“our team communicates face to face with one another as well as with our clients all day.”
by jody grunden
building the virtual cfo firm in the cloud
my partner and i run a fully distributed cpa firm. yes, you read it correctly.
summit cpa group is a cpa firm with over 40 full-time professionals, mostly cpas, with the mission statement, “changing the way people think about accounting.”
more grunden: how summit cpa group is pioneering virtual cfo services
as i mentioned, the firm is 100 percent distributed, meaning that our team works entirely from home. moreover, our team works 100 percent virtually with our clients. the two primary services that we offer are 401k audits and virtual cfo services.
i recently asked a few members of our team, “what do people say when you tell them that you work for a remote or distributed accounting firm?” their responses were very interesting.
a couple of years ago, when i told people that i worked from home, it was a conversation starter. these days i hear, “that’s cool,” (shrug) and that is about it. similar to using an ach to collect our client fees, working from home is an acceptable norm.
sure, completely working from home is not common; however it is not much of a stretch these days. new technology has created a much smaller and fast-paced world. we measure time in seconds rather than hours so most people realize you save commute time and the cost of a physical office, therefore the concept becomes more logical than strange. added to that is the fact that a lot of people periodically work from home and often communicate through text, video chat or social media in their daily personal lives.
to some extent, and dare i say it, in-person communication can be inefficient and often inconvenient. a lot of people will not like hearing that but most people are pulled in too many directions these days to always be physically present, and because we are so used to not communicating in person in our daily personal lives it only seems natural that we would extend that type of communication to our work life as well.
i will also add that being completely remote and distributed gives smaller companies like ourselves the ability to compete for and retain talent that might otherwise elude them.
when i tell people that my partner (cpa adam hale, co-founder and coo) and i run a distributed cpa firm, the most common response i get is,
“how do you know that your employees are really working?”
the funny thing about that questions is that it never came to mind until someone actually asked me. why did such an obvious question never come to mind? our team communicates with each other extremely well.
how do we make that possible? we make sure that our team has the right tools in place to make communication feel natural. when asked the question, i always lead by showing them sococo – a tool that we use as our virtual office. i usually pull up sococo right on my phone or tablet. sococo allows us to video conference and screen share with anyone on our team. it is designed in a way to create an “officelike” environment for our team. as soon as they see it, i usually get a very fascinated look followed up by a comment like “that is pretty cool.”
inquisitive, they generally follow up with, “how do you meet with clients? do they come to your home?”.the answer is pretty simple, “no.” the unique thing is that we don’t even use a telephone. we threw away the phones a long time ago. instead, we meet with clients through video conferencing. our team communicates face to face with one another as well as with our clients all day!
then i tell them about our approach to hiring. how do we know that our employees are working? well, because we hire the right people – amazing people! we trust them to do their jobs. and they do them well!
employee responses
here’s what our team had to say about how people react when they tell them they work from home:
“don’t you get lonely?” – nicole carlton, cpa and shawn pooler, cpa
“people ask, ‘aren’t you too social to work at home alone?'” – tom wadelton, cpa
“isn’t it boring or unsociable, being home by yourself?” – kimberly estridge
“i get asked, ‘is it a company full of introverts since you can’t interact?'” – zach montroy
”i don’t think i’m disciplined enough to do that.” – laikyn muehl, cpa
just because we work from home, that doesn’t mean we work alone. with video conferencing and virtual communication tools, we can be as connected with others as we want to be. working remotely isn’t synonymous with working in isolation.
summit cpa team member jamie nau, cpa, explains, “when i took this job a lot of my former co-workers were very concerned. they all thought i would go nuts without the human interaction. whenever i check in with them it’s the first thing they ask about. when i tell them i spend just as much time now as i ever did talking with clients and co-workers, they have a difficult time understanding how that is possible, even when i explain gotomeeting and sococo. i also explain to them that it is much easier for me to choose my outside interactions now instead of relying on work to be my only interaction with people. whether it is coaching a sport, playing a sport or volunteering, i get to choose the things that i enjoy doing.”
“i get two responses: ‘wow, i don’t think i am disciplined enough to do that!’ and ‘oh! that’s great; you get to be a stay-at-home mom!'” – alaina debevec
“how do you get anything done?” – david bernhardt, cpa
“a lot of people say, ‘i wouldn’t be disciplined enough to do that.’ or ‘i would get too distracted and do housework all day.'” – ally duras, cpa
sure, working from home does require having discipline around your work hours. you can’t spend your day doing laundry or cleaning the house just because you’re at home. for many people, that also means that the kids aren’t home while they work. it’s a real job; it’s just being done in the house.
“both my husband and i work from home. people often ask us, ‘don’t you get tired of your spouse?'” – angie douglas, cpa
sure, if your spouse also works from home it can result in a lot of together time that most couples don’t get. it might be hard to imagine being together all the time, but just think about what it would be like to be able to take a walk with your spouse over your lunch breaks or go together at the end of the day to pick up your kids from school. togetherness, as a work-from-home couple, can be great for your relationship – just make sure to set some boundaries around work time so you can both stay focused and productive.
“i typically get something along the lines of: ‘but you don’t have to work today!’ or ‘they won’t even know if you’re not working.'” – lisa cecen
yes, flexibility can be wonderful, but even though you’re working remotely, people are still depending on you to do your job. there’s lots of interaction with others and people definitely would notice if you weren’t working, just like if you worked in a brick-and-mortar building and didn’t show up for work one day.
“’is that a legit work-from-home job?’ is what i got at first.” – tracey selig
“at first, many people close to me were concerned it wasn’t a ‘legitimate’ job.” – ashley vanness
when “telecommuting” and “work-from-home” jobs first started to become a thing, scammers were quick to jump into the scene and prey on the people who were seeking those types of jobs. however, remote jobs are becoming more common, and although there are certainly still scammers out there, it has become easier to differentiate a scam from the real thing.
“the response i typically hear is ‘oh! how does that work?'” – cathy eix
“i get asked if i have to clock in and out.” – karen hill, cpa
“people wonder how it works.” – kim moore, cpa, audit partner
not all remote jobs are the same. some require clocking in and out for scheduled shifts. some have very flexible hours. every remote company uses some sort of tool for communication (email, video conferencing, online chat, etc.), but which tool(s) are used can vary from company to company. there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to remote work, and that’s the beauty of it! every remote company can create its own ecosystem for communication, collaboration and interaction.
“that’s awesome! can i work for them?” – andrea cannistraci and amanda legere
“they all say, ‘oh that must be nice,’ because they all know how many miles i used to drive to work.” – diane church, ea
“i get, ‘wow … that must nice!’ the most.” – alyssa colf
it is nice, if we do say so ourselves. working in a distributed company comes with a tremendous amount of benefits. you often get a flexible schedule (or at least the ability to unload the dishwasher in the middle of the day if you need to!). you can work with amazingly talented people all over the country (or even the world!). there’s no commute. you get to be in control of your work environment.
we could go on and on, but the bottom line is, we think working remotely is pretty darn cool, even for accountants!
jody grunden, cpa, is co-founder and ceo of summit cpa group.