Dear Stage 1 Financial Family,

Accounting is vital to support the success of your growing business, and we take it seriously here at Stage 1 Financial. By applying a continuous improvement mindset to our processes and procedures, we always aim to optimize the quality, timeliness, and ease-of-use of our services and products, and as a result, increase the value to yourself and your investors, vendors, and customers.

With this in mind, we would like to share recent updates to our services and teams:

  1. Further refined our hiring criteria to focus on:
    1. Increasing our technical expertise by increasing the number of CPAs in our accounting teams
    2. Identifying consumer goods experts with the ability to put themselves in our client’s shoes on a day-to-day basis
    3. Recruiting team players who can effectively work across our different services including Finance, CFO and transaction services
  2. Expanded our full-time onboarding team to further enable successful client onboardings and transitions into the accounting, FP&A, CFO, and other ongoing teams
  3. Improved our cost accounting offerings for clients that are not yet ready to implement a comprehensive ERP solution by:
    1. Providing software selection support for clients evaluating supply chain plugins to QuickBooks such as DEAR and SOS
    2. Assisting client operations with reviewing and building Bills Of Material to assist in improving the accuracy of cost of goods sold and its impact on financials
    3. Assisting clients with implementing best-practice inventory management procedures to reduce the need for monthly inventory adjustments that distort the Profit & Loss statement
  4. Increased our knowledge base and team expertise to account for manufacturer chargebacks and trade spend deductions across a growing set of customers and channels by:
    1. Increasing portal experience and guidelines e.g. Kroger and Target
    2. Documenting policy guidance on chargeback account allocation and reasoning e.g. assisting clients to understand why we recommend classifying slotting fees below gross margin under selling expenses
    3. Formalizing our guidance for tracking and supporting dispute management by customer
  5. Incorporated key GAAP regulation changes into our client solutions:
    1. Rolled out the new 606 revenue recognition standard
    2. Implemented recognition vs realization of expenses and associated accruals when needed
  6. Invested in staff training and certifications:
    1. Overhauled our standard operating procedures (SOPs) and provided our teams with recorded training to further improve consistent service delivery

We value our partnership with your firm and the trust you place in us as an advisor. Your continued success is what drives us!

 

Sincerely,

Larissa Cangialosi

Head of Accounting at Stage 1 Financial