How a marketing agency rebuilt its pricing model and doubled gross margin
A marketing technology company had no internal accounting team but needed recurring finance operations, board reporting, and senior financial guidance. Beankeeper built the function at an estimated monthly cost more than 75% below the in-house alternative and continued supporting the company as annual revenue more than doubled.
Client Snapshot
Industry: Marketing technology
Challenge: Building a finance function without hiring several internal roles
Services used: Controller support and Fractional CFO support
Key Takeaways
Estimated monthly cost: More than 75% lower than building comparable capabilities in-house
Finance function: AP, AR, board reporting, advisory, and a month-end close process established
Business growth: Annual revenue more than doubled during the relationship
What wasn't working
The company had no internal accounting team, but its financial needs already extended beyond the work one person would typically cover.
Accounts payable, accounts receivable, the month-end close process, board reporting, and financial advisory all needed defined ownership. Building comparable capabilities internally would have required several levels of financial experience and an estimated monthly investment of $22,000.
The company needed a more efficient way to establish the finance function without dividing recurring operations, leadership reporting, and senior guidance among separate hires or providers.
What Beankeeper changed
Built the core finance operation
Beankeeper established accounts payable and accounts receivable responsibilities and put a month-end close process in place.
The work gave recurring financial activities defined coverage and created the operating foundation for reporting and advisory.
Connected the financial work to board reporting
Beankeeper added board reporting within the same structure responsible for the company’s recurring finance operations.
This kept leadership reporting connected to the financial activity behind it rather than treating board materials as a separate exercise.
Added senior financial guidance
The engagement extended beyond recurring finance administration.
Beankeeper provided Fractional CFO-level guidance as the company’s needs developed, including advisory support during an acquisition. Leadership could draw on senior financial input without establishing a separate relationship for higher-stakes financial matters.
The results
Estimated monthly cost was more than 75% lower
Beankeeper provided the required finance capabilities for approximately $3,500 per month, compared with an estimated $15,000 per month to assemble comparable support internally.
That placed the estimated monthly cost more than 75% below the in-house alternative.
A working finance function was established
The company moved from having no internal accounting team to having recurring financial operations, board reporting, and senior advisory support within one structure.
Accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the month-end close process had defined coverage. Leadership reporting and senior guidance were connected to the same underlying financial work.
The structure continued supporting the company as it grew
Annual revenue more than doubled during the relationship.
That growth cannot be attributed to one provider or financial process. Beankeeper’s role was to maintain and support the finance structure as the company’s scale and financial needs increased.
The business impact
The company gained a coordinated finance function without building each role internally.
Beankeeper brought accounts payable, accounts receivable, the month-end close process, board reporting, and senior financial guidance into one operating structure.
Recurring financial work had defined ownership.
The company no longer needed to divide finance responsibilities among separate internal hires or outside providers. The same team handled the underlying work, reporting, and higher-level support.
The finance structure could support increasing business complexity.
As the company grew, recurring finance operations and leadership support remained connected within the same structure.
Leadership had access to support beyond routine finance administration.
The engagement combined Controller-level execution with Fractional CFO-level guidance when more consequential financial matters arose.
Services used
Controller support
Management of accounts payable, accounts receivable, board reporting, and the month-end close process.
Fractional CFO support
Senior financial guidance for leadership during growth and higher-stakes business matters.
Does your business need more finance capability than one hire can cover?
Recurring finance operations, leadership reporting, and senior financial guidance often become necessary at the same time.
Beankeeper brings those responsibilities together through modular support based on the financial capabilities the business needs.
