Make finances your advantage with a Rankin McKenzie CFO.

Our CPA firm identified that our company required more sophisticated financial oversight and strategic planning in order to continue to grow; services which they could not provide.  We began collaborating with John Autrey as our part time / virtual CFO in 2016 and later added Betty Larose to review our financial processes and current business strategies.  John and Betty were able to fine tune what we had while not disrupting the core processes and tools in place.  We count heavily on the planning and advice we receive from Betty and John, and they are integral to our continued success.

We believe that adding the Rankin McKenzie team was one of the best strategic moves that we have made.  On a more personal note, the entire team feels that Betty and John are a great addition to our work family.

Our Rankin McKenzie Partner has been a rock during this global pandemic. Whether it was building multiple versions of budgets or finding us a banking partner to acquire a PPP loan and low-interest loans, he always stayed focused and managed his task load. His insights and budgeting led us through the hardest six months of our nine year history. Our Partner and the entire team at Rankin McKenzie have an incredible company filled with dedicated professionals.

I have worked with John in different companies over the last 20 years and would eagerly do so again. I have worked with other Chief Financial Officers, but John is the cream of the crop when it comes to being a true partner to the functions of human resources and employee engagement. He understands the power of leveraging employee engagement to advance the business and improve the bottom line. For more than two decades, John has been my trusted partner with whom I could analyze issues, deliberate options and then create solutions while maintaining our commitments to stakeholders, including our employees.

In addition to being an exceptional partner, John has been a outstanding mentor to me. John not only provides the answer but will also provide the explanation that has allowed me to grow in my understanding of financial and accounting principles. While this has been personally rewarding, it has also allowed me to bring better ideas forward to benefit the company. John makes the people around him better.

We hired Kim right before we switched from QuickBooks online to NetSuite. With her guidance, we were able to make the right decisions and setup NetSuite in the most efficient way. In addition, she implemented a closing process for our accounting team, which enables us to get financials ready in a timely manner. We love her honest feedback and suggestions to make our accounting team more efficient. She understands our business!

 

Ray Szafranski has become an invaluable extension of our leadership team. He learned our business remarkably quickly and consistently provides timely, insightful financial analysis that helps us make better strategic decisions. One of Ray's most impactful contributions has been developing a comprehensive five-year financial model that gives us greater visibility and confidence in our long-term planning. He also provides meaningful insight into our budgets and forecasts, helping identify areas that require additional focus and enabling more informed decision-making. Beyond his technical expertise, Ray has been an outstanding mentor to our finance team, helping team members grow professionally and prepare for the next stages of their careers. His deep knowledge of international business structures, tax strategy, and compliance has been especially valuable as we navigate complex cross-border considerations. He brings a practical, solutions-oriented approach that helps us remain compliant while thoughtfully minimizing tax exposure for both the company and its owners. Ray combines exceptional financial expertise with a collaborative, people-focused approach, making him a trusted advisor and an integral part of our leadership team. I highly recommend him to any organization seeking a strategic financial partner who delivers both technical excellence and practical business insight.

Kathy Morris has worked with HexaTech for the past 13 years as a fractional CFO.  Even though she worked part time over the years, she has always been a critical member of our management team, and a key contributor to HexaTech’s success. Kathy is dependable, responsive, extremely knowledgeable in all facets of accounting and finance, and most of all has been a pleasure to work with. When we were acquired by Stanley Electric in 2020, Kathy was our point person for all of the due diligence that was required.  I can honestly say that without Kathy, this acquisition probably would not have happened.  When we were asked by Stanley to hire a full time Accounting Manager, Kathy led the search, identified a great candidate which we hired, and then trained that individual to ensure a seamless transition.  I would strongly recommend Kathy to any company looking for a part time CFO.  Thank you to Rankin McKenzie for supporting HexaTech from its inception through its acquisition. Your support for the past 16 years has been critical to our success!

We engaged Robert when we needed deeper financial insight and experienced guidance to move our business forward. A fractional CFO proved to be exactly the right fit. From the outset, Robert took the time to understand our business and quickly made an impact. His thoughtful, deliberate approach led to clear, actionable recommendations, and he became a trusted member of our leadership team, contributing well beyond the finance function. His experience and insight shone throughout the engagement. Most importantly, Robert helped us uncover a significant hidden issue in our financial health and guided us toward a path forward—something we will always be grateful for. He also developed our first-ever budget, immediately improving decision-making and increasing visibility into potential risks. Bringing on our Rankin McKenzie partner was an absolute game-changer for us.

For over a decade, the consortium we were part of managed its finances internally. After bringing Todd on board, we realized there were missed opportunities we hadn't noticed before. Thanks to Todd's hands-on management, not only have we stopped losing money, but our returns have also improved significantly. It's a huge relief knowing that someone with such diverse experience is handling things. Looking back, my only regret is that we didn't make this change sooner.

Jaye has made my life so much easier.  Prior to coming in, I was trying to do the job of multiple people.  She has taken so much off my plate, and I couldn’t be more grateful.  She is very good at explaining to everyone exactly what she needs.  We have a pretty tricky accounting system that we struggle to use.  While I can tell it’s frustrating, she powers on and continues to successfully get the information she needs out of it.  She has gotten our books straightened out and got us doing things we were never doing before.  I appreciate her every day and am so glad we decided to go with Rankin McKenzie.  Jaye is the perfect person for our business.

After COVID, our restaurant, brewery, and event businesses were facing a lot of challenges, and I knew I needed better financial information to understand what was working, what wasn't, and where we needed to make changes. Christie came in, took a close look at our accounting and financial processes, and helped us see where things could be improved. She gave us practical recommendations to make our reporting more useful, speed up processes, put better checks and balances in place, and reduce costs. She also helped us review our banking and tax service providers, which ended up saving us money and improving how things were being handled.

 

The biggest value Christie brought was helping us move from knowing we had problems to actually making the changes needed to fix them. She started by helping us look at different options for our accounting and finance needs, including whether it made sense to outsource. Having the costs, pros, and cons laid out clearly gave us confidence that we were making the right decision for our business.

 

Once we had a plan in place, she guided us through a significant change within our finance team.  She helped us find the right person for the role, develop a transition plan, manage the handoff of responsibilities, and make sure critical information was transferred properly. What could have been a very difficult and disruptive process ended up being far smoother because of her leadership and support. I would recommend Christie to any business owner who wants a trusted advisor to help bring order and clarity to their business.

John Griffin possesses a strong business acumen and a calm demeanor.  Beginning with my initial interaction with John, he possessed an impressive resume and exuded confidence quickly leading us to hire him.  He was instrumental in building our accounting function from the ground up while the company was in full operations. He became an integral member of our executive leadership team during a high growth period and provided exceptional support through our recent sale of the company. During the 5+ years he has supported our company, he has proven to be exceptionally valuable and exceeded our expectations.

Over that last 25 years, the executive team at Tyrata has worked together in several different start-up environments, so we have had experience with many other accounting firms and partners during that time.  Frankly, none we have worked with have been of Kathy Huff’s caliber and skill level; she has absolutely distinguished herself among her peers. The two words that would characterize our experience with Kathy would be flexibility and accuracy, both of which are extremely valuable to any small company.  With a limited staff, we have very diverse needs, but Kathy has always been able to fulfil her role quickly and effectively whether it be coordinating valuations, banking, insurance, payroll, taxes, AP/AR, or just routine bookkeeping needs.  Kathy doesn’t hesitate to take advantage of other resources from RM should the need arise, so we are never left without a resource.  Kathy is truly a valued member of our team at Tyrata.

Beth is an excellent resource in the business community with her people and networking skills. She knows how to skillfully pitch so to make the biggest impact for all parties involved. She has high ethics and gains the trust and confidence of her peers and coworkers. She is a high-level performer and a valuable asset.

Our Rankin McKenzie Partner brought expertise to us on Day 1 and started immediately digging into the details. He helped us establish better accounting practices in a scalable way that supports our growth goals. Most importantly for us has been his flexibility with scheduling to work around our needs.

Following the departure of a previous consultant, Alex took over the roll of DHIC’s Finance/HR Consultant and was able to step in and sort through everything on her own in order to keep us functioning without any down time.  Alex is thoughtful in her approach and thorough in her research of systems and processes.  She is easy to work with, and I trust and respect the input she provides in our Finance/HR area.  We look forward to our continued relationship with Alex as a trusted business partner.