Experience

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  Pat Springs, CPA, MTX

  • Accounting & Financial Services for Privately-Held Businesses and Family Offices

    • 2008 - Present

    Diverse engagements helping growing businesses and family offices achieve their objectives through smarter accounting and financial processes, systems and workflow preferences.Working directly with managing partner of an international consulting firm. Used the bookkeeper’s retirement as an opportunity to cut costs, enable remote accounting capabilities, and “embrace the cloud.” Reduced accounting costs by 47% with a transition of accounting software. The owners receive CFO-level analysis along with routine transactional support; their CPAs receive tax-ready records; and partners are able to focus on growth of business and less on routine financial matters.Five weeks into a family office engagement in 2010, the husband of my client passed away. Adding to the angst of the event was that Congress was still undecided about the status of the Estate Tax for 2010. I served as a member of the client’s CPA & legal team and functioned as the liaison between the team & the client’s brokers, insurance agents, pension providers, appraisers, etc.. Most importantly, I was able to sit with my client privately and review - at her leisure - such matters as “opting in” or “out” of the 2010 estate tax; the execution of her husband’s will & its establishment of various trusts and how it all will be effecting her personally. I continue to support my eighty-year old client to manage and operate with independence and confidence.Proudly “worked myself out of an engagement”: the client owns multiple housing-related businesses; her long-time bookkeeper’s salary became too costly and a revolving door of part-time minimum wage bookkeepers followed. I “cleaned up the books”, identified processing redundancies, and “mapped” information flow between systems. The owner acted upon my suggestions, has reconfigured duties – including QuickBooks training for herself –and, with incremental assistance from the companies’ CPA, she’s taken control of her cash flow and financial management.

  • Financial Technology Implmentations

    • 2008 - 2010

    Provided strategy and implementation support on new financial systems and systems upgrades.Eighteen month engagement working with two uber-regional firms who merged to form a powerhouse national organization unifying 25+ subsidiaries. Worked with my client’s team of Oracle Financial Application specialists to create a consistent, unified financial platform that entailed converting multiple accounting systems to Oracle R11(i) & subsequently to R12. My focus: development, testing & migration of the COAs; forensic accounting re fixed assets; and implementation of R11(i) & R12 GL and FA apps.Partnered with newly-hired controller of 20+ year old manufacturing firm on nine-month engagement to provide GAAP expertise and forensic accounting services for recently implemented Microsoft Dynamics NAV; I ultimately generated reconciliations and workpapers for external auditors so that owners were able to obtain funding required.

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  Crawford Communications, Inc.

  • Atlanta, GA

  • C-Level Financial Executive

    • 1986 - 2007
    • Atlanta, GA

    Primary financial executive responsible for family office and oversight of key corporate functions including accounting, finance, treasury, IT, legal, and human resources departments. -- Oversight of Crawford family's finances and all privately held businesses.-- Performed all family office ...

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  Ernst & Young

  • Atlanta, GA

  • Senior Tax Accountant, Entrepreneurial Services Group

    • 1983 - 1986
    • Atlanta, GA

    Delivered corporate, partnership and personal tax services to entrepreneurs and emerging private businesses.