How Numbers Matter LLC Cut Month-End Close Time in Half with Financial Cents
Steve Libhart has spent most of his career at the intersection of accounting and the legal industry—working inside law firms, teaching law firm accounting for the Colorado Bar Association, starting his own law-focused accounting firm, and even co-hosting the Accountants Law Pod.
Through it all, Steve has seen the industry evolve from installing QuickBooks via compact disc and meeting with clients in-person to running an entire practice remotely with cloud-based software and virtual video calls. While some of his colleagues in the accounting profession have resisted this transformation, Steve has embraced it wholeheartedly.
That tech-forward spirit is exactly what brought Steve to Financial Cents. And now, FC’s recently released Month-End Close feature has completely reshaped how his firm, Numbers Matter LLC, serves its clients.
The Problem: Stitching Together Too Many Tools
Before Financial Cents, Steve’s approach to tracking work, storing client information, and managing month-end close was similar to that of many other small firms: a messy conglomeration of processes and tools that didn’t quite fit together.
Not surprisingly, this hodge-podge system created real inefficiencies for Steve’s firm:
- Month-end close took twice as long as it needed to.
- Financial reports that could have gone out in the second week of the month weren’t landing until the third week.
- Client communication around uncategorized transactions was a constant back-and-forth that was hard to track and easy to lose sight of.
For Steve’s clients—attorneys who bill in tenths of an hour and have zero patience for administrative drag—any unnecessary lag time was a big issue.
The Solution: Finding Financial Cents and Easing the Pain of Month-End Close
Steve first encountered Financial Cents at QuickBooks Connect in Las Vegas a few years back. The demo he saw on the convention floor made an immediate impression.
Numbers Matter implemented Financial Cents shortly after the conference, and Steve hasn’t looked back since. Over the years, he has watched Financial Cents grow from a workflow tool into a full-fledged practice management platform. He’s become such a huge fan of Financial Cents that he actively promotes it to his peers across the industry—some of whom tried it in the early days but ended up migrating to other solutions.
For Steve, the recent launch of the Month-End Close feature was truly the cherry on top.
His firm works with attorneys who often have complex, granular books and unique transaction descriptions. Pair that with their notorious resistance to saving receipts, and month-end close can quickly become a tedious slog. But Financial Cents makes it exponentially easier to request and collect receipts—and any other documentation—from clients.
Key Month-End Close Capabilities in Financial Cents
Recategorization
When uncategorized transactions are flagged in QuickBooks, they automatically flow into Financial Cents. There, Steve’s team can review all uncategorized items, cross-reference them against the receipts folder, and batch-send everything to the client at once.
Clients respond directly in the portal—attaching any relevant files—and those responses flow back into QuickBooks automatically. For clients who need specific transaction descriptions, Steve can jump into QuickBooks, massage the wording, and move on.
1099 Preparation
1099 season used to consume nearly a full month of Steve’s bandwidth. This year, it was done in a week.
Client Portal
Steve no longer allows clients to email him documents or questions. When they try, he redirects them to the client portal in Financial Cents—and once they’re in, they rarely look back.
Results Round-up: Numbers Matter LLC’s Achievements with Financial Cents
Since adopting Month-End Close in Financial Cents, Numbers Matter LLC has:
- Cut month-end close time in half, moving financial report delivery from the third week of the month to the second week.
- Compressed 1099 season from nearly a month to a single week with a seamless, organized process.
- Eliminated multi-thread email chaos by moving all client communication and document collection into one portal.
- Freed up time to act as a financial advisor, not just a bookkeeper—coordinating with clients’ CPAs and providing strategic guidance throughout the year.
- Improved team visibility, with Steve’s other team member managing her assigned accounts independently and uploading preliminary financials directly to the portal for Steve’s review.
What Financial Cents Does for Small Bookkeeping and Accounting Firms (According to Steve)
Steve Libhart is the founder of Numbers Matter LLC and co-host of the Accountants Law Pod, a weekly podcast for legal accounting professionals.
