CONGRATS TO JODY GRUNDEN TO GET AWARDED WITH 1ST POSITION FOR INNOVATIVE PRACTITIONER BY CPA.com

AWARD By CPA.com:

Congratulations to Jody Grunden for being awarded with CPA.com’s Innovative Practitioner Award for 2020 with the 1st position. His entire career has been devoted to innovating the accounting industry, starting with the company’s mission statement: “changing the way people think about accounting.”

As an innovative practitioner, Grunden led Summit CPA Group in pioneering Virtual CFO services, introduced the concept of subscription-based billing, and transitioned his firm in 2013 from a traditional brick-and-mortar firm to a digitally-focused fully distributed model with 50+ employees. Determined to raise the bar in the accounting industry, Grunden is now focusing his efforts on teaching other CPA Firms how to sell and provide successful Virtual CFO services through a digital course, The Virtual CFO Playbook, as well as free online webinars and a mentorship program. Grunden is a member of the AICPA, the Forbes Finance Council, and the Indiana CPA Society, including holding a seat on

INCPA’s Innovation Council. He is also the author of Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud.

About JODY GRUNDEN:

Jody Grunden is the managing member of Summit CPA Group headquartered in Fort Wayne Indiana. Jody focuses his attention primarily on Virtual CFO Services.  He meets with business owners on a weekly basis to assist them with Cash Flow Management, Forecasting, Budgeting, Debt Restructuring, Cost Accounting, and Cutting Edge Tax Planning. A thought leader on virtual CFO services, Grunden offers courses and delivers webinars on the topic. He is also the author of: “Digital Dollars and Cents".

Grunden has run a completely remote organization since 2013, which allows him to tap talent across the United States and abroad. Summit has more than 50 virtual employees in the US and 10+ offshore staff with Entigrity. Here is their case study video.

About SUMMIT CPA:

Summit CPA is a virtual CPA firm with a non-traditional approach to accounting. They have an amazing team of virtual accounting professionals (CPAs and accountants) who provide professional Virtual CFO Services and 401(k) Audits for companies all over the United States — many of which are remote companies as well. 

Summit CPA Group prides themselves on offering a host of services to the clients without having to meet any of them physically, no wonder they were recognized for their innovative accomplishments in 2017 with the inaugural Indiana CPA society Innovation Award. Hiring at Summit CPA group is all done virtually as well. Entigrity being a recent prime example.

They also recently launched a CPA Firm Augmentation service, coaching other CPA Firms on how to successfully provide Virtual CFO services. They fully understand the accounting, bookkeeping, cash flow management, and business tax nuances that come with being distributed, and they love helping their clients overcome these challenges through experience and expertise.

SUMMIT CPA & ENTIGRITY PARTNERSHIP:

Summit CPA is perhaps the first virtual CFO firm and the largest distributed model accounting firm in the nation. The most distinct thing about their practice is that they have about: 

• a 45 people team distributed all throughout the US.

• 12 people team working from Entigrity.

With Entigrity what really drew them to work was the fact that the staff was remote rather than just considering them offshore, so the fact that they were able to invite the folks from Entigrity into their virtual office just like they do with any other team member in the states made working with them very easy. Check out one of the old testimonial from Adam Hale recommeding Entigrity. (Watch Video)

THREE THINGS THAT LED TO THEIR OFFSHORING SUCCESS WERE:

• Successful integration of onshore and offshore teams and treating them at the same level. 
• Empowering leaders and managers with the right team.
• Investment in onboarding and training.

They wanted to make sure that we had all of our compliance and everything was super tight in terms of access, so how they accomplish that is through that they used a tool called Last Pass and they only give view only access to the websites, but it ensures that the team from Entigrity is able to launch websites they have view only access so that they can carry out their job and they don't have to worry about giving any compromising information and bank account information IDs or anything like that. 

The nice thing about being virtual is you get access to talent all over the country and now all over the world. So instead of having to worry about finding specific talent in a small geographic footprint, now we can go everywhere. Offshore teams can handle anything that an onshore team can handle from a back office standpoint. Our team is really focused on the advisory service. We already had all the S.O.P. in place, just needed somebody to take them over. Once we were able to see that, your team could come in and just knock it out really quick. Being distributed is one of the best things that we ever did.

Entigrity™ is a trusted offshore staffing partner to over 500+ accountants, CPAs and tax firms across the US and Canada. Our flexible and transparent hiring model gives helps firms of all sizes to hire staff for accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation or any other task for 75% less cost. As a firm 'run by accountants, for the accountants', Entigrity captures the hiring needs of accounting firms most precisely, providing staff that works directly under your control and management, still you are left with least to worry about compliance, payroll taxes, overheads or any other benefits.