Summa Financial is marking 5 years in the business of providing cloud accounting and fractional CFO services, adopting these innovative business models earlier than their competitors.
Dartmouth, Canada –News Direct– Prodigy Press Wire
Innovative accounting and financial services company Summa Financial is marking five years in the rapidly growing business areas of cloud accounting and fractional controller/CFO services. The company, founded in 2017 by veteran accountant and CFO Richard Landzaat, pivoted to cloud accounting soon after in 2018, recognizing the sector’s potential ahead of many other firms in Canada.
According to Landzaat, legacy accounting software programs required clients to drop their paper off and accountants would input that information into the computer, resulting in a lot of back-and-forth between the accountants and clients. When cloud accounting started to come to the forefront of the industry, Summa Financial made a paradigm shift on how it handled transactions and how it interacted with clients. Adopting cloud accounting gave unlimited access to data, both from the business owners and Summa Financial’s accounting team. Going on the cloud made everything interactive with the client and the client didn’t have to bring their paper to the accounting office, because everything could be done from their smartphone or computer.
Another major advantage of cloud accounting is that clients can know how their business is performing on a weekly basis, unlike with legacy programs where financial data is submitted monthly, creating a lag of a couple of months between financial statements, hindering clients from taking quick action.
Summa Financial also offers fractional controller and fractional CFO services, providing financial officers working part-time for businesses, resulting in savings and more efficient use of finances. Landzaat says hiring a full-time CFO or controller can be costly, and many small and medium businesses usually require their services for only a few hours per month, monitoring projections or budgets, as well as going over strategic plans.
“Most companies that have an internal bookkeeper that looks after the books, may not have a controller or CFO. We then come in as a fractional controller and reconcile the financial statements at the end of the month, which might take a few hours to provide them with an accurate financial statement. They can also hire a fractional CFO to look over the financial statements and their strategic plan to make sure they’re on track to where they want to be,” Landzaat says.
While cloud accounting is just a few years old, Landzaat has more than 35 years of experience in business and accounting. He has worked as a CFO for a corporation, helping it expand internationally, grow its annual revenue from $3 million to $200 million, and make 12 acquisitions over 10 years.
After leaving that job, Landzaat founded Summa Financial and began working as a fractional CFO in 2017, initially planning to work just two days a week. Fractional CFOs weren’t that well-known then, but through word of mouth, Summa Financial grew and expanded into bookkeeping and, eventually, cloud accounting.
“When cloud accounting came around, I felt that it was just a no-brainer to do it. We were one of the first firms to adopt cloud accounting in Atlantic Canada. This decision proved to be the right decision when COVID hit, and almost everybody was shut down – but not us. Since everything was on the cloud, we were quickly able to pivot to working remotely and none of our staff and clients missed a beat. It’s understanding the market to predict where it is going, as well as early adoption of technology, that are our keys to success.”
Media contact:
Name: Richard Landzaat
Email: [email protected]
Release ID: 681377
View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/cloud-accounting-and-fractional-cfo-pioneer-summa-financial-marks-5-years-in-the-industry-477089138
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