Background
Doyle & Seelbach PLLC, a Texas-based personal injury defense firm that defends large institutions – Fortune 500 companies, retailers, restaurants, grocery stores, shipping and logistics companies, and healthcare providers – on general liability cases, opened its doors in 2015, growing to almost 40 team members over the last 10 years.
The Challenge
Over their ten-year history, the firm has always been financially responsible. They have a great CPA firm that focuses on taxes and bookkeeping. But as their growth accelerated, Managing Partner Karl Seelbach found himself in need of more professional support — namely, business insights, not just estimated tax payments and quarterly financials.
While Karl’s financial education allowed him to create a skin-and-bones tracking system, he knew it wouldn’t take him the distance: “I knew what we needed to do,” Karl says. “I didn’t necessarily have the tools, time, and the training to clearly track KPIs, and drill down on things like profit margin or overhead per employee.”
As Managing Partner, he needed to have someone bring him KPIs and, along with it, the peace of mind that their ratios were healthy: salary-to-hourly-rate, overhead and more. They wanted someone familiar with their practice management system, Clio, and with industry expertise, to come in and “grade our papers,” Karl says. They hoped to receive something like “a report card that says, ‘Hey, you’re doing really well in these categories, but you can use more work and discipline in these other categories.’” However, a full-time, experienced CFO didn’t make sense for a firm their size.
The Solution
Virtual CFOs Kristen Reinking and John Scott quickly onboarded and built a customized dashboard that gave firm leadership more visibility into the financial part of running a business – while saving Karl and his team valuable time.
Within their first six months of working together, Anders tackled projects including a switch to the accrual method – “not a light lift” – allowing the firm to report its numbers in a way that realistically shows their profit margin and puts them in alignment with industry best practices.
Anders Virtual CFOs also addressed compensation adjustments, giving firm leadership confidence in their approach: rather than having to dig through Clio, Anders produced an automated report that highlights details of their billable timekeepers’ productivity, providing clear, objective data that also helped leadership with salary and bonus recommendations. While they had historically avoided raising rates, the visibility provided by Anders also demonstrated the importance of disciplined increases to continue growing and retain their talent.
Now, rather than having to create his own spreadsheets, direct other attorneys to take time away from their cases and management, or distract the administrative team from their responsibilities, Karl has the information “presented on a silver platter.”
“Having them sitting at the table with us side-by-side has been a really big help in making sure we adjust compensation in a fair and responsible way, so that we can continue to grow and deliver excellent results for our clients.”
—Karl Seelbach, Managing Partner
As the firm enters a period of rapid growth, another area of focus is forecasting. Facing costly decisions on leasing, Karl relies on John and Kristen’s insight into projected head count growth in the next five years to make sure their office space fits their needs.
The Results
Thanks to the collaboration with Virtual CFO, Karl and the firm now have confidence they can go to the next level. With the comfort of another set of eyes on their financials, they know they “can grow from 2 to 40 to 100 people and beyond. Having Anders as an advisor in our corner sets us up for our future growth in a way that we don’t worry about whether the decisions we’re making are financially sound.”
“It’s nice to have someone who is trained in financials at a far higher level than anyone on my team, and who can say, ‘Yes, this is a good idea. You should open a new office and here are the numbers you should consider as normal healthy numbers to get that experiment off the ground or hire that next lateral partner or whatever the decision may be.’”
—Karl Seelbach, Managing Partner
For a firm their size, “It doesn’t make sense to hire a CFO with 20-30 years of experience,” Karl says. “Anders Virtual CFO gives us that level of expertise and attention without nearly as big of a cost outlay.”
“Beyond serving in the CFO role, they also provide business consulting and counseling. We talk about the future of the firm, how we want to grow it and then we can make sure we are putting into motion the things we need to help us get there.”
—Karl Seelbach, Managing Partner
Kristen and John not only saved Karl hours of time that he no longer has to spend deciphering metrics, they enabled things to happen that otherwise would have gotten pushed to the side.
“We all know that to lose weight you need to eat healthier and exercise, but it doesn’t mean you always make time for both. It’s the same with finances. There are things I knew we should be doing that always ended up on the bottom of the “to do” list. Having a CFO not only lightens the load, but also helps hold us accountable. They remind us, ‘Yes, we’re going to do this. Remember, this is the plan for this quarter. Here’s what you’re rolling out.’ It keeps the train moving down the tracks.”
—Karl Seelbach, Managing Partner