How We Act as a True Partner to Add Value for Clients
At a Glance
Fox & Partners is always happy to go the extra mile for our clients. So, when a growing Real Estate Development Firm reached out to us for help with their accounting and reporting, we made it our mission to not only provide them with excellent financials, but also ensure that they had the insights and strategies they needed to succeed going forward.
We both got their reports in order and cemented a relationship that is still thriving over four years later by:
- Delivering a clear overview of the business, clean financials for each subsidiary, and standardized investor reports.
- Utilizing tools such as Excel, visual aids, and Quickbooks to organize their financials.
- Optimizing the reports over time, ensuring each line item led back to a source document, and consolidating or adding items along the way.
- Creating systems which enabled efficient monthly reconciling the books, as well as standardized folders in a server.
- Collating insightful, standardized, and current investor reports.
- Added value over the next three years by reorganizing their deal structure, fundraising, networking, and more.
Read on for the details.
What the Client Needed
When this Real Estate Development Firm connected with us, they expressed a lot of stress and anxiety around their finances. We found that our client had no exact bookkeeping system and was instead keeping track of their dozens of properties separately in Excel. They also had no formalized business plan, goal structure, or easy-to read-reports or visuals to help them understand their business.
They faced a lack of organization while also needing to provide detailed reports to their many investors on a regular basis. This, of course, put a lot of excess pressure on them as they also juggled day-to-day operations. They needed to see an overview of the business, clean financials for each business, and standardized investor reports.
How We Got Those 3 Tasks Done
Seeing an Overview of the Business
The first step for Fox & Partners was to go through the spreadsheets and information that the client had and make sense of it all, piecing their puzzle together. They hadn’t had a formal accounting structure for the last three years, so there was quite a bit to sift through.
We compiled a list of all of their properties and businesses (about 15 entities in total), creating both a list in Excel and a visual to help them (and us) better understand the full picture. We do this so we can add notes and thoughts in the spreadsheet, but then also have a clear visual representation of the company.
Once we had the full list of entities, we set up a QuickBooks Desktop account for each one. On the Excel spreadsheet, we noted how many bank accounts they had, if the property had a loan, the intent of the property (flip or hold), and the equity structure of the business. We then went about making sure we had all of the necessary documents, including HUDS, business formation documents, operating agreements, loan documents, bank accounts, and bank access for these entities.
Clean Financials for Each Business
Once we had all of this detail, we began creating the financials for each entity. If the company was in business the previous year, we used the last tax return as our beginning balance sheet. We reconciled the bank account through to the current month, then reviewed the financials with the owner to ensure that every single line item on those balance sheets could be traced back to a source document. (For example, equity would be tied to a partnership agreement, or a contractor’s fee would be tied to an invoice.)
Over the next few months, we continued to tweak the financial statements and review process with the business owner. This is helpful because over the course of a few months, transactions or items will come up that may have initially slipped the business owner’s mind, or we will realize we should consolidate or expand certain accounts.
Creating Standardized Investor Reports
Along the way, we used a server (in this case, Google Drive) where we could store information and work together, enabling us to collaborate while also providing transparency to our client. We also created systems that would make reconciling the books each month easy and efficient going forward, as well as standardized folders in the server where they can easily find and store relevant documents. Using all of the now clean financials with all of the other documentation and owner insight we were able to create insightful, standardized, and current investor reports. This included current equity balances, a brief narrative update, future capital calls/distributions, current IRR/ROI, and an updated projected timeline and IRR/ROI.
Finally, we had many conversations with our client in order to understand their vision for the business as a whole. With that knowledge, we helped them to build a business plan, set goals, and formulate OKRs (objectives and key results).With this information we were able to understand the big picture, look ahead and put a plan together to build wealth.
All along the way, Fox & Partners provided a calm and organized presence. Within four months, we had reconciled thousands of transactions, created clear reports, and allowed our client to feel a sense of ease while providing investors with the insights they needed.
Taking It a Step Further: Adding Value Over the Next 3 Years
Getting that initial job done was not the end of the road for our partnership. What really sets Fox & Partners apart is the fact that we go beyond the transactional approach. We’re focused on doing great work for great people not only within the confines of one goal or project, but also for years to come. Getting this client clean financials and reports was fulfilling, but we wanted to provide even more value to this growing Real Estate Development firm.
So, over the last three years, we’ve provided value (an ROI) by:
Keeping all financials and reports organized, clean, and updated
Having consistent meetings to both review the detail and focus on the big picture
Reorganizing their deal structure from only having family and friends who would get a percent of equity based on the percentage of funds put in, to any investor who would get a certain preferred return (hurdle) and a split with management post hurdle. This allowed:
- New investors to join
- For our client to earn a return without having to put in funds
- For investors to have a clearer picture of the investment
- For our client to scale the number of projects they were able to complete each year.
Spearheading fundraising efforts for them. To date, we’ve helped raise 7 figures of capital on 4 separate projects
Introducing, helping to onboard, and continuing to work closely with a COO who was able to take much of the foundation we put into place to the next level. This resulted in:
- More frequent and detailed investor reports
- Taking much of the day-to-day off of the CEO’s plate
- Ability to continue to scale
- Continuing to help grow their network
Another Successful Partnership
This is a great example of how we approach each of our partnerships. We don’t limit ourselves to “just” financials or “just” any one function or service. We are truly a partner in your business and believe the best way is to start with clean accounting, and then to layer additional levels of value on top of a sturdy foundation. Though we do excel in the financial department, Fox & Partners is also passionate about finding additional ways to help your business succeed.
Let’s Work Together
If you’d like to hear about our services directly from our clients, please read the testimonials we have on our site. We’d also be happy to connect with you and see how we can help support the growth of your own business.
