Building Financial Foundations for Founders

When growing their business, Founders must wear multiple hats to gain momentum and scale, whether that’s validating products, identifying new markets, selling their products or hiring employees. And as a result, the “back-office” part of the business tends to suffer.

Finance Without Borders provides the absolute best in cloud-based bookkeeping and accounting services — from strategic CFO guidance and back office support to Cloud-based accounting technology tools — to Founders to equip them with financial discipline, a foundation for future growth and peace of mind. Whether you’re a startup, corporation or international business, there’s no limit to the support that Finance Without Borders can provide.

Spark Centre caught up with Finance Without Borders’ Founder and Virtual CFO, Christine Montag to learn more about their innovative services .

Q: What is the mission of Finance Without Borders?

FWB: It’s our mission to support as many early stage, high growth companies as we can.  FWB is committed to providing the absolute best in cloud-based bookkeeping and accounting services to our clients to provide them with financial discipline, a foundation for future growth and peace of mind.  We pride ourselves on the ability to take a deep dive along side our client’s ownership to understand the business and act as an extension of their team.  We become one of them! 

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges that you feel local and international startups and scaleups face today? 

FWB: Startups, whether local or international, tend to have limited resources, Founders where multiple hats.  One of the areas of the business that usually suffers as a result is the back-office. We encourage our clients to focus on what they do best – strategically focus on your business, get out there and sell!  

Q: How does your mobile technology assist small and growing businesses? 

FWB: The system platforms that we work with are all cloud-based and allow for a modular approach.  We start clients off with a basic system that fits the current state of the business and as the business grows we have the ability to bolt on additional technology.  We help our clients grow into an affordably priced ERP system that will meet all their needs.  Most of the technologies we work with have a mobile application that will provide ease of access to business owners anytime, anywhere.   

“I wanted to build a practice that provided the strategy and services that a growing business requires without all the overhead. No borders; no limits.” 

Q: How do your services differ based on whether a business is a startup, scaleup, not-for-profit or international? 

FWB: We collaborate with every client to develop a solid financial foundation with a practical strategy to support growth.  We work with our clients closely to customize services based on our client’s current stage of business.  A start-up business will need a much different lift than a scale-up business and the same holds true for other business types.  Our team is made up of all elements of a large corporation’s finance team allowing us to offer customized support to ensure our client’s are always receiving the support they need.  As your business’ needs change, so do we.  You’ll never pay for something you don’t need or need something you don’t have. 

We’re partners.  Together, we’ll succeed. 

Q: What is CFO To Go? 

FWB: For us, the concept of CFO to Go or a fractionalized Chief Financial Officer has really morphed into an internal finance team that’s completely outsourced.  Early-stage companies can hire a CFO on a part-time basis or a part-time Bookkeeper .  The companies we support all have high-growth potential and the reality is they need access to both and everything in between.  We’ve stacked our team with Bookkeepers, Payroll Administrators, Financial Analysts, Director of Finance to the Chief Financial Officer.  We support our clients with services as they need them, as the business need changes, so does our level of support.  Our clients will never pay for something they don’t need or need something they don’t have.  

Q: How has Finance Without Borders altered its operations in light of the pandemic? 

FWB: The intent of FWB since inception was to offer remote services using cloud-based technology to our clients.  We grew through acquisition which put us on a hybrid approach whereby we supported clients with a physical office approach as well as remote services.  Since the pandemic we closed our physical office in Newmarket allowing us to provide services as originally intended.  We believe the pandemic has taught everyone new ways in which to conduct business and  I believe FWB as well as many of our clients are embracing remote services and growing together to new heightened levels.  No Borders. No Limits. 

Q: What’s next for Finance Without Borders?

FWB: We’re excited to launch a new website that hones in on clients that we can best serve and have also been busy improving our service offers and, as an Elite Partner of Spark Centre, educating Spark Centre clients on a variety of financial topics through in-depth Masterclasses.

You can learn more about Finance Without Borders here.

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