Building a scale-able financial system and creating meaningful forecasts

Managing the financial, tax and compliance aspects of a business can be daunting for many entrepreneurs and early stage companies. Creating a solid financial foundation is essential to running your business, submitting grant proposals and developing meaningful projections for investors and bankers.

Please join us for a Lunch & Learn where Elizabeth Ettling, Lisa Wernli-Hunt, and James Piccolo will talk about the foundational elements required to create your financial system and why managing your business on spreadsheets can be risky. They will discuss how to set up a financial system (such as Quickbooks Online), create a scale-able chart of accounts (the backbone of the system), and how to leverage the system to create accurate and meaningful financial statements and a detailed financial projection. They will also speak on the importance of simple internal controls to help protect against fraud and theft; including some experiences they have encountered throughout their careers.

About the Speakers

Elizabeth Ettling has served on the management teams for seven rapidly growing start up enterprises in the Portland area. Her experience includes building corporate infrastructure, human resource management, corporate governance, finance, tax and operations. She has provided support in raising venture capital and was also integrally involved with two initial public offerings. Her experience includes 5 years in public accounting, BS, California State University Los Angeles, Business Administration.

Lisa Wernli-Hunt has 15 years of experience as a consultant in a wide array of industries. She specializes in startup businesses; helping young companies develop accounting systems and processes. She has particular expertise in the technology, life sciences and nonprofit sectors.

James Piccolo is experienced in Business Intelligence Metrics, Artist Management, and Organizational Analysis, a seasoned professional in Financial, Management, and Forensic Accounting. James is also the founder and principal of several business ventures in the creative services, music, and technology industries. In his tenure as CFO/COO and founding partner of Aligned Audio, James grew the LP-pressing audio replication facility in Brooklyn into a full-service audio post-production business with over $2M in revenue. After relocation to the Pacific Northwest and establishing Knowhere Unlimited (dba PiccoloCo) in Portland, James has developed proficiency in data harvesting, metrics analysis, and reporting techniques which provide actionable information for optimizing project management strategy and effectiveness. These foundational processes support his passion for providing outstanding customer service.

NOTE: Lunch will be provided, but you must register by September 17th to receive a lunch.