Meet one of our Controllers, Laure Fossi! Laure has been a valuable part of Kranz Consulting since June. Her years of experience and passion for finance have allowed Kranz and our clients to succeed and thrive. Get to know her story below!
Hometown: I was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon. I have lived in the United States for 17 years – most of my adult life. I currently reside in Boston, Massachusetts.
Alma Mater: I hold a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Sam Houston State University and an MBA in Global Finance from the University of Houston.
Favorite things to do outside the office: I enjoy spending quality time with my children (two girls and two twin boys), friends and family, traveling, catching up on TV shows and eating out at restaurants.
How has your background impacted your experience as a consultant? Most of my experience as a Controller is as a consultant. I have been a consultant for over ten years. My background working for small to medium companies, primarily start-ups in software-as-a-service, healthcare, and financial services, has impacted my experience as a Consultant because I understand the needs of small and growing companies.
What’s a typical workday like for you? My typical workday consists of meetings with clients and coworkers, sending out emails and working on various platforms that the clients use: Quickbooks, Sage Intacct, Bill.com, Ramp, Rippling, Gusto etc. Being on the East Coast, I usually get a few hours in the morning before the folks on the West Coast start working. During those hours in the morning, I catch up on emails and prepare for meeting with the clients. My meetings are usually scheduled in the afternoon Eastern time. I typically work a few more hours in the evening when my children sleep.
As part of a team that works 100% virtually, what technology or collaboration tools do you use to make your work life easier? I use Teams, Zoom, slack and other communication platforms that the client prefers, like email, calls or texting.
What motivates you to wake up and go to work every day? I get inspired by the opportunity to help our clients, answer their questions, set up proper processes and provide them with the financial information they need to make decisions in their business.
What kind of work have you been doing? I have had the opportunity to work with clients in various industries and specialties. I work in a team with the CFO and Accounting Manager or Senior Accountant to manage the client’s day-to-day financial activities, providing services including but not limited to payroll, month-end close, budgeting, reconciliations, reporting and financial planning and analysis.
Where do you see the benefits? In my opinion, the benefits of working as a Consultant are the exposure to multiple teams with different backgrounds, the diversity of client industries and the ability to have a flexible work schedule that allows me to have a work-life balance.
Linking data to finance and accounting, explain environments that have had a lack of reporting infrastructure/inefficiencies and how you have brought organization, solutions and implementation: In certain situations, it is challenging to find the right balance between automation, efficiency and cost. It is often a great deal to recommend the systems and platforms the client needs versus what they think they need. Sometimes they believe that more complex systems or financial model is the solution, but as consultants, we have to manage the client experience and expectations.
What’s your process? My process consists of working with my team to analyze the clients’ financial data and strategies to identify the client’s needs and areas of improvement, then putting together an action plan to address those issues before testing the results. I get excited when we solve a client’s problems.