure that we're gonna go all out, you know, to to make sure that they grow Yeah.
Timothy Wingate:And become the best company they can become.
Adam Larson:So, you know, speaking about speaking to that, you you're talking about, you know, making sure they feel like they're part of family, you're part of their family. What are some strategies that you take to build that trust to make it feel like family? Because it's not something that happens day 1, obviously. It's something that builds over time.
Timothy Wingate:No.
Adam Larson:So what are some strategies to build that trust?
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. One thing is you tell them the truth. Yeah. You know, sometimes the truth hurts. You know?
Timothy Wingate:So when we first get together, I start off by doing an analysis, what we call a financial blueprint. I, ask for tax returns, access to QuickBooks, loan agreements, bill of sales, closing documents, you know, 941, 940. You know? So I'm asking for a ton of information to review so that way I can tell them the truth Mhmm. About the condition that they're in today.
Timothy Wingate:Yeah. And trust me, those calls are always, you know they don't feel good. They appreciate it, but but it is they just doesn't they don't feel good, and they appreciate you telling them the truth. You're not trying to sell them. You're not trying to market them.
Timothy Wingate:You know, I I wasn't sure when I first started doing this if I was gonna lose clients because they saw how bad it was. They would just give up. You know? Like, I don't even wanna go down this right this route to fix it. It's just too much.
Timothy Wingate:I'm just gonna start over or whatever it is. But it was a total opposite. They they say you're the first person to tell me that this I should have been an s corporation. Mhmm. He's the first person to tell me that I should have been paying myself a little bit more in salary because it didn't meet, you know, the reasonable compensation requirement that the IRS wants.
Timothy Wingate:You was the first person to tell me that, hey. I need to have a workers' comp policy in place because the people who I thought were 10 99 are really not 10 99 workers. Mhmm. You know? And and so I need to convert them to w two employees and get a workers' comp policy because of I'm putting my company at a huge risk by having them as 10 99 workers.
Timothy Wingate:Mhmm. So just those different things, you know, just showing them, hey. I want to help you avoid the pitfalls that are out there. Yeah. And I don't want you looking over your shoulder.
Timothy Wingate:I don't want you worrying about these these things. I want you to know that you're good. So by doing that, that's me giving. Mhmm. So part of you know, one of my core values is we give.
Timothy Wingate:I have 3 of them. We smile, we learn, we give. Mhmm. And so we're gonna smile because if I'm not smiling, then that means you think your situation is really bad. And then it's unfixable.
Timothy Wingate:Right? You know? So Yeah. No. I'm smiling because it can be fixed.
Timothy Wingate:Everything that I'm hearing, I'm listening to you say, it can be fixed. And so I'm not worried about that at all. And then we learn. You know that you're hiring an accounting team that's constantly learning, learning new softwares, learning how to do things better in your industry. You know?
Timothy Wingate:That's why I picked the industry. I I I niche down the construction so that way my mind can only be focused on the construction industry. Mhmm. Because I wanna know what other people are doing, what other accountants are doing, what the industry is saying, accounting part. Mhmm.
Timothy Wingate:You know? So I'm digging all into that, and sometimes I'm looking into stuff that doesn't have anything related to the finances. Mhmm. But it affects the construction industry, and I wanna know about it. So and they see that, and they and they they're like, man, he he cares because he's telling me things that my other accountant couldn't tell me because they don't serve the construction industry the way that, you know, G Plus F serves the industry.
Timothy Wingate:So that's how you separate yourself. That's how you start to build that relationship. They start to gain trust. Mhmm. And then, you know, I'm a like I said, I'm a constant giver.
Timothy Wingate:I'm just not person who just takes from the clients. I like to show my appreciation in different ways. Mhmm. So I give back to them. You know, I think about them on birthdays.
Timothy Wingate:I think about them during the holidays, you know, and and do special things for them. So that's how you build that relationship.
Adam Larson:Wow. I mean, that's that's like a masterclass in just building relationships in general. Because if you wanna meet somebody, you don't sit there and just take, take, take. It's a it's a give and take in any relationship. So whether it's a personal relationship or a business relationship, I think what you just said there, you know, is smile, give a smile, learn, and give.
Adam Larson:Right? Yep. Those are those are 3 tenets that anybody should apply Yeah. Whether in business or anywhere else. Because if you're sitting there always looking angry all the time, it's hard to be approachable.
Adam Larson:You know?
Timothy Wingate:It's hard.
Adam Larson:Not that we have to fake being happy.
Timothy Wingate:Yeah.
Adam Larson:But when you're when you're sharing things and you're trying to connect with people, be mindful of your
Timothy Wingate:face. Exactly. You should be. Yeah. Yeah.
Timothy Wingate:So that's how I do it.
Adam Larson:That's great. I mean, I I think that's a wonderful thing. And, you know, and and I think you you hit the nail on the head, especially when it comes to learning. You know, as accountants, always have to be aware of what's happening in in your industry, be aware of what's happening in other industries, how they could affect your industry, but also looking at best practices in other industries. Say, hey.
Adam Larson:Can I apply that here in mine?
Timothy Wingate:Right.
Adam Larson:And it's one of those ways where it's great to, you know, whether it's, you know, you're connected through an accounting organization like IMA or some or other ones, you know, you can connect with other accountants who may be in other industries, you know, take a continuing education classes, you know, constantly learning because otherwise, you'll just be stay stagnant. And if you stay stagnant, you can't grow.
Timothy Wingate:Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And I stagnant, I'm I'm allergic to being stagnant.
Timothy Wingate:I don't know how to be stagnant.
Adam Larson:Yeah. Well, I don't think any of us should be stagnant, and I think we should we we everybody should take on that stance of I'm allergic to being stagnant.
Timothy Wingate:And Yeah.
Adam Larson:That's the way to keep growing.
Timothy Wingate:For sure.
Adam Larson:Yeah. Well, Timothy, I thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's been great getting to know you and chatting with you, and I I hope our audience enjoys this conversation as much as I have.
Timothy Wingate:Man, I enjoyed it, Adam. Thank you so much for having me. I hope that, you know, people gain something from this, for sure.
Adam Larson:This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from the accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance education, visit IMA's website at www.ima net.org.