When You Need a Hand

“After one demo of Accounting Seed, my first thought was ‘Yup, I’m going to use this.’”

Ken Christiansen, founder and CEO of augeōBPM, stumbled upon Tony Zorc, founder and CEO of Accounting Seed, during Dreamforce. That meeting redirected his life as a CFO.

augeōBPM is a business process outsourcing partner of Accounting Seed that specializes in solution design, data integration and migration, accounting and statement generation, and audit support. The company provides customers with a full business solution through Accounting Seed and other Salesforce applications.

I’d been a CFO for a long time and used many different software solutions. Seven years ago at Dreamforce, I saw Tony taking people through a demo [of Accounting Seed]. I stopped to watch and it was clear right away that he knew his stuff,” said Ken.

Ken, like many CFOs, was in search of a paperless, integrated accounting software. He had assembled his own solution, integrating multiple vendors on one hosted site. It worked, but maintaining the data interfaces during bug patches and upgrades was unsustainable.

He was running into the same sort of flexibility and efficiency issues many CFOs and accountants continue to face. 

“I could tell that all of the design concepts in Accounting Seed were simple, yet elegant and allowed the user to make unique modifications in the system, which was the opposite of what companies like FinancialForce had available.”

Becoming an Accounting Seed Customer and Partner

As a customer of Accounting Seed, Ken got to know Tony while Ken was CFO of Pax Water Technologies, which manufactures water treatment equipment. Pax went live with Accounting Seed in 2013 and continued to dive deep into the functionality and building capabilities of the software. This inspired Ken to utilize Accounting Seed in what is now his full-time, self-started career with augeōBPM.

“Following the sale of Pax [Water Technologies] to UGSI Solutions, Inc., I stayed on for six months to assist with the transition. Today, I continue to do the accounting for PAX under an accounting outsource agreement with augeōBPM,” said Ken.

Revving up only a couple of years ago, augeōBPM now has eight accounts, five of which have outsourced their accounting to augeoBPM. Among those accounts are Pax Water Technologies and CQ Infused Beverages, LLC. These customers have seen substantial success with the combination of augeōBPM and Accounting Seed.

PAX Water Technologies Builds a Full Business Solution

In January 2017, UGSI Solutions, Inc. acquired PAX Water Technologies, expanding its portfolio of water quality solutions for municipal and industrial clients. Through the due diligence process, UGSI management was impressed by the integrated solution PAX assembled on the Salesforce platform, led by Ken Christiansen, then COO/CFO of PAX.

For PAX, everything was in one place with Salesforce. Outbound marketing and webinars funneled leads into the opportunity pipeline. When a job was won, the opportunity migrated through sales orders, manufacturing, shipping, billing, and warranty service – all captured within the Salesforce and Accounting Seed solutions.  Rather than convert the company’s accounting to the business platform in use by its other operating divisions, UGSI corporate CFO Chris Chisholm decided to keep the Salesforce and Accounting Seed integrated platform intact and ultimately outsource the accounting to augeōBPM.

“Given the tight linkage of PAX’s transaction accounting functions and its other business processes within Salesforce and Accounting Seed and, given our assessment of PAX Water’s business support requirements, we concluded maintaining its existing systems made the most sense following the acquisition,” said Chris.

augeōBPM has managed PAX’s transactional accounting for two years now, including audit support, sales tax management, and corporate reporting. Being part of a larger management organization, the reporting and analysis demands are high and frequent. Given Ken’s history at PAX, augeōBPM is able to provide support in this area (amongst many others) due to his historical knowledge of the company.

Chris further noted, “Ken’s ongoing involvement following his departure from UGSI to launch augeōBPM provided critical support for the roll-out of Salesforce to other UGSI business units and helped ensure continuity during a period of rapid growth for the PAX business.”

CQ Infused Beverages, LLC, Gets Their Time Back

Cynthia S. Farruggio, president of CQ Infused Beverages, LLC, needed an accounting solution that allowed them to leverage various Salesforce triggers and automation from inventory management, to invoicing and payments, in order to efficiently and effectively run their subscription-based beverage company.

Matthew J. Farruggio, vice president of CQ Infused Beverages, LLC, had been using Accounting Seed and Salesforce for years, but continually ran into issues with the company’s accountant’s ability to work with the data. That ended when augeōBPM stepped in and took over the company’s bookkeeping. For a monthly fee, augeōBPM takes care of everything and are now handling all of CQ Infused Beverages, LLC’s accounting needs. In essence, augeōBPM gave Mathew his time back.

“There is no reason to be on Salesforce without Accounting Seed and augeōBPM. Ken and his team are a godsend, taking the time to help fine-tune our Salesforce org so that we can focus on our business, not accounting and filings. Save yourself time, effort and energy, and use augeōBPM. They’re a game changer. I highly recommend them,” said Matthew Farruggio.

The Joy of Growing Businesses

Hearing these successes is what fuels Ken to continue his work.

“It’s been a fun journey that started seven years ago. I want to continue to take these businesses to the next level. That’s what I’m passionate about – growing businesses.”

Many organizations will continue to need outsourced accounting services, and for Ken, he remains “thrilled to be part of their journey.”

To learn more about augeōBPM and their services, visit their website at augeobpm.com.