Don’t let financial administration hold back your business

Fountain Creek is a virtual finance department for entrepreneurs

Less bookkeeping

We manage your accounting email, accounts payable, accounts receivable, expenses, and general ledger so you can focus on growing your business. We are a team of entrepreneurs that understand what transparency and simplicity can mean for your focus. We maintain a zero inbox policy on all accounting related communications with vendors and customers and will set up custom controls with you in week 1 so that you have as much or as little direct involvement as is needed for your stage of business. Start spending your time on what matters in your day to day business.

More consistency

We set up your approvals, accounting, reporting, and communication policies with best practices in mind. We document all procedures and exceptions in a detailed and transparent way so that when the time comes for you to bring your finance department in-house, you won’t be playing catch-up or have a difficult transition. By establishing a solid foundation in your back office early on, you will be ready for scale when it comes. Poor financial hygiene today will lead to greater instability over time and compounding headwinds that will prevent your business from growing to meet its potential.

Better insight

We provide financial planning and analysis, strategy, and regular discussions to help you make better financial decisions. We are entrepreneurs first, and we understand that the goal of financial planning and analysis is to provide insights into your operating strategy. Too often financial analysis for early stage and small businesses fails to capture functional metrics that can provide real time feedback on your operating decisions. Your team at Fountain Creek will design your custom reporting with your stage and key performance indicators in mind and help you with budgeting and planning tools and advice.

One price, one bill, one solution…

Fountain Creek consolidates your financial software behind a team of professionals that you know by name. No more paying for software you can’t use or being unsure if a new finance app is right for you - we pick the right tools from a short list of industry leaders, maintain those subscriptions with best practices, and hand them over to you when our engagement is done.

Our Services

Bookkeeping

We work with you to establish best practice bookkeeping, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and expense management processes to ensure invoices and bills are transparently documented, approved, and processed in a timely way and with attention to cash management.

Communications

We onboard your customers and vendors so that you aren't scrambling for information at tax season, and we manage all accounting@ emails from contractors, suppliers, customers, and service providers - getting all the necessary documentation.

Reporting

We track more than your numbers - giving you monthly financial statements alongside KPI dashboards and analysis. Each month you have a 1:1 with your Fountain Creek Team to better understand how your financials impact future decision making.

Analysis

You will have access to our proprietary Fountain Creek Virtual Finance Department Portal that shows every aspect of the finance department in real time - making it easy for you to comment, approve, or run your own financial analysis.

Planning

We set up regular strategy and FP&A meetings for your long term (3-5 year) plan and your short term (next 12 months) estimates. Once a year we update your strategic plan - setting budget and planning targets - then review those assumptions quarterly.

Documentation

As a team of entrepreneurs ourselves, we know the value of established processes, transparent reporting, and well documented customer and vendor onboarding, so when you are ready to hire in-house Fountain Creek will help make the transition seamless..

Built for early stage and small business owners

We are built by and for entrepreneurs, so we know the importance of predictable pricing, the ability to scale services alongside your growth, and leveraging financial analysis as a tool for decision making - not a sink hole of time and energy. Your dedicated team will handle everything from bookkeeping and bills to financial planning and analysis in a way that works with your business and can be flexible as you grow. Team members have entrepreneurial roots, having served (or continuing to serve) as founders and operators in startups.

“Fountain Creek Advisory has been our invaluable secret weapon…we found a strategic partner indispensable to our success.”

Dominique Olowolafe - CEO & Founder @ Lightly

Access to a full finance department without the added cost or complexity…

Processing

  • Bills are drafted, approved, and paid based on procedural rules we help you establish.

  • Customers are onboarded, invoices are drafted and approved, and payments are collected with your oversight along the way.

  • Expenses are tracked, categorized, and reimbursed (where needed) and incidentals applied to the appropriate department.

  • We integrate with Gusto, Justworks, and other common payroll systems to track, process, and manage team payments.

Reporting

  • Monthly reporting with detailed customer, pipeline, team, vendor, and cash analysis - tracking the metrics that matter most to you and your business.

  • We have open scheduling for quick catch-ups with your dedicated Fountain Creek Team as well as scheduled monthly reviews to go over performance against benchmarks and financial details.

  • We onboard customers, tracking key dates, regions and other metrics for internal tracking and regulatory filings such as sales tax.

  • We onboard vendors and suppliers with all relevant data for internal tracking as well as year end 1099 reporting.

Planning

  • Over the course of several meetings we work with you to establish a conservative next 12 month expense plan by department and by expense type and match that with revenue outlook and cash availability.

  • Following our first budgeting meeting we establish assumptions to update your full year estimates each month as actual numbers are collected - we continually improve the quality of your outlook and avoid potentially damaging financial surprises.

  • After onboarding, we will work with you to establish the non-financial key drivers of your business. These are things like new hires, new sites, critical equipment, new markets - all of which we build into your reporting and planning to track alongside financial metrics.

  • Using our established key business drivers, we build out a 3-5 year plan that is updated once per year and presents a number of potential outcomes based on different scenarios and strategic directions you are considering.

Our Industries of Focus

  • Local consumer businesses have low margins and complex product offerings that make tracking unit economics next to impossible - Fountain Creek can help with the supplier logistics and help entrepreneurs find the best product mix for margin and growth.

  • SaaS and other B2B services have an increased burden of customer acquisition, onboarding, and segmentation as well as complex product roadmaps, sales cycles, and seasonality that make unit economics difficult to track - its never to early to start analyzing pipeline throughput, customer LTV/CAC, cash runway, and team efficiency.

  • Agencies with growing teams such as executive recruiters, developers, consultants, designers, event planners and other professionals should understand unit economics, pricing strategy, and true costs of growth so you can improve cash flow early and continuously grow margins.

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