“What is your main focus for today?”
Like a dagger to the heart of procrastination, you’ll be asked that very question when you have Momentum installed on your Chrome or Firefox browser.
But for Levi Bucsis, the founder of this personalized productivity dashboard, it was a reminder that his own focus was all over the place - especially when it came to bookkeeping.
He simply didn’t enjoy it. In fact, he wasn’t all that sure if he was doing it right, and he desperately wanted to hand it off to someone who did, so he could focus on the parts of his business he enjoyed.
“I Had No Idea What I Was Doing!"
Levi's background is in design & development, with psychology thrown in for good measure. When he started working on Momentum, his goal was to create software that had a real impact on the human condition. It began as a side-project in 2013, but quickly gathered pace and, by late 2014, Momentum had blossomed into a promising full-time business. From a one-man band to a team of eight, and all without any external funding, it has certainly been an impressive rise.
However, it’s not been without its challenges.
“Over time, I learned that I should be doing only what I can do. What makes me excited? Where can I add value? I had been doing the bookkeeping, but it was something that I just didn’t enjoy. I can sort of do it, but really I had no idea what I was doing.”
It was taking up too much of his time, and in that moment, he realized he had to bring someone in to shoulder that burden.
Spoiler alert: That someone was Avalon.
From Coworking to Collaboration
Levi first met Joe in their shared coworking space. With the same values and mutual respect, they very quickly clicked, and that made the transition from small talk to real talk a seamless one.
This was an important moment for Momentum. Levi had to decide what he needed and what it was worth to his business with regards to outsourcing his accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Thankfully, Joe was on hand to guide him every step of the way. With a clear onboarding process and modern, organized systems, he was able to ask the right questions and map out the best course of action.
“This guy is a serious accountant who knows what he's doing.”
Prior to working with Avalon, Momentum was using a free accounting software called Wave. Levi was managing everything himself, but he didn’t have a good view on how his business was performing, or what he could and could not do.
There were some unarticulated desires at the back of Levi’s mind, and it was important for Joe and the Avalon team to help him make sense of them. We started by switching from Wave to Xero, and set it up in such a way that Levi could quickly distinguish between monthly and yearly recurring revenue - a game changer for determining the performance of the business. And we developed a number of reports, allowing him to drill down and examine his cash flow and revenue in considerable detail too.
“One of the first things that Joe said to me was, ‘We’ll set you up with an accounting system, and we’re confident it will make things easier for you. If for any reason you’re not happy with it, you can cancel after the first month if it's not the right fit for you.’ Of course, we’re very happy with it! It's a great feeling to know that we're not 10 years in the past, and that we’re working with an accountant that shares our philosophy as far as technology is concerned. It's nice to be pulled forward in that regard, and to work with the modern system they put in place without feeling locked in.”
What’s Changed? Everything!
Levi has been working with Avalon for almost two and a half years now, and in that time a lot has changed. We now handle tax and payroll on Momentum’s behalf, and we’ve even helped them claim the SRED government incentive by taking on the accounting portion of the application (we leave the technical writing to them!).
If you were to ask Levi what’s different, he’d tell you that he has more time, and more peace of mind. The accounting and bookkeeping tasks are off of his plate, once and for all, and delivered to a high level of quality and detail. Everything is done on time, and it’s all compliant. And that has given Levi more capacity to focus on the parts of his business that matter most to him.
“You don’t pick an accountant very often, and it was an important decision for us. My advice to other business owners is: get an accountant that can free you up to work on the things that actually grow your business. It might seem like a lot of money at the start, but it’s a fraction of what you’d pay a full-time employee, and it saves you so much time, while delivering so much value.”
A Win-win Situation
Levi and Momentum are now moving forward with confidence and - well - momentum.
The business has left the coworking space for their own building, but he still visits our office on occasion to work with our team. “I work the most with bookkeeper Kelsey. And she's awesome. I send her all kinds of ridiculous questions and she fixes a lot of things that I do wrong.”
“And I have to say, in almost every way possible, it was a win to hand off our accounting and tax to Avalon. The amount that I spend on it, it pays off in multiples. It's handled by experts and it gives me the opportunity to use the information I’m given to add value in other areas, and that's incredibly important to me.”
Levi has his focus. What’s yours?
Add Momentum to your browser today.
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