Teamwork Makes the Dream Work with Kelli Cox

Kelli Cox is the CEO of CGC-Mroz Accountants & Advisors. CGC-Mroz brings together experience, knowledge, and technology to provide their clients with comprehensive solutions. Kelli’s commitment to service is what sets her firm apart from others and allows them to go the extra mile to help clients identify and achieve their financial goals. This commitment also extends to her own employees. Kelli has worked tirelessly to create a great company culture and a place where employees look forward to coming to work. Kelli firmly believes that happy employees are the key to positive client interactions – and that is the cornerstone of any service business.

Like other firms, the challenge here is finding a way to motivate staff to increase productivity while maintaining great quality. Kelli has found that getting her staff involved in growing the firm comes across as just another task and they are more focused on actual ‘work’. So how do you get your staff involved? How do you make your staff invested in the growth of the firm?

Kelli had a revelation while listening to the book: “The Great Game of Business: Unlocking the Power and Profitability of Open-Book Management.” This book is written by Jack Stack and discusses the amazing success he has with his company when he involved the entire staff in the financials. He was able to give them particular goals, allow them to track their own goals, and then taught them how to interpret the results. Jack also encouraged each staff member to be their own entrepreneur.

Kelli was inspired! She wanted to find a way to follow Jack’s advice and work with her staff on an open book basis. But how do you do that? How do you share that information in a simple way while also making reports easily accessible – all without adding more work to their plate?

For Kelli, this is where Path by Simplex came into the equation. She explains, “When I discovered Path, I knew this was my answer. I can quickly calculate and update the KPIs that are important to my business and share them with staff, including adding some fun by acknowledging specific accomplishments with the Milestones section. We can track progress towards goals as a group.”

By easily sharing information with her staff, Kelli believes that it will create a stronger sense of involvement and encourage engagement from the whole team. And there is no extra work for her staff! In Path, calculations are automatically updated when new information is entered into QuickBooks Online. You create the metrics that are important to your business and your team and watch them update as goals are reached.

KPIs and metrics that you want to track can differ for everyone. Kelli has started tracking these metrics:

Gross Revenues/FTE – an important KPI for many service industries. The base goal for CPA firms is $150,000, and a goal for us will be increasing this number to $250,000

Percentage of Annual Revenue Target Met to Date – I like to see our progress tracked towards our annual revenue goal, somewhat like the old thermometers for fund-raisers!

Net Income Margin – bonuses will be based on the percentage over target, to help incentive staff towards higher productivity

By tracking these metrics automatically in Path, Kelli is able to really see and understand the work her staff is doing – and reward them for it. Increased engagement – here we come!

This article was written by Jessica Rickard of Simplex Financials, Inc., in conjunction with Kelli Cox – CEO of CGC-Mroz Accountants & Advisors.