By Oriana Gorrin

Data Bottleneck Challenges Turned into an Opportunity

When Michael King – the CFO Accelerator and driving force behind the firm The Connected Accountant– started building his company more than 7 years ago, he looked for a mentor to show him how to do it “the right way”.

Struggling to find one –which eventually led him to slow growth and loss of profits– he made a decision. Now admits being on a “mission to help those that are coming after me avoid the mistakes I made so they can build the firm of their dreams faster.”

These days, he has specialised in assisting fractional CFOs and accountants in building advisory firms that reach impressive revenue figures. His brand is synonymous with high-quality coaching courses and a supportive community.

Aiming to Optimise Time and Gain Strategic Focus

But Michael King’s growth journey hasn’t been smooth and without challenges.

A significant issue he faced was the excessive amount of time he and his CFOs team spent on manual data-related tasks. As he aptly put it, “The problem was they were doing a lot of tactical data-related work. And where I needed them to be was on that thought leadership work.”

Michael immediately recognised the value his CFOs could bring to clients through strategic insights and financial strategies. Yet, they were held back by time-consuming data manipulation tasks.

Then, he mentions, “we’ve also got the issue of just human error that gets involved in that process.” Also, emphasises not to underestimate the importance of consistent delivery in what they do for their client. As he says, “it really does elevate the perception of the value of the brand.”

Many issues were alleviated when Michael and his team started simplifying their tech stack by using their platform of choice: Google Sheets. But, still, Michael’s CFOs were spending too much time manually importing data from QuickBooks into Excel or Google Sheets, and vice versa.

And so, they were limited on how many clients each CFO could handle. But, oh, they were just one step away from solving it.

G-Accon’s Game-Changing Integration

What Michael needed was a solution that promised to connect QuickBooks data seamlessly with Google Sheets.

So they dug deeper, did a bit of Googling and…

Found G-Accon, a 100% customisable integrated solution.

At first, Michael was reluctant, “we have our own internal templates in reports and a certain way that we like to display them both in terms of data with numbers, but also charts and graphs”. But they did the trial.

And his team made pretty good progress with it. Until there were a couple of things that they couldn’t figure out.

They emailed G-Accon support, and their response was nearly immediate. “It really blew me away,” explains Michael. “They walked us through those last couple of steps to have our fully-customised CFO reports inside of our dashboards. With data that’s real time updated.”

After engaging with G-Accon’s support team, Michael found that G-Accon was tailored to his unique reporting and dashboard requirements.

That’s not all. The tool helped solve this problem by allowing Michael to seamlessly connect QuickBooks to Google Sheets. By fully automating the data transfer and synchronisation
and eliminating the manual data work, his CFOS went on a journey to handle more clients.

“I think the term Game Changers has been mainly overused. But it
literally was for us. Because this one simple platform that’s like 10 to 20
bucks a month, has now solved this problem. We were spending a little
over 40 hours a month on manual data importing, exporting and
manipulation. And within a few hours of playing with G-Accon, that
problem was eliminated.”

– Michael King, The CFO Accelerator.

Optimised Time, Elevated Value

G-Accon set Michael’s business on a path of growth. And the impact of G-Accon’s integration has been invaluable.

Not only Michael’s team was liberated to handle a substantially larger number of clients by saving time and minimising errors but his manual data work had been consumed around 40 hours per month per CFO. This time optimisation has enabled his CFOs to focus on strategic
tasks, transforming their roles from data manipulators to thought leaders.

Additionally, the consistent and accurate reports generated through the G-Accon integration elevated the perceived value of Michael’s firm. Now, clients received tailor-made CFO reports and dashboards in Google Sheets, showcasing the firm’s commitment to precision and value-driven insights.

Accelerating Impact by Thinking Differently

A big fan of simplicity, Michael King’s success story is proof of the power of strategic technology integration. Through G-Accon’s versatile solution, he not only optimised his CFOs’ time but also elevated the value of his firm’s services, ultimately driving growth for his business.

This journey with G-Accon taught him valuable lessons such as:

  1. Aiming for Automation: automating your manual data can significantly optimise time, enabling your business to handle more clients and leading to growth.
  2. Value of Consistency: accurate reports not only enhance the client experience but also elevate the perceived value of a firm’s services.
  3. Simplicity in Tech Stack: streamlined tech stack, with key platforms like G-Accon, can prove very effective for your fractional CFO firms.
  4. Customisation and Support: G-Accon’s customisation capabilities and strong support will add up to any team’s firm.

As you can see, Michael King’s CFO journey – fueled by G-Accon – demonstrates there is a way forward towards heightened efficiency, enhanced value delivery, and business growth.

For more agile and impactful solutions catalysing business growth, learn about G-Accon and how it can transform your business. Contact today the G-Accon team at support@accon.services.


All comments by Michael King on G-Accon are part of “Accelerating Impact by Thinking Differently”, an episode of “Accounting High: Freshman Year” podcast with Scott Scarano.

Listen to the full podcast here.