Launching a biotech/life sciences company is an intense endeavor, especially since these companies tend to live in the “pre-revenue” stage for extended periods. Raising capital from investors and federal granting agencies keeps the R&D running, but outside money creates business, administrative, and accounting complexities. Grant-funded companies can spend days each month calculating, verifying, and troubleshooting cost allocations to the proper grants and projects.
The reality is, grant accounting is full of tedious and time-consuming requirements.
With cash flow limitations, building an accounting team with a hefty payroll isn’t the most effective way to utilize your budget, especially as a pre-revenue entity. And although financial management, including meeting stakeholder reporting requirements, is essential to growth, a start-up leader’s time is most effective when strategically driving that growth versus getting into the financial weeds.
Effectively managing your financing starts with first assessing your needs, then sourcing a solution for compliant, insightful financial reporting and efficient processes to propel your company forward.
Get Financial Expertise Without Breaking the Bank
Outsourcing financial functions to experienced accountants might just be the solution you need to:
- Scale Your Resourcing: Experienced accounting professionals take the frustration out of financial processes by providing scalable support to match your business demands. From compiling grant applications and fund tracking to supporting clinical trial payments through FDA clearance and fundraising, outsourcing offers quick flexibility to expand the financial role as milestones evolve and are realized.
- Mitigate Risk: Poorly documented procedures and a lean staff can lead to errors in processes and data reports. Enlisting expert third-party insight adds an additional layer of internal controls which is particularly helpful to prepare for investor scrutiny during funding rounds or potential audits.
- Build a Team: Filling employment gaps is time-intensive, expensive, and often places accounting tasks into the hands of less qualified team members. Having an outsourced partner with extensive knowledge, not only about your industry but also your professional initiatives, creates dependability and flexibility that evolves as your business shifts. This is achieved at a fraction of the cost of an in-house hire, doesn’t pose a flight risk, and allows you to maintain focus where it counts.
- Improve Cash Flow with Timely Reporting: Cash burn is a serious concern for R&D stage companies. By monitoring spending through automated, timely reporting and effective data analysis, you can better manage your cash flow. Associating transaction details with each grant helps to streamline this process and provide better data faster. Access to intuitive, real-time financial dashboards and timely, accurate reporting means you can make data-driven decisions.
With an experienced financial professional on your side implementing innovative systems—from comprehensive insights and best practices to streamlined reporting—you gain the confidence of knowing your processes are compliant, effective, and functional.
Manage Complex Reporting with the Right Technologies
Cloud accounting technologies are accessible to start-up companies and worth exploring to optimize business efficiency by replacing antiquated processes and legacy systems with modern, cloud-based accounting solutions. By removing time-consuming tracking processes often marked by error, your organization can increase productivity, achieve quicker data visibility, and streamline processes all while saving time, money, and resources.
What You Get
- Multi-dimensional reports
- Centralized grant tracking and budgeting
- Effective, proactive forecasting
- Accurate cash flow models
- Streamlined AR/AP reports
- Intuitive, real-time dashboards
What You Gain
- Increased visibility into key metrics, cash, expenses, and budgets
- Improved budget management
- Accessible, audit-ready financials
- KPI insights desired by board members and investors
- Solutions and systems that scale with your business
Automation, even in phases, is guaranteed to increase confidence in your financials and free up the time and space required to drive your mission forward. The addition of succinct data analytics demonstrates that your new business is not only innovating but being effectively operated. Ultimately, streamlined accounting practices with dimensional reporting capabilities eliminate any ambiguity around having the “right” data, positioning you for greater short- and long-term success.
Ready to Modernize Your Financial Practices?
Our Accounting Solutions team can help you align your accounting needs with your business objectives to achieve the results you seek.
