We spoke to John Koloch, founder of GeneralCents Accounting to hear about how he uses Clockwork’s forecasting tools to help his clients secure their business so they can confidently reach their goals. ​​Learn how John leverages weekly cash flow visibility and FP&A to save time while guiding his clients to success.

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Clockwork Corner

John Koloch, Founder of GeneralCents Accounting, LLC

What's your journey been like? And where are you today?

So seven years ago, the company I worked for went through a merger. It was not ideal. 

At the time, the CFO that was running the new company after the merger came in to my office and I said, “Hey, I really want to help you, but I need some direction. What do you need help with?” And he said, “well, John, I just believe in creating my own path.” So I quit and started making my own path. 

When he quit it was a couple of things. First, he realized nobody walks into the owner's office and tells them they’re doing a good job - “keep it up”. He wanted to be an inspiration and make sure owners felt seen and tell them they’re doing a good job. Second, he realized that most all of the businesses he was working with had cash flow problems - there are easy fixes, and there is always a lever you can push or pull to make it work. John wanted to help everyone with cash flow. 

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What happened the day you realized you needed a solution like Clockwork? 

So all of those smaller entities I had worked with, it was just a cash flow problem. And there were easy fixes and different levers to pull. You just have to know where the problem is and what lever to pull to make it work. And so when I started GeneralCents Accounting, that was my main focus was to do cashflow planning for everybody.

Problem is that it was all on a spreadsheet. Every software I came across would have a rolling monthly budget and it's like, it's not good enough. I need weekly. Can you do weekly? Nope. Nope, just monthly. So, it was painful. I had to stop doing it for my clients at some point because it was just so painful.

I was like, who's this company Clockwork? They got weekly cash flow - I want to talk to them! When I got connected with the Clockwork team and I realized you provide all services that could be an extension of looking at cash position. I’ve never looked back!

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It sounds like you offer any service that is an extension of cash position. How does that go?

Generally, these people only know if there’s money in the bank account or not - basically riding by the seat of their pants. They have no idea what it looks like, or where it’s coming from. First, it starts with getting the books in order. Next, we can see trends and where the money is coming from and going. Next, what are your sales going? They always have so much in the pipeline, but they don’t know how to track it and time it. The challenge is finding out where and how they are tracking those deals and data - do you have a system to qualify and understand these leads? Realistically when is this gonna happen?

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What is the importance of weekly cash flow over monthly?

Looking at it on a monthly basis things could look great at the end of the month. But what happened in the middle of the month, last week? We ran out of money and overdrew our account trying to make payroll. On a weekly basis, it’s not much different from managing your personal budget. If you look at it from month to month, you might look good, but you’ve gotta make sure you’re on top of your week to week if you want to buy groceries, pay rent, and go to the concert.

Cash flow is something you gotta be on top of it in case you want to hire someone or purchase a new vehicle, but what if something breaks? Those different scenarios are important to have visibility into. 

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Any times clockwork helped you save the day?

Yes. There are a few in particular, but one just really stands out because it was the magnitude of the situation.

So for a little history, I had been talking with one of my businesses owners about payroll - they had it set on a weekly basis which was really difficult for them to support. I told him “Your business, can't support this many employees. You've got to make some tough calls. You got to bump the revenue or you've got to cut some people in order to save the business.”

The gravity of the situation didn't click through all of the conversations until I plugged their data into Clockwork and talked it through with them. It had to be translated visually! Once they understood, they said to me: “This is fucking amazing. I'm taking care of this right now.”

And he did, he pulled the trigger and got results! From this, their bottom line and team morale improved - the net effect was about $280,000 for that year. Wow!

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Want to connect with John?

Follow him on LinkedIn or check out General Cents

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Learn more:

GeneralCents Accounting provides the world's most streamlined and intuitive accounting and payroll software that delivers easy-to-understand, relevant financial information for you to make the most informed decisions in your business. Organized and timely financial data is at your fingertips for critical decision-making and planning.

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Conclusion

We spoke to John Koloch, founder of GeneralCents Accounting to hear about how he uses Clockwork’s forecasting tools to help his clients secure their business so they can confidently reach their goals. ​​Learn how John leverages weekly cash flow visibility and FP&A to save time while guiding his clients to success