About the Client
AVIA is the leading partner for digital health insights, strategic guidance, and consulting services. Members of the AVIA Innovator Network solve pressing challenges with digital solutions that deliver outsized financial and clinical results. AVIA provides strategic focus, unique market intelligence, and proven resources that accelerate digital transformation throughout healthcare. They are located in Chicago.
The Challenge
In every company, from the established enterprise with thousands of employees to the 5-person start-up working out of a coffee shop, finance and accounting departments are being asked to do more with less. Companies push for leaner, more optimized approaches in order to increase returns.
Running lean with a finance team of 2-3 is even more challenging, especially in the face of increasing projects and priorities and employee turnover. In her current role at AVIA as Senior Director of Finance, Ellen Kennedy saw a significant amount of work piling up and knew she needed to act fast in preparation for the year-end audit.
The Solution
High growth companies like AVIA know that annual audits are important, and the finance team expects to spend additional hours preparing for those audits.
Ellen initially reached out to Paro for some general accounting assistance, as well as audit preparation and support. She knew her lean team would need fractional support during the audit. Paro connected her quickly with Takeisha, a CPA in the Paro network.
Initially, Takeisha’s scope of work was exclusively accounting support and audit preparation. But soon after she started, one of the main accounting staff members resigned. “It worked out well,” Takeisha said. “Paro’s in-house team handpicked me because of my background. I was already looking for something ongoing, so stepping into that position to help was no trouble.”
With Takeisha already on deck for the audit prep, work continued smoothly. While Ellen took time to backfill her now vacant accountant role and continue preparing for the audit, Takeisha covered the departed accountant’s work seamlessly.
“They needed someone to carry them through,” Takeisha said. “I’ve been able to ensure nothing falls through while Ellen backfills the accounting role. It’s been challenging, but fun.”
With Takeisha stepping in, no day-to-day responsibilities were de-prioritized in order to prepare for the audit.
The Impact
Staying on top of current responsibilities while taking on new ones is always challenging. Ellen turned to Paro for help. She’d worked with Paro in her previous position as Director of Finance at SA Ignite, and after a great experience there, saw the perfect opportunity to ensure work continued without a missed beat.
With Paro’s expert on their team, AVIA was able to continue business as usual while also preparing for the annual audit. Not only that, but they were able to reduce time spent on month-end, streamline accounting practices, and achieve faster turnaround on reconciliations to facilitate quicker decision-making.
