We help innovators grow their companies faster and more profitably. By relieving their accounting burden, Fintelligent enables business owners to focus on what they do best – building their business. We’ll handle everything from basic transaction processing to advice from a Chief Financial Officer. All our work is done in the cloud, so our customers can see their financial performance with the click of a button on any internet-enabled device. Our fixed monthly subscription provides the service our customer needs and can scale with a company’s growth. We’ve had great results – one customer grew sales over 3,000% during our three years together.
Rob Ripp Founder, President & Virtual CFO Rob began his career learning the ways of corporate financial operations while working at Colgate-Palmolive, Lehman Brothers and Andersen. In 1999 Rob accepted his first full-time CFO Job. In 2003 he became an independent practitioner of outsourced CFO services and launched Fintelligent in 2013. He’s done just about everything a growing company CFO does, from startup projections to exits. Rob enjoys traveling and has visited all 50 states. He has a BS, Business and Economics from Lehigh University and an MBA from Emory University. Rob is a 2017 CFO Innovation Awards Recipient from CFO Studio and a finalist for the NJ Tech Council 2015 CFO Hall of Fame award.
Cash isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.
It’s the fuel innovators need or growth. We burn it to hire salespeople or launch new products since that brings in revenue. Staffing up a finance department seems like a drain to most entrepreneurs.
Here’s the problem: if a financial department is responsible for managing cash and we fail to invest in strong financial systems, how can we raise outside capital or generate sufficient internal cash flow to sustain growth?
The answer is outsourcing. Advances in technology and the emergence of the gig economy enable emerging companies to “rent” the financial people, systems and processes needed to generate required sales, profit and cash flow to sustain rapid growth.
Fintelligent was founded by a growth company CFO. He saw firsthand how young businesses struggled with the basics of accounting and finance. Invoices going uncollected. Bills piling up. Too many dreaded “not enough cash” phone calls the day before payroll.
The problem facing entrepreneurs was that they simply didn’t have the time or expertise to keep up with the demands of their company’s accounting. While they needed greater business insights, they lacked the funds to hire a CFO and were simply not getting enough out of their bookkeepers.
Fintelligent was created to provide entrepreneurs a part-time, virtual financial department so they could confidently build their business. To do that, we had to innovate ourselves.
Innovating in an industry not known for it
While technology has had a profound impact on accounting (the first commercial IBM computer was to run government payroll), the accounting industry is not known for innovation. Preparing tax returns or conducting audits has largely stayed the same for years. The convergence of ubiquitous high-speed bandwidth, robust cloud software applications and acceptance of remote workforces have enabled the biggest disruptor in the industry: outsourced accounting services.
Sarah Gemmen Director, Client Operations Sarah started her accounting career in the automotive industry and eventually made her way into public accounting. Sarah has over 16 years’ experience in public accounting in many areas from daily accounting and management to corporate taxes. Her area of expertise includes all levels of financial reporting, system integrations and procedural processes for a variety of industries. She has software certifications in QuickBooks and Intacct. Sarah’s passion is assisting businesses in achieving their goals by finding process efficiencies. Sarah enjoys spending her free time with her family in the great outdoors or in the kitchen cooking together! She holds a Bachelors Business Administration with an accounting emphasis from Grand Valley State University.
Entrepreneurs need more than financial statements two weeks after the end of the month. They want regular performance updates and advice on how to win in the marketplace. To meet this need Fintelligent innovated several things:
- Development of a robust, cloud-based financial system that automates transaction processing and regularly reports information entrepreneurs want anytime they want to see it.
- Seasoned employees with accounting and business experience to advise on how to execute better and improve cash flow.
- Streamlined processes to reduce the work required to enter transactions, automate workflow and approvals and improve data integrity.
- A subscription based business model that enables young, innovative companies’ access to a financial system usually available to much larger organizations.
We understand the needs of innovators because we are one ourselves. We struggle with daily ebb and flow of finance and use our own experiences to better serve our customers.
