Elevate Your Accounting Game

September 14 |

Winning the Accounting Game: The Rise of Operational Accounting

As all businesses become digital the speed of business begins to move at the speed of light. This reality is placing a growing challenge on today’s finance and accounting functions to shift their focus from the tactical to the strategic and operational. It’s no longer your father’s accounting function, and the modern accountant must meet these challenges head on and navigate forward. 

Operational excellence is the new mandate for accounting and that means faster answers with more certainty and better teamwork. Accounting processes can no longer run in traditional ways and must change to meet the new business realities. As we all know accountants have a lot on their plate, so how does a busy accounting team adapt to the new realities without causing massive disruption to their critical enterprise processes like the Close, FP&A, Reporting and Compliance.  

Join Mike Whitmire, CEO & Co-Founder of FloQast as he explores the impact of increasing digitalization across the office of the CFO, the rise of operational accounting, and how to navigate these changes without disruption.

Join this session to learn:

1. The impact of digitalization in the office of the CFO
2. The shift to operational accounting
3. Managing the need to modernize without disruption
4. Emerging skill-sets required for accounting success

September 14 |

Introducing FloQast Ops: Extending the Power of FloQast Close to Drive Accounting Operational Excellence

“Controllers in the United States spend nearly 70% of their time performing traditional tasks, such as closing the books or ensuring compliance with accounting standards.” 

– ”Stepping Outside the Box: Elevating the Role of the Controller” IMA and Deloitte Center for the Controller 2020

Introducing FloQast Ops, a suite of Operational Workflows, that extends the power of FloQast Close to deliver “beyond the close” connected accounting Operations. While the Close is central to Accounting Operations, it is a waiting game for upstream processes like AP, AR, and Tax to finish and a game of delaying downstream processes like Compliance, FP&A, and Reporting as they wait for information from the Close. Once you have automated the Close, these up and downstream “beyond the close” functions are still disconnected, with limited visibility, lack of tracking and control, and siloed communications. In this session you will learn more about FloQast Ops and how it is one step closer to the path of Accounting Operations excellence. 

Join this session to learn:

1. What’s next after you automate the Close
2. How upstream and downstream operations are impacting the Close
3. A path forward to drive connected Accounting Operations

September 14 |

Panel Discussion: The Changing Game of Finance and Accounting

Accounting and finance professionals are being asked to take on new strategic and operational roles in guiding growth and in building the digital enterprise. But the accelerating pace of technological change and workforce shifts are presenting new challenges. So how can finance and accounting professionals lead the change required without disrupting critical core processes?

Join moderator Kristin Lofgren and our all-star panel speakers consisting of Sarah Spoja, CFO of Tipalti, Brandt Kucharski, Chief Accounting Officer of Matterport, Robert Kugel, CFO of Ventana Research, and Mike Whitmire, CEO & Co-Founder of FloQast, for a deep dive into a discussion on digitization and how the role of accounting and finance is changing.

Join this session to learn:

1. How familiar roles in accounting and finance are changing
2. How finance and accounting leaders must change their mindsets and find opportunities
3. Which technologies will have the biggest impact on the organization
4. Which new skill sets will be needed

By shining a spotlight on digital transformation, our panelists will cover where technology could take us, both now and in the future.

September 14 |

The New Landscape of Finance and Accounting

Today, successful finance and accounting professionals are responsible for much more than financial statements and internal controls as organizations task these departments with creating new value. Controllers and CFOs must be business and tech savvy leaders who understand how business operations impact both financial and non-financial decisions.

Join Todd Ford, President of Finance and Operations Coupa Software as he explores the new roles that Controllers and CFOs are now taking on, and get advice on expanding your role as an accounting leader.  From focusing on internal processes and transactions to becoming a leader in a new digital enterprise, we’ll cover everything you need to know.

Join this session to learn:

1. The macro trends impacting Finance and Accounting
2. Key shifts taking place within operational accounting and finance 
3. How to increase your value within your organization
4. How to integrate financial controllership into the larger business leadership group
5. Resources for improving and leveraging skills in emerging technologies that drive results

Modern accounting and finance functions  now have a growing mix of strategic and operational responsibilities, and now is the time to empower yourself to navigate change, get a seat at the table, and take your career to the next level.

September 14 |

A Very Special Saxsquatch Performance

Grab a bite to eat, sit back, and enjoy a truly unique musical performance from everyone’s favorite bipedal urban legend, Saxsquatch! 

Joining us from his lair in a deeply-wooded region somewhere in North America, ‘squatch, as he’s known to those closest to him, will deliver a set full of jazzy renditions of your favorite tunes, and a few original numbers to boot. Be sure to get a screencap, because your friends and colleagues are never going to believe that you spent an hour at a virtual accounting conference watching a multi-instrumentalist sasquatch playing cover songs!

September 14 |

Automating Business Processes for Long-Term Scalability

Conventional business processes can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, largely due to the manual use of spreadsheets and housing data in disparate systems. By automating core processes and utilizing a centralized solution to house critical information, your organization can eliminate data entry errors and reveal critical business information in real-time, empowering your finance and accounting leaders to make better, faster decisions.

In this session, Tom Kelly, Director at Oracle NetSuite will discuss:

• The challenges facing today’s finance and accounting teams
• Steps to identify traditional processes and operations that can be automated to move toward the concept of continuous accounting
• The benefits and application of continuous accounting
• Refining your tech stack to build efficiencies and prepare for long-term growth and scalability

September 14 |

The Changing Face of Accounts Payable

Today’s increasingly competitive global environment requires businesses to strive toward becoming best-in-class or risk falling hopelessly behind their peers. The path toward achieving best-in-class results in accounts payable is no secret. Accounts payable organizations must automate their processes and streamline the entire bill-to-pay-to-reconciliation cycle. Achieving these best-in-class results not only makes accounts payable organizations more efficient and effective, they help transform accounts payable into a more valuable strategic function.

In this session, you will learn how to:

1. Transform your underlying payables productivity and cost structure with smart automation across your entire AP process
2. Manage global payables operations while adding governance to regional entities, and automating tiresome processes that weigh you down
3. Build resilience and position your business up for long term success with winning game plans to implement AP best practices and meeting compliance and payables requirements for a global supplier base

September 14 |

Optimizing the Close Process: Building on Your FloQast Investment

Optimizing the financial close process often goes beyond the investment in a close solution like FloQast, and requires a dedicated effort to align systems, people, and processes to make the close more efficient. Part of that effort is understanding and assessing the current state, determining the constraints that are driving inefficiencies, and developing and executing on a plan to resolve the constraints to achieve our future state vision.

Layer on events such as significant growth, acquisition, IPO, or company turnover in key back office roles, and companies often lose sight of how to accomplish a month-end close optimization initiative. Join us for this session to hear from leaders of CrossCountry Consulting on best practices and tips for optimizing your close process.

Join this session to learn:

1. CrossCountry Consulting’s approach to assessing the current state of your close process
2. Leveraging pain points and inefficiencies to implement solutions within your monthly close
3. Best practice surrounding successful change management and ensuring employee buy in

September 15 |

The FloQast Roadmap Strategy to Achieving Accounting Operational Excellence

Join us for this follow-up session to Mike Whitmire’s keynote, on how to make operational excellence a reality in your organization. Automation, AI, RPA, workflow, and low-code are the terms of the day. The challenge? Sorting through the confusing array of available solutions and tools to separate the hype from reality. 

In this session, you will learn about the FloQast road map strategy to achieve accounting operational excellence . We are accountants who have been building accountant-first solutions for over 1,400 customers. See the future with FloQast.

Mike Whitmire, CEO & Co-Founder, and Chris Sluty, CPO and Co-Founder, will present the products FloQast will deliver in late 2021 and beyond. This session will be an introduction to the interactive Roadmap Roundup later in the day.

Join this session to learn:

1. A practical approach to get your organization on the path of operational excellence
2. The pragmatic application of technology solutions to Accounting Operations
3. How to choose the next most impactful areas to automate

September 15 |

Tips and Tricks on Maximizing your New FloQast Close Solution

Wondering if you and your team are making the most out of the FloQast Close solution? In this session, FloQast experts will share their tips, tricks, and best practices to help your team to get the most of FloQast Close. This is a great session for new and veteran FloQast users alike. We’ll reveal valuable tips like how to increase visibility and accessibility with tags, filtering, and permanent file storage; implement efficiency gains with grouped reconciliations, fixed balances, and auto sign-offs; and put in place key controls like locking folders, completeness check, and control settings. Be sure to also take advantage of the live Q&A with our solution experts.

Join this session to learn:

1. FloQast Close Best Practices
2. Optimal Configurations
3. Laying the GroundWork With Your Team
4. File Structure Secrets

September 15 |

Customer Success Session: Secrets to Reducing The Time To Close

Happiest Baby is a VC-backed Los Angeles-based high-growth startup developing landmark products, content, and services with a mission to help parents raise healthy, happy children and save lives.  When Gary Mark joined the company in August 2018 as the VP of Finance and Accounting, the company’s fiscal close was taking 30 business days and lacked the documentation and processes needed to support an external audit.  They also lacked the processes and controls needed to ensure both the speed and accuracy of the fiscal close.  In this session, Gary will talk about the challenges he faced upon joining Happiest Baby and how he used FloQast to reduce the fiscal close cycle by 67% to just 10 days.  

Join this session to learn:

1. The Challenges at Happiest Baby 
2. How They Implemented FloQast to overcome those challenges 
3. The outcomes they achieved.

This session is ideal for those that are looking to learn from actual customer experiences in using FloQast to achieve accounting operational excellence.

September 15 |

How to Master the Virtual Close

Remote work is — and will be — a part of professional life moving forward. For teams with remote or hybrid on-premise employees, implementing and maintaining the appropriate measures to function efficiently without all being in the same place is critical. In this session we will discuss  how to optimize your checklist, improve communication, and ensure completeness and accuracy in your close.

3 Learning Objectives:

1. Optimizing the Checklist to include tasks, explanations, hyperlinks and linked documents – to ensure accurate sign-offs, improve new hire onboarding, and facilitate cross training.
2. Effectively communicating and sharing resources with your team and auditors through Review Notes, tracking Dependencies and assembling a complete document repository.
3. Ensuring completeness and accuracy of your close by securing internal controls, automating notifications, and locking folders.

September 15 |

Readying Your Organization for IPO / Spac

Market analysts have declared 2021 to be the “Year of the SPAC,” or special purpose acquisition company, and for good reason. In the first quarter of 2021, U.S. SPAC merger and acquisition volume was $172.3 billion, up 3,000% from the prior year. However, while SPACs allow private companies to go public on a much shorter timeline than a traditional IPO, they’re not for the faint of heart. 

Join Jim Loughmiller, Senior Managing Director of CBIZ ARC Consulting and Mike Whitmire, CEO and Co-Founder of FloQast, for a deep dive into the pros and cons of SPACs vs. IPOs, trends we’re seeing in the space, and tips on how to set your organization up for success, whichever route you take to going public.

Join this session to learn:

• The history of SPACs and where they’re headed
• SPACs vs. IPOs & the pros and cons of each
• How to set your organization up for success whichever vehicle you choose

Whether you’re in the consideration phase or far along the path to going public, we’ll help you prepare to address the unique challenges of operating as a public company on an accelerated timeline.

September 15 |

Customer Success Session: Secrets to a Successful FloQast Implementation

WorkForce Software is a high-growth company with a globally diverse accounting team in multiple countries and timezones, providing workforce management solutions with integrated employee experience capabilities.

Join Corporate Controller Michelle Wright, to learn more about the implementation of FloQast at WorkForce Software. The business challenges she faced as a new Controller and how FloQast helped her with those challenges. She will share key lessons on how to implement FloQast effectively.

In this session, you will discover:

• What was the business challenge Michelle faced as a new Controller
• How did FloQast help with that challenge
• What are the key lessons she learned about implementing FloQast

This session is ideal for those that are considering a FloQast solution or have newly purchased FloQast and want to learn more.

September 15 |

FloForward Roadmap Round Up

Throughout the year, the FloQast development team works hard to make our platform and products better every year.  Chris and Mike set the stage for the Floqast vision, this session complements the vision with an overview of the FloQast roadmap of the features and functions to be delivered in 2021 and beyond.

At FloQast, our DNA is accounting and we are excited to present our coming innovations to elevate your accounting game.  Want to have a chance to make your voice heard? Join this interactive session with Chris Sluty, Founder and Chief Product Officer, Cullen Zandstra, Founder and Chief Technical Officer, and Tracy Wong, the Director of Product Management and moderator Colleen Wanty, the Director of Product Marketing to see and ask questions about the FloQast roadmap. 

Join this session to:

1. Understand the features and functions FloQast will focus on for 2021 and beyond.
2. Provide input to FloQast team about your most pressing needs across the Close and accounting operations.
3. Learn about the evolution of our platform and why it is important to you. 

September 15 |

Lunch Break: Cooking with Guy Fieri

Ever wanted to take a cooking class with world-class chef and restaurateur Guy Fieri? You’re never going to believe this, but TakeControl 2021 is your chance to make that happen. 

Join Guy Fieri and FloQast Co-Founder and COO Chris Sluty (no slouch in the kitchen himself) in cooking a Mayor of Flavortown-approved dish. 

As we get closer to the big day, we’ll let you know what incredible dish he’ll be whipping up, along with the ingredients you’ll need to follow along and create your own culinary masterpiece. Stay tuned for more info!

September 15 |

Hitchhiker's Guide to FloQast Remind, Now with Checklist Integration

How much time does your accounting team spend crafting and sending requests for information each month? According to FloQast user data, a typical accounting team can generate over 300 requests for tasks and information across 100 different individuals, resulting in more than 2,000 additional email exchanges. Wouldn’t it be nice if your team didn’t have to cut, copy, paste all of those requests?

FloQast ReMind is a request management workflow add-on to the FloQast Close solution. FloQast ReMind automates manual tasks and delivers new levels of visibility across the close process, enables a manage-by-exception approach, accelerates the time-to-close, and allows teams to focus on more important tasks. Now integrated with the FloQast Close checklist, come check out the latest version of ReMind and see how your team can use it.

Join this session to:

1. Understand how request management is slowing down the Close
2. Learn the key use cases for ReMind
3. See the new checklist integration in action

September 15 |

Hitchhiker's Guide to FloQast Flux Analysis

In a perfect world, accounting teams would conduct a fluctuation analysis each month. Too often, however, the flux analysis gets pushed to the back burner and the strategic insight it can offer is never realized. FloQast Flux was designed to help alleviate this pain by making it easier to report your fluctuation analysis directly in FloQast. 

In this session, FloQast experts will walk you through how to build and edit your flux reports to show comparative balance sheet and income statement reports just the way you need them to — helping you become more strategic in your everyday operations. You’ll also learn how other teams are using FloQast Flux in their operations to save time and streamline their reporting.

Join this session to learn:

1. How to customize comparative balance sheet and income statement reports to better understand fluctuations in account balances
2. How to utilize Review Notes to evidence qualitative review of material fluctuations.
3. Best practices around completing a timely, accurate, and effective Flux Analysis.

September 15 |

Hitchhiker's Guide to FloQast Analyze

Controllers are constantly challenged to close faster, yet rarely have sufficient visibility to identify and remove bottlenecks. FloQast Analyze™ provides valuable insight to optimize an accounting team’s workload and maximize process efficiency to improve future closes.

In this session, FloQast experts will walk you through how to use FloQast Analyze to identify bottlenecks, track efficiency improvements over time and get a handle on where you stand in the Close.

Join this session to learn:

1. How to use FloQast Analyze to identify and manage inefficiencies in your Close
2. Best practices in optimizing your Close 
3. How to get clarity on the status of your Close

September 15 |

Hitchhiker's Guide to Optimizing your Reconciliations with AutoRec

Are you looking forward to preparing next month’s account reconciliations? Doubtful. We did not get our degrees in accounting to become spreadsheet serfs. FloQast AutoRec was designed to help you break free from accounting monotony by eliminating the tedium of completing repeated, mundane tasks. Discover how FloQast can do this for you quickly and easily by automating your standard account reconciliations like bank accounts, clearing accounts, prepaid expenses, and many more of the most tedious accounts in the close. Break free of the drudgery and leverage the accounting degree you earned!

Join this session to learn:

1. How to standardize account reconciliations using AutoRec Matching and Amortization
2. Choose which AutoRec capabilities best apply to your company’s account reconciliations
3. How AutoRec can improve your account reconciliations by creating a streamlined repeatable process that decreases the time you’re spending doing your current reconciliations in Excel.
4. How to implement AutoRec for your account reconciliations today

September 15 |

FloQast Accountant Awards Show with Peter Olinto