Customer Catch-Up: Ryan Schmitz from Creative CFO

Meet Ryan Schmitz, CFO at Creative CFO, a provider of financial solutions to businesses across a broad spectrum of industries globally. Learn how Ryan and his team help business owners achieve financial clarity and the confidence to pursue greater growth opportunities. He shares how Creative CFO (CCFO) uses Fathom to engage their Xero-based clients, seamlessly providing meaningful insights that shape their future growth.

Customer Catch-Up
Ryan Schmitz of Creative CFO, South Africa

What are you and the Creative CFO team excited about currently?

It's an exciting period for the company. With offices in London and Cape Town, we're expanding into new markets and our teams are growing so there's a lot happening on the CCFO front. 

Globally, I think we’re all in for a difficult year or two ahead with rising inflation and interest rates, but this also provides an opportunity to help our clients navigate these dangers. CCFO is very well positioned to provide financial support for cash flow forecasting and working capital management and we’ll be relying heavily on this. The SME market globally is largely underfunded and we’ll be guiding our customers through the uncertainty and providing peace of mind. That’s what drives our business.

How did Creative CFO come across Fathom?

We first started looking for a better option when our existing management reporting tool at the time didn’t appear to be developing or developing fast enough. When we discovered Fathom, we knew it was something we had to try. We needed something to standardise the reporting and allow us to easily compare apples with apples across a number of firms and industries, and Fathom allowed that. 

There are always teething issues when you have a business changing platforms, but our team quickly realised how intuitive the software is and how it could make everything easier. 

We even had some interaction with some of Fathom’s development team, which was a really comforting experience. When we combine that with the amazing customer support and an overall great product, it was a win for us.

Watch: Fathom's Jamie Mansfield interviews Ryan Schmitz of Creative CFO

What are the biggest game-changers for the businesses you work with?

Our clients really needed a tool that could enable a quick, effective understanding of their numbers. Something to cut out the noise and neatly present a report. Fathom lets us package reports really neatly and enable everyone to understand them, from executive management and boards to individuals who aren't necessarily financially savvy. We're able to package and present figures in a way that's visually appealing and easy to communicate; it really helps with engagement and getting across what the numbers are telling you. 

Fathom has also allowed us to reduce our reporting time significantly, which not only helps our business but also allows our clients to get more frequent and up-to-date information. 

Overall, it’s a robust platform for businesses. It has helped us to provide financial clarity and peace of mind across the entire spectrum of our executive management and business owner clients. It’s all about providing data-rich insights that are aesthetically pleasing, and easy to read and interpret. That’s how Fathom has changed the game for our clients. 

How does this new process save you time and effort?

With its seamless Xero integration, it was really easy to get started with Fathom. I’ve also performed Fathom implementation for a number of companies and they’ve taken to the product really well. Fathom’s intuitiveness, combined with excellent customer service sets it apart. 

Generally speaking, Fathom has just made life easier. We’re able to turn around management reports much quicker, with less troubleshooting and more time spent analysing and making decisions.

"We have many favourite features but if I have to choose one, it would be the neat report which allows us to identify exactly where our group consolidations aren’t eliminating down to an account level. This allows us to pinpoint exactly where the issues arises and saves us plenty of time."

Overall, Fathom helps us with time and helps us to spend more time analysing the outputs of the reports and forecasts, rather than spending time compiling and putting together that forecast or that report. The functionality across reporting, forecasting, KPIs, benchmarking and analysis has opened my eyes to what is possible. 

What stands out to you and your team?

It would have to be the customer service. The support team at Fathom goes above and beyond and I was really impressed. There is an entire library full of engaging resources that explain how Fathom works or how something is calculated which is very useful if you're wanting to figure out exactly how something is done, or calculated, or put together. There is a plethora of knowledge and information so it's really helpful for someone who wants to understand ‘why is this number telling me this?’ 

If I look at Fathom holistically, the team has built a really robust product. It is slick, user-friendly, intuitive and does what you want it to! We were looking for a reporting tool that each team member could use for our reporting, forecasting and analysis. We’re so glad we found it.

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