{"id":104196,"date":"2024-01-08T04:50:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T09:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/?p=104196"},"modified":"2024-02-12T05:05:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T10:05:37","slug":"trench-talk-kelly-jennings-small-business-cfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/trench-talk-kelly-jennings-small-business-cfo\/","title":{"rendered":"Trench Talk:  Kelly Jennings, Small Business CFO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Executive Summary. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Accounting is, to some, a necessary evil.\u00a0 Here we hear from an accountant what accounting actually is, why it\u2019s important, and how you can best benefit from your accountant.<\/span><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Trench Talk - Kelly Jennings, Small Business CFO\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/5x57Ra3etQNjT3xEy7pPAU?si=B9n0eLIMQlyGuqGoJ4PN3Q&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>The guest.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Kelly Jennings is my younger sister who has been in accounting two less years than I\u2019ve been in heavy\/civil construction.\u00a0 She started in a \u201cBig 6\u201d accounting firm and eventually graduated to being her own boss in a position she calls <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fractional CFO<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0 That\u2019s a fancy word for CFO-for-hire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>The questions I ask my sister.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 If you can last all 37 minutes, you\u2019ll learn a lot.\u00a0 Here are some of the topics I think will help you start, understand, and grow your business:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is a CPA?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s the difference between cash and accrual accounting?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are financial statements?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is a \u201cWIP\u201d?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who uses financial statements?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the difference between compiled, reviewed, and audited financial statements?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is cash in the bank a good measure of your business\u2019s health?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s the difference between a bookkeeper, controller, CFO, and a CPA?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How can a business owner, or CEO, get maximum benefit from their accountant?<\/span><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-104197\" src=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Image-276-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Image-276-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Image-276-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Image-276-225x225.png 225w, https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Image-276.png 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>My story.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 Kelly and I talked ahead of the podcast about what I would say here and we had a disagreement. I talked about how it\u2019s good for an engineer to get out of his own\/her own way when it comes to running a larger business.\u00a0 It is valuable to have someone at, or very near the top, who knows money.\u00a0 A finance person or an accountant who will work diligently to track the money is vital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the flip side, Kelly looked at it a little differently.\u00a0 She thought that the #1 person (the CEO) should know the product and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">make the rain<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the company.\u00a0 The CEO has the vision.\u00a0 The #2 persons should know the money side; this person should help make the dream become reality and help with larger financial decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Work safe!<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"su-button-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sjcivil.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2023.12.25-Kelly-Jennings.pdf\" class=\"su-button su-button-style-flat\" style=\"color:#FFFFFF;background-color:#293a57;border-color:#212f46;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color:#FFFFFF;padding:0px 30px;font-size:22px;line-height:44px;border-color:#6a768a;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;text-shadow:none;-moz-text-shadow:none;-webkit-text-shadow:none\"> Download The PDF<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Executive Summary. \u00a0Accounting is, to some, a necessary evil.\u00a0 Here we hear from an accountant what accounting actually is, why it\u2019s important, and how you can best benefit from your accountant. The guest.\u00a0 Kelly Jennings is my younger sister who has been in accounting two less years than I\u2019ve been in heavy\/civil construction.\u00a0 She started [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":104197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","iawp_total_views":39,"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Trench Talk: Kelly Jennings, Small Business CFO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Accounting is, to some, a necessary evil.\u00a0 Here we hear from an accountant what accounting actually is, why it\u2019s important, and how\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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