Answer Box: TL;DR
Accounting is shifting from “bean counting” to strategic profit engine – and AI is accelerating that change. In this episode, Dan and outsourced accounting CEO Rachel break down how growing companies can turn their books into a real-time dashboard for decisions, why waiting 30–45 days for financials is killing margin, and how modern finance teams should embrace AI instead of fearing it. They walk through the sweet spot for outsourced accounting (roughly $1M–$100M+ in revenue), the biggest profit leaks in e-commerce and digital businesses, and why the accountant of the future looks much more like a strategist and CFO than a back-office data entry clerk.
Key Takeaways
- Outsourced accounting should be a profit center, not just a cost. If your finance team is only closing the books and filing taxes, you’re missing the point. A good outsourced department helps you grow revenue, improve margins, and make faster, data-driven decisions.
- Real-time numbers beat 45-day-old reports every time. Fully Accountable aims to keep books current daily and weekly so month-end can close in 5–8 days, not 30–45. Faster visibility means you can catch problems and opportunities before they become big, expensive surprises.
- Marketing and inventory are the biggest profit levers for many online businesses. For e-com and digital brands, paid advertising costs and inventory/tariffs can quietly destroy margin. Detailed dashboards by channel and campaign help you cut losers and reinvest into the winners.
- Blended marketing numbers hide where you’re bleeding cash. If all ad spend is lumped together, a few red campaigns can quietly offset profitable ones. Breaking out performance by offer, channel, or campaign often reveals simple cuts that improve profitability overnight.
- AI won’t replace accountants – but it will replace old accounting tasks. Routine work like categorizing transactions and building basic P&Ls will increasingly be handled by software and AI. The human accountant’s role is moving toward review, analysis, guidance, and strategy.
- The accountant of the future is a strategist and business partner. Rachel sees the profession shifting from “doers in the books” to financial navigators who help owners interpret data, pressure-test decisions, and design budgets, forecasts, and cash-flow plans.
- Fractional CFOs are crucial in uncertain markets. With shoppers more cautious, refunds up, and discounting everywhere, a seasoned CFO can help you protect margin, plan scenarios, and avoid “I have cash, so I must be fine” thinking.
- Remote-first accounting teams unlock better talent and better service. By hiring across the U.S. (especially in rural areas), Rachel’s firm taps top controllers and CFOs who want flexible, work-from-home roles – and can better match client time zones.
- There’s a huge, underutilized talent pool in rural and caregiving communities. Many highly skilled professionals, especially women and moms, are shut out of traditional corporate roles due to location or schedule. Remote accounting work brings them back into the fold.
- On the personal side: lead the way you’d want others to follow. Rachel’s leadership ethos is collaborative, non-hierarchical, and modeled on the idea that you should behave in ways you’d be proud to see others mirror.
Key Moments
- 00:02 – Opening and sponsor. The show opens with Tailored Wealth’s mission of helping business leaders live their version of a rich life.
- 00:27 – Dan sets the stage for episode 12. Dan introduces himself, Tailored Wealth, and the podcast’s focus on cutting through financial noise for high-level professionals.
- 00:48 – Introducing Rachel & Fully Accountable. Dan welcomes Rachel, CEO of Fully Accountable, an outsourced accounting firm that can serve as part or all of a company’s accounting department.
- 01:15 – What Fully Accountable actually does. Rachel explains they handle bookkeeping, accounting, fractional CFO services, and everything in between – customized to the company instead of forcing clients into rigid packages.
- 01:34 – Rachel’s journey: lawyer to CEO. She shares that she’s a lawyer by training, found her niche in corporate finance and M&A, joined the founder’s previous company as a law clerk, then helped start Fully Accountable and eventually bought out the majority owner to become CEO.
- 02:28 – From law school intern to running the company. The former majority owner asked her law school for the top student in a business class; Rachel got the role, did “real work” instead of busywork, and stayed with him across multiple ventures for 13 years, ultimately taking over Fully Accountable.
- 03:37 – Who Fully Accountable serves. Their sweet spot: businesses doing roughly $1M+ per year, up to and beyond $100M, especially in digital, e-commerce, and marketing spaces.
- 03:58 – The core outcome: get owners out of QuickBooks. Rachel stresses their goal is to free business owners from bookkeeping so they can focus on sales and marketing, while her team helps grow both revenue and margins.
- 04:56 – Accounting as a profit center. Dan and Rachel discuss how, done right, accounting isn’t just overhead, but a driver of cost savings, financial strategy, and smarter operations – not just late historical reporting.
- 05:43 – A “typical” engagement. Most clients start with an outsourced controller who handles daily bookkeeping, AP/AR, payroll, budgeting, and 13-week cash-flow forecasting – all in real time.
- 06:01 – Faster month-end close for faster decisions. Because work is done daily and weekly, clients can close months in 5–8 days instead of 30–45, giving them time to react to red flags before they turn into financial bleeds.
- 06:39 – Biggest client challenge: marketing & inventory costs. For online businesses, Rachel sees ad costs and inventory (plus tariffs) as the main margin killers.
- 07:23 – Tariffs and pricing strategy. She explains the tension between absorbing tariffs, passing them to the customer, and maintaining both margin and competitive prices.
- 07:43 – Negotiating and dashboards as tools. The team helps clients negotiate better vendor terms and build detailed marketing dashboards so owners can see which campaigns are truly profitable.
- 07:59 – The danger of blended marketing metrics. Rachel describes how rolling all marketing spend together hides specific losing campaigns; cutting those and doubling down on winners can materially improve profit.
- 08:34 – The new frontier: AI and accounting. Dan asks about industry challenges; Rachel points to AI as the big disruptor and opportunity.
- 09:05 – Using AI as leverage, not competition. She argues accountants shouldn’t fear AI; they should use it to reduce errors, increase efficiency, and then spend more time on high-value advisory work.
- 09:57 – The accountant of the future. Rachel predicts a world where AI builds most of the basic financial statements, and humans focus on reviewing, interpreting, and advising.
- 10:35 – How clients find Fully Accountable. They use both inbound and outbound: website, LinkedIn, educational resources/templates, events, and proactive outreach to companies hiring accountants.
- 11:10 – Customizing the solution. Rachel walks through how they learn the business, co-design a solution, staff and onboard it, and typically get clients fully transitioned within 30–60 days.
- 11:57 – Key referral partners. Marketing agencies, PE firms, business brokers, payroll providers, and inventory software firms frequently refer clients – and Fully Accountable helps their tools and services work better by cleaning up the accounting.
- 12:34 – Leadership style: collaborative and non-hierarchical. Rachel explains that she hires experts, encourages ideas, and avoids heavy bureaucracy to keep the team agile and creative.
- 13:22 – Why CFO services matter right now. She emphasizes that fractional CFOs help owners navigate economic uncertainty, keep up with constant changes, and maintain margins in an environment of cautious shoppers, higher refunds, and aggressive discounting.
- 14:52 – Why they went hybrid/remote long before COVID. Originally based in Akron, Ohio, the firm realized it could access better talent across the U.S. and align better with clients’ time zones by going remote.
- 15:20 – Tapping into overlooked talent. Rachel highlights discovering a huge pool of skilled professionals—especially women and moms in rural areas—who couldn’t commute to corporate offices but thrive in flexible, remote roles.
- 16:08 – Remote as the best “marketing funnel” for talent. She notes their job postings are one of their best-performing funnels; Fully Accountable now has controllers in ~18 states.
- 16:53 – Lightning round begins. Dan kicks off the personal Q&A segment.
- 17:10 – Coffee vs. tea & dogs vs. cats. Rachel chooses coffee and dogs.
- 17:10 – Favorite tech tool. Her must-have (besides phone/computer) is her Kindle.
- 17:42 – Favorite quote. She cites Ruth Bader Ginsburg: lead in a way you’d want others to follow.
- 18:04 – Favorite business/finance book. Rachel names Revenue Harvest, which reframed sales for her as a financial forecasting and planning exercise instead of “just go get more revenue.”
- 18:36 – Personal hack: live by the calendar. Everything from work to walking with her son goes on the calendar—and she protects those commitments.
- 18:58 – Bucket list accomplishment. Buying Fully Accountable and becoming owner/CEO.
- 18:58 – Current financial goal. Paying off the “dream home” her family built about a year and a half ago.
- 19:25 – Advice to younger self. Don’t obsess over the future so much. Work hard, but don’t stress unnecessarily; enjoy the season you’re in because you won’t get it back.
- 19:46 – How to connect. Rachel invites listeners to reach out via email, the Fully Accountable website, or LinkedIn, and notes that calling the office will get you routed to her as well.
- 20:18 – Dan’s closing. Dan thanks Rachel, reiterates the importance of sharp strategy and clear goals, and signs off the episode.
Episode Summary
In this episode of Making Sense of Your Money, host Dan sits down with Rachel, CEO and co-owner of Fully Accountable, an outsourced accounting firm serving businesses from roughly $1M to $100M+ in revenue. They unpack how accounting is evolving from a backward-looking compliance function into a forward-looking strategic engine—especially for digital and e-commerce businesses.
Rachel starts by explaining what Fully Accountable actually does: everything from day-to-day bookkeeping and bill pay to full controller and fractional CFO services. The key theme is customization—instead of selling pre-packaged tiers that may or may not fit, they design a solution around what the business truly needs. The first big outcome: get business owners out of QuickBooks and back into their highest-value work, usually sales and marketing. The second: turn the accounting department into a profit center by improving margins and enabling faster, smarter decisions.
The conversation dives into where most clients are bleeding margin. For their core market—e-commerce brands, digital businesses, and agencies—Rachel sees marketing/ad spend and inventory (including tariffs) as the main pressure points. She describes how blended marketing numbers can hide losing campaigns, and how breaking performance down by channel and offer often reveals obvious cuts and reallocation opportunities. Similarly, surfacing the full landed cost of inventory (tariffs, freight, etc.) helps brands set prices that don’t quietly erode profitability.
From there, Dan and Rachel talk about the future of accounting in the age of AI. Rachel is clear: AI and modern software will increasingly handle routine tasks like categorizing transactions and building basic financial statements. That doesn’t make accountants obsolete; it changes their job description. She envisions a future where humans focus less on data entry and more on reviewing, interpreting, and advising—acting as strategists and business partners who help owners navigate uncertainty, protect margins, and allocate capital wisely. Fractional CFOs, she notes, are especially valuable now, given cautious consumers, rising refunds, and constant discounting.
They also explore Fully Accountable’s early move to a hybrid/remote workforce. Long before remote work was trendy, Rachel realized that limiting hiring to Akron, Ohio, meant missing out on phenomenal talent across the country—especially experienced controllers and CFOs, and a large pool of women and caregivers in rural areas who couldn’t commute to city offices. By going remote, the firm now matches clients with experts across 18 states and covers multiple time zones more naturally.
The episode wraps with a lightning round that reveals more of Rachel’s personal side: coffee and dogs, a Kindle habit, a favorite quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg about leading in a way others want to follow, and a love for the book Revenue Harvest. She shares that buying Fully Accountable was a major bucket-list milestone, that paying off her family’s dream home is the next financial goal, and that she’d tell her younger self not to stress so much about the future—work hard, but enjoy the journey too.
Full Transcript
Announcer: Brought to you by Tailored Wealth, helping business leaders live their version of a rich life.
Announcer: Welcome to another edition of the Making Sense of Your Money podcast, where we cut through the financial noise and help business leaders to make smart, confident money decisions.
Dan: Welcome to episode number 12 of the Making Sense of Your Money podcast. I am your host, Dan. I’m the founder and CEO of Tailored Wealth. And as always, each of our episodes features a trusted voice in the financial world—someone who works directly with high-level professionals to simplify the complex and turn strategy into action.
Dan: And today I am really, really excited to welcome a special guest. We’ve got with us Rachel. Rachel is the CEO of Fully Accountable and they specialize in outsourced accounting services.
Dan: So Rachel, thanks so much for joining me on the Making Sense of Your Money podcast. Great to have you on today.
Rachel: Thanks, Dan. I appreciate being here.
Dan: Yeah, you bet. We’re looking forward to chatting. I know there’s a lot for us to cover and our audience will want to hear your expert take on some key topics.
Dan: If you don’t mind, let’s jump right in. Can you give us like a 90-second overview of what your business does and a little bit of your story on how you got it started?
Rachel: Absolutely. So, Fully Accountable is your outsourced accounting department. We do bookkeeping, accounting, CFO services—whatever hole you need to fill in your accounting department, we can help fill that for you. Or we can be your entire accounting department.
Rachel: Our goal really is to make a customizable solution tailored to your business—not try to fit you into a package that doesn’t really fit your needs.
Rachel: For me personally, I’m a lawyer by trade. I came up through law school and found a real niche in the finance and corporate space, doing some merger and acquisition work. I ended up at Fully Accountable, and over the last decade that we’ve been in business, I worked myself up from intern to, last year, becoming the CEO of the company and purchasing out the majority shareholder. So now me and my business partner own 100% of the company.
Dan: Love it. Love it.
Dan: I’ve got to unpack that a little bit. I mean, I’ve got a bunch more we’ll go into, but just really quick—tell us the journey from intern to CEO, because I certainly love that.
Rachel: Totally. So when I was in law school, the majority owner of this company had gone to my law school and said, “I want the number one kid in the business class.” He was looking for a law clerk in their, at the time, multi-unit web hosting company.
Rachel: I happened to be that person. I went in and interviewed, loved him, loved what they were doing. And what I enjoyed most was that I was going to get to do real work—I wasn’t going to be getting coffee and faxing or mailing.
Rachel: I ended up joining about two weeks later and ended up working with him for 13 years until he went and decided to do some of his own passion projects starting last year. Then I got to continue on with Fully Accountable. I’ve been there since day one—technically employee one—and now own the majority of the business.
Dan: Good for you. That’s a great story and one that really hits home for me because I’m very close to the local business school and we hire a number of interns. I am all about giving them real work, not just picking up the copies for sure. Great to hear that.
Dan: All right, so let’s talk a little bit about Fully Accountable. Tell us a bit more about your ideal client, and then just give us in a nutshell what you really help them to do. What are the outcomes you help them achieve?
Rachel: Absolutely. For Fully Accountable, our real niche is somebody who has a business generating revenue—so think a million dollars plus a year. We serve clients up over $100 million as well.
Rachel: It’s really somebody that understands how they can best leverage a solution that has all of the tools and resources they need, but will work with them as their team. Like I said, we’ll do anything from your bookkeeping up through your fractional CFO, but what we’re really trying to do is get you, the business owner, out of having to do your QuickBooks or whatever your accounting software is.
Rachel: We give you back that time so that you can go and do what you’re best at—which, in most cases, is sales and marketing, which generates more sales.
Rachel: If we can take that time off your plate, we’re, in theory, helping you generate more sales and revenue. And if we’re doing our accounting correctly, we’re also helping you grow your margin. So you’re really growing your top line and your bottom line if you work with Fully Accountable. That’s our goal.
Dan: Absolutely love that. I am a former revenue leader and I still spend the majority of my time on revenue-focused functions within the business. I can absolutely relate to getting that financial time back and pouring it into the front end of the business. From a business owner’s perspective, that can be incredibly valuable—and freeing. At least in my experience, it can be really freeing.
Rachel: Yeah, and I think one of the areas that people have to overcome is this idea that accounting is just an expense. If your accounting department is doing it correctly, they should be a profit center for you.
Rachel: Now, they’re never going to make the money that your sales team or your marketing team can generate, but even just through cost savings and financial strategies with your operations department, they should be forward-thinking for you—not just closing out the books 30 to 45 days after the period has ended.
Rachel: We should be on top of that stuff daily, weekly, monthly, so you’re able to pivot quickly and make good, objective decisions.
Dan: Very, very cool. Very cool.
Dan: It sounds like your offering is fairly customized based on the specific client, but tell us a little bit about what a typical engagement might look like.
Rachel: Yeah, so our typical, most common engagement will be something that looks like having an outsourced controller—somebody that does your books on a daily basis, keeps them up to date, pays your bills, sends out your receivables, runs the payroll, keeps a budget for you, and a 13-week rolling cash flow.
Rachel: All the little nuts and bolts that you need to run your business, those happen daily, weekly, and monthly. Where we’re a little bit different than another firm is that, because we do that in real time, those reports are coming to you quickly. The close of your month might be five or eight days as opposed to 30 to 45.
Rachel: The idea is that if you have your numbers and the data quicker, you’re able to—if there are red flags or things you need to fix—do it faster before it becomes a big issue or a financial bleed.
Dan: Makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. Thank you for that.
Dan: Let’s talk a little bit about the challenges that your clients face. Walk me through some of the primary challenges and how you and your team help them overcome those.
Rachel: Yeah. So the first challenge that we see—we started really in the digital online space, serving e-commerce, digital brands, and marketing agencies. The biggest challenge we’re always seeing is marketing and advertising costs.
Rachel: When it’s a season of more expensive advertising, it can be very difficult for our clients to be profitable on their products. On the flip side, we’ve now entered this era of tariffs. How do we now weave that additional expense into the business without draining the entire margin, but also without making the product so expensive that the customer can’t buy it?
Rachel: So for us, it’s always the marketing and inventory costs for our clients that we’re dialing in on and helping with. That might be helping to negotiate better contracts with vendors, better payment terms, or building really specific dashboards for them when it comes to marketing so they can know where they’re most profitable and where they’re least profitable.
Rachel: One of the things we see a lot of times is if you’re blending all of your marketing, you might not actually identify that you have one or two campaigns that are really upside down and in the red—and two or three that are profitable. If you just cut those bottom two and reinvested in the others, you’d be making a lot more money.
Dan: I absolutely love that point. It’s so pronounced. As someone that spends a lot of time focused on marketing and outreach, I can totally relate. And frankly, I can also relate to the fact that that type of analysis—you’re not getting that from a typical accounting team.
Dan: It sounds like you’re really operating as a true business partner in that regard.
Rachel: Yeah. In a perfect world, we’d like you to feel like we’re on your team, not that we’re outsourced. If we can help facilitate that relationship, we will work better with you and be able to serve you better.
Dan: That sounds great.
Dan: Let’s talk a little bit about your industry. What are some of the challenges that you see today in your field and how do you structure your business to be prepared for them?
Rachel: I think the number one thing in accounting that we’re seeing is that it’s now being touched by AI. So how do you differentiate yourself, and/or how do you continue to provide something above and beyond what the software or AI can do that makes you valuable for the price point?
Rachel: Again, like you said, with a typical accounting firm they’re just closing out your books. One thing that we really focus on is guidance, advice, human relationships—having somebody in there that’s reading the numbers.
Rachel: I think software and AI are really powerful, and accountants need to be using more of it to their advantage, not looking at it like it’s in competition with them, out to put them out of business. I think it’s a powerful tool you can use to make yourself more efficient, reduce errors, and actually be better for whoever you’re serving.
Dan: Very cool. Very cool. Makes a lot of sense.
Dan: Where do you see that going—specifically the AI piece but your industry in general—in the next five to ten years?
Rachel: I see the work being done by the human right now—like building the P&L or the balance sheet—likely, if not completely, mostly reduced by software and AI. I highly doubt in five-plus years that you’re going to have bookkeepers still going in, categorizing and putting things in places.
Rachel: Accountants are going to become more reviewers and strategists as opposed to what you might call doers inside of the books. I see it pivoting more where we’re relying on the technology and then we’re more of strategists.
Dan: Makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense.
Dan: All right, let’s talk a little bit about how you ultimately get connected with clients. How do folks find you, and how do you typically connect with them? Walk us through the initial journey of working with a new client.
Rachel: Just like most companies, we do inbound and outbound. You can find us at our website, fullyaccountable.com, LinkedIn, all of our socials.
Rachel: You can opt into any of our resources that we have—which is the biggest way that people find us. So if you’re looking for a template of some sort, we give away a lot of resources to help you go and do it yourself. If you’re not able to, or if you’re like, “Hey, I really just don’t want to waste my time on this—let’s let an expert do it,” that’s where we can hop in and help.
Rachel: We’re also at events—doing outreach, looking for companies that are looking to hire accountants, because we’re a solution that could fill that role for you.
Rachel: A typical journey: we get connected, we learn about your business, and then we walk through how we might be a solution for you. We continue to cater and customize it until we land on the real solution that’s going to serve you and your business. And then we onboard you and staff it appropriately so that you get those services and can really get rocking and rolling quickly.
Rachel: Onboarding for us lasts about 30 to 60 days. We’ve got a very robust onboarding team, so we can get you in quickly and start making an impact pretty fast.
Dan: Very cool. Very cool.
Dan: Talk to me about any referral partner relationships—not necessarily specific names, but the types of folks you collaborate with in other fields and how you get connected with potential clients through those channels.
Rachel: Yeah. For us, the most typical type of referral partner is someone who works with clients who need to know their numbers. So agencies—marketing agencies, PE firms, brokers helping people sell their business. We can help both sides by getting the accounting done.
Rachel: We also work with payroll service providers, inventory service providers—all of those where our clients are using a service. Because we can help make them better at what they do and more streamlined, it’s a win for both sides.
Dan: Very cool. Very cool.
Dan: All right, let’s shift gears a little bit. We’re going to now start to get to know you a little bit more. First off, tell us a bit about your leadership journey. I love the idea of going from intern to CEO. What are your biggest objectives right now for the firm, and what’s your vision for the future?
Rachel: I’d describe my leadership as very collaborative. I’m an expert in what I know, but I hire experts in the areas they’re best at, especially in management, so I can rely on them and get good opinions. I want people who have ideas.
Rachel: So we’re very collaborative—there’s not a lot of hierarchy or bureaucratic steps. Very team-oriented.
Rachel: For us, what we’re looking to do—like I said earlier—is weave technology into our system so we can spend more time in the guidance and strategy portion. Right now, our CFO services are really where you get not only the most bang for your buck, but where we can really be the best partner to you in light of the economic uncertainty we’re going through.
Rachel: Our CFOs are constantly staying on top of research, timelines, anything new that’s popping up. So it can eliminate all of that stress for you—the unknowns, you trying to figure it out. At the same time, you have somebody who knows business from a financial piece and can work with you, the operator (or your operator), so you can implement things that are going to work for you, not just guess or make really subjective decisions.
Rachel: The number of times I’ve had somebody say, “Well, I have more money in the bank this month than I did last month, so I must be doing pretty good,” and then we take a look and realize you’ve forgotten to pay all of your bills for 90 days… It’s like, you’re not actually doing better—but you do have a lot of cash.
Rachel: That CFO, right now for a lot of companies, is major in moving the business forward and keeping it profitable in a time when shoppers are cautious, refunds are up, and discounts are being searched for. How you maintain margin to continue to grow and scale is really where that CFO can be a huge help.
Dan: Very cool. Very cool.
Dan: You mentioned to me before that your firm has been operating a hybrid business model well before COVID. Talk to us a little bit about the decisions around that and how that’s worked out for you.
Rachel: Yeah. We originally had a corporate office in Akron, Ohio. It’s great, and we’ve loved it. The first couple of people we hired were all in Akron.
Rachel: What I quickly realized was two things. One, there’s a lot of really good talent throughout the United States, and we work with clients throughout the United States. So why would we not tap into the best accountants and controllers in, say, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when I have plenty of clients on West Coast time?
Rachel: It really served us in getting the best talent and also made it easier for our clients—they weren’t stuck always having to work on Eastern time, and our people weren’t having to work at 9:00 p.m. just because it was more convenient for our West Coast clients.
Rachel: What I found is that there’s a whole category of women out there who, because they are moms and are living in more rural areas, were not able to have the corporate job they were striving for because it was an hour and a half outside the city. So this work-from-home model, where it didn’t matter what time you were working as long as the work got done, meant I was not only tapping into a category of talent I wouldn’t get in Akron; I was also tapping into a category of talent of people who wanted to do this job but just weren’t able to because the roles weren’t near them geographically.
Rachel: Once we did that, it’s been our best—what I always say is our best-performing marketing funnel is our job hiring post. We have people all across the United States. I think we’re in 18 different states with controllers. Again, it just allows us to get the best people on the team that meet our culture and what we’re trying to do.
Dan: Very cool. Very cool. Yes, I’ve heard that strategy and that specific demographic working very well for other businesses. That makes a lot of sense. And kudos to you for being forward-thinking in that—it probably allows you to scale the business a lot more efficiently at this point in time.
Rachel: Correct. Yep.
Dan: Great. Awesome.
Dan: All right, so now we want to let the audience get to know a little bit more about Rachel. We’re going to enter into a segment that I really enjoy. We call it the lightning round.
Dan: We never tell our guests about this ahead of time—that’s kind of the deal. All we’re asking is: it could be a one-word answer, it could be an explanation; we just want you to give us the first thing that comes to your mind. All right?
Rachel: Okay.
Dan: We’ll get started with some easier ones. Coffee or tea?
Rachel: Coffee.
Dan: Cats or dogs?
Rachel: Dogs.
Dan: What’s one tool or piece of technology—hardware or software—other than your phone or your computer that you can’t live without?
Rachel: My Kindle.
Dan: Okay, I like it. I’m a Kindle-on-the-iPad guy and I couldn’t live without that either. I use the Kindle app on the iPad. Love that.
Dan: Favorite quote or phrase about money or success?
Rachel: Mine would be from Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “Lead in a way in which you want other people to follow you.” I think that’s just the way I want to be represented and the way I want people to follow behind me, too.
Dan: Very cool. That actually kind of aligns with a LinkedIn post I did this morning, so I appreciate that.
Dan: All right, favorite book on finance or business or success?
Rachel: Revenue Harvest. It was one of the books that helped me frame sales a little bit differently from a more financial standpoint as opposed to just “go and generate more sales.” It really dials in this idea of financial forecasting through your revenue perspective.
Dan: I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think we’ve ever had someone mention a book I hadn’t known before—but you just did. So kudos to you on that.
Rachel: Thank you.
Dan: I just put it down—I added it to my list. So, thank you for that.
Rachel: You’re welcome.
Dan: Can you give us one personal hack? It could be finance or otherwise. Give us some sort of personal hack that you use.
Rachel: My calendar. Everything is calendared for me. Even if it’s doing a walk with my son in the middle of the afternoon, it’s on the calendar and I live by it. I’m not pivoting off of it.
Dan: Very cool. Love that.
Dan: What’s one bucket list item that you’ve already accomplished?
Rachel: Buying Fully Accountable—that was the big one for us.
Dan: Good for you. Good for you. That’s awesome.
Dan: What’s one financial milestone that you’re still working towards?
Rachel: We just built a home about a year and a half ago. So for me, it would be paying off the dream home that we purchased.
Dan: Good for you. Very cool.
Dan: And if you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Rachel: Don’t stress the future so much. I think I worried so much about what it would look like when I was 30 and 35 that I worked really hard, but sometimes I worked hard unnecessarily. I think there’s a line between working hard and also enjoying some of that time when you’re younger, because you’re not going to get that time back.
Dan: Sure. That’s really powerful. Very nice.
Dan: You mentioned your website earlier, but if our listeners want to connect with you—maybe collaborate from a referral perspective or work directly with you—what’s the best way to reach out?
Rachel: You can email me at rachel@fullyaccountable.com. You’ve got our website, we have a LinkedIn, and I also have a personal LinkedIn that you can connect with me on. And when in doubt, there’s a phone number on our website—you can always pick up the phone and call us, and somebody will direct you right to me.
Dan: Very cool. We’ll put your information in the show notes.
Dan: And I want to just say thank you for joining us today. This was a great discussion. I know I learned a lot and I’m sure our audience will as well.
Rachel: Amazing. I appreciate it, Dan.
Dan: You bet.
Dan: All right, that’s it for the episode. As always, keep your strategy sharp, your goals clear, and your money working as hard as you do. Thanks again to Rachel for joining us for this episode of Making Sense of Your Money. Cheers.
Resources & Citations
- Outsourced accounting vs. in-house teams. Overviews comparing cost, scalability, and strategic value of outsourced accounting departments and fractional CFOs.
- Real-time financial reporting & decision-making. Guides on accelerating month-end close and using dashboards and KPIs to drive operational changes.
- Marketing ROI & attribution for e-commerce. Educational resources on breaking down ad performance by channel, campaign, and offer to identify true profitability.
- AI in accounting & finance. Articles and whitepapers on how AI is automating routine tasks (categorization, reconciliations) and reshaping the accountant’s role.
- Remote-first accounting teams. Case studies on building distributed finance teams, tapping into underutilized talent pools, and managing remote controllers/CFOs.
FAQs
When does it make sense to outsource my accounting instead of hiring in-house?
Outsourcing can make sense once your business is generating consistent revenue (often around $1M+ per year) and you need more than basic bookkeeping, but can’t yet justify (or don’t want) a full internal finance team. An outsourced department can give you bookkeeping, controller, and fractional CFO support on a flexible basis, often at a lower total cost than building that team in-house.
What’s the difference between a bookkeeper, a controller, and a CFO?
A bookkeeper handles day-to-day transaction entry, reconciliations, and basic reporting. A controller oversees the accounting function: closing the books, managing cash, budgeting, and ensuring accuracy. A CFO is more strategic—focused on forecasting, scenario planning, capital allocation, and helping leadership make big-picture decisions using financial data.
Why is waiting 30–45 days for financials a problem?
If it takes a month or more to see how last month went, you’re always reacting late. Issues like overspending on ads, margin erosion, or cash-flow constraints may go unnoticed until they’ve already grown painful. Faster closes (5–8 days) let you catch and correct problems almost in real time.
How can accounting help improve my marketing performance?
Good accounting ties spend to outcomes. By breaking out marketing costs by channel, campaign, and offer, you can see which initiatives produce acceptable returns and which are unprofitable. Cutting or fixing the losers and reallocating spend to the winners is one of the simplest ways to improve profitability.
Will AI and software replace my accountant?
AI is likely to replace many tasks your accountant performs today—especially repetitive ones like categorizing transactions. But the need for human judgment, context, and strategy remains. The role is shifting toward reviewing AI-generated outputs, interpreting what the numbers mean for your business, and advising on what to do next.
What should I expect from a good fractional CFO?
A strong fractional CFO helps you understand your numbers, build budgets and forecasts, manage cash flow, plan for different scenarios, and make financially sound decisions about hiring, marketing, inventory, and growth. They should be proactive, not just reporting the past, and able to communicate in plain language with both owners and operators.
Disclaimer
This episode and page are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Any strategies or examples discussed are general in nature and may not be appropriate for your specific situation. Accounting, tax, and financial decisions involve risk and should be evaluated based on your individual circumstances. Before hiring an accounting firm, implementing new systems, or acting on any strategy involving your business finances, consult with a qualified accountant, tax professional, and/or financial advisor.
Related Internal Links
- Making Sense of Your Money – Content Hub
- Tailored Wealth – Work with Dan and the Team
- Making Sense of Your Money – Podcast Archive
- Guides on Outsourced Accounting, AI & Strategic CFO Planning
Next Steps
If your business is growing and you’re still deep in QuickBooks—or waiting a month or more to see reliable financials—it might be time to rethink your accounting structure. Consider:
- Whether you have real-time visibility into revenue, margin, and cash flow,
- How clearly you can see marketing and inventory profitability by channel or product, and
- Whether a fractional controller or CFO could help you navigate the next phase of growth more confidently.
When you’re ready to integrate accounting, tax, and strategy into your version of a rich life, explore more episodes and resources at Making Sense of Your Money, or learn how Tailored Wealth partners with growth-minded leaders and owners at yourtailoredwealth.com.