With 40 employees, Verdanterra is a consulting company that does land survey work for the energy industry. Company founder and President Jonathan Ryan brought a wealth of experience to the startup company. His background included practicing law for five years, then working for several years in the environmental engineering industry.

In 2014 he launched Verdanterra, seeing the need to cut down on the administrative steps used to accomplish certain tasks. A lot of the work they do is time sensitive, so his step-saving process quickly found footing in a competitive marketplace. The company grew so much the billing on projects was falling behind. It became clear there was more to maintaining a financially healthy company. Jonathan realized this vital function was more complicated than anticipated. In order to thrive he needed a sustainable game plan. He said, “We needed to spend less time looking after the books, which is when I started looking to outsource our accounting and simplify life.”

A neighboring company in Verdanterra’s office complex, PerBlue, suggested the same company they used to manage their accounting function, Fine Point Consulting. Jonathan called Fine Point and scheduled a representative to evaluate their needs.

“Fine Point came and opened our files. Within five minutes, they provided recommendations on what could be improved. We took the leap and hired them based on the recommendations.”

Jonathan also said that “Fine Point was helpful from the beginning and it’s been great ever since they took over our accounting.” Verdanterra’s billing is based almost entirely on time and materials. This includes how billable people are, and most of their spreadsheets have been built to forecast budgets to make sure they have what they need. Fine Point was able to make suggestions to run just one report to get everything they need. “Fine Point is always willing to help and there really has not been an instance when they have said, no we can’t do that.”

Before Fine Point Consulting, Verdanterra used an outdated online program and were keeping their books on a desktop version of QuickBooks. Jonathan has since learned that maintaining a company’s accounting management system is an ongoing process, especially with a growing business.

Now, with Fine Point Consulting’s strategic and day-to-day guidance, there are far fewer growing pains. “It was hard to convince everyone here at first to change their ways, but Fine Point encouraged and taught us to use a better alternative.” He further says that they were tracking things they did not need, and not tracking things they should. “They made our bookkeeping more reliable and I had a lot more confidence when we finished a month and received statements right away instead of spending all our time cleaning everything up.” Verdanterra is now able to focus on their goals and what they do best.