Finance in Plain Language

User case card

Mykola Mostovoy – 16 years entrepreneurial experience, 3 years doing business in Poland.
He is engaged in construction, retail and provision of services.
Certified financier.
Loves to help other entrepreneurs become more efficient and orderly with money.

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Intelligent System, Warsaw – Mykola's consultancy company that helps entrepreneurs with strategic planning, creation of financial models, pricing, marketing and everything else a business needs to grow. They also help companies from Ukraine to enter the Polish market.

Website: https://intelligentsystem.com.pl

Given

Before setting up a consultancy company, Mykola was in the construction business. His projects were growing, with 10 crews plus managers who ran the sites.

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Each of them had separate budgets for the purchase of materials and consumables. It all had to somehow come together in one place in order for Mykola to understand:

• how much money was taken from the customer;
• how much was spent on procurement and salaries;
• whether each project was paying for itself;
• if his inventory was accounted for.

Plus, Mykola wanted to see his daily cash flow, track profits, and identify areas of loss.

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In other words, there was a need for systematic management accounting in Mykola's business, so he began looking for solutions.

Task

Can such important information be entrusted simply to an accountant? In Poland, outsourced accounting companies only do bookkeeping and tax reporting. But the main disadvantage is they submit the previous month’s data until the following month. In other words, you have to wait 2-3 weeks for a report in order to understand the situation in the business.

We required a more timely management accounting tool that would show us where we are earning profit, where we are losing money, and where we could operate more efficiently. — Mykola Mostovyi, founder of the Intelligent System

Another option was to hire a financial director. However, in Warsaw, the salary of such a specialist starts at 8,000 PLN (about 2,000 €) a month.

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Finmap could implement management accounting at a much lower cost. Mykola identified the following objectives:

• Find a simple solution so that even someone without an accounting or economics background could use the system, and project managers, foremen, or drivers could deal with procurements.
• Keep all the management accounting in one place.

Previously, Mykola used a Polish accounting service. However, they could only cover a single task. For example, drawing up estimates, reporting cash inflows and outflows, or profit and loss (P&L report). Everything was in Excel, which was difficult to use and took too much time. In addition, there was not enough capacity to solve all the tasks.

• It was imperative that the service had a payment calendar.

Mykola wanted to plan finances for the month ahead and beyond, and also anticipate cash gaps in order to avoid them.

• Select a multilingual solution.

The team includes people from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus and Poland. So, Polish services alone were not suitable, since not all employees know Polish. Therefore, he needed a service where he could choose from a variety of languages.

Finmap solution

Looking for a suitable option, Mykola came across the Finmap website and registered to give it a try.

First step

To begin with, as a certified financier, he turned to his financial model. He organized his income and cost structure. He systematized the information about where his business money was, which departments and team members had it, and which clients owed it. Than he transferred all the information to Finmap.

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Mykola gave access to project managers, foremen and the drivers who make the purchases, because Finmap has the ability to restrict access and select which information an employee can add, which can only be viewed, and which is available only to the company owner.

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After that, all transactions were added through 3 simple buttons: Income, Expense and Transfer. System accounting had started.

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Stop losing money

It was not uncommon in Mykola's construction business for employees to lose receipts after purchasing materials or consumables. As a result, customers would not reimburse these costs and the company had to bear them. Thousands of euros were lost in this way.

There was a situation in September when an employee lost an invoice for 4,500 PLN (about 1,000 €) and simply forgot it. When we submitted the documents to the accountants for settlement, it turned out that the invoice was missing. Consequently, we wouldn’t have calculated the 4500 and we would have lost the money. It’s a good thing he ran it all by Finmap. — Mykola Mostovyi, founder of the Intelligent System

Seeing on the report that there has been such an expense, you can simply go to the shop and recover the receipt to provide to the customer. Mykola points out that they would have lost more than the cost of their Finmap subscription with these situations alone.

Important reports

As one of Mykola’s tasks was to control cash flow on a daily basis, he regularly analyzes the Cash flow report*.

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* The Cash Flow report in Finmap shows cash flow and allows you to see which amounts are being received and which are being spent by the company.

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The Payment Calendar* has also proven to be very useful. Thanks to it, the risk of a cash gap is now visible in advance and there is time to correct the situation. In general, it is very convenient to plan all payments in advance. It helps to budget for the next month and beyond to predict the future of the business.

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* In the Finmap Payment Calendar, you can see balances and money movements for any date. This includes payments planned for the future. If you add future expenses or receipts, the Payment Calendar will show whether there is enough money or if there is a risk of a cash gap.

Force majeure

From time to time, there have been some force majeure, or unforeseeable situations. Someone with ownership status* accidentally deleted the company’s Finmap profile. A huge amount of data seemed to have been lost. Mykola quickly contacted the customer support service and our managers pulled the archive with the vital information from the cloud. Everything except the transactions from the last 2-3 days before the deletion was saved there. These were retrieved and the records were restored.

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* No one on the Finmap team has access to our users’ data. Therefore, there is no risk that any of the managers could delete the company or any of the data.

The result is

• Mykola now has systematic financial accounting for several companies.
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• It is easy to keep track of cash turnover. Thanks to Finmap’s simplicity, Mykola has quietly delegated this task to project managers and a driver who handles purchasing and delivery of goods. The employees enter all the transactions themselves and thus save a lot of time for the owner and managers.
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• The payment Сalendar helps to avoid cash gaps. The service warns of the possibility of a shortage of money and Mykola can plan in advance how to raise additional funds.

The payment calendar helped us to plan our income and expenditure so that we knew whether we had a cash gap or where it might occur. We had time to react and avoid such a situation. — Mykola Mostovyi, founder of the Intelligent System

• In addition, thanks to the payment Сalendar, the owner always knows to whom, when and how much his or her business owes, and who owes how much to them. It helps to plan the budget for the month ahead and beyond.
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• Mykola’s business does not now lose money due to mishandled receipts. Even if a receipt is lost after purchasing materials for a client’s site, the amount spent has already been entered into Finmap. This means it will not be forgotten and can be easily confirmed to the customer by simply restoring the receipt.

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In addition, customers like this kind of systematic accounting. They can see how much was spent on their project and where exactly the money went. This adds credibility to the company.

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• Businesses save money on the services of a CFO:

At the level where we operate, we should have hired someone to handle the finances a long time ago. But with the Finmap service there is no need for that yet. — Mykola Mostovyi, founder of the Intelligent System

• One of Mykola’s companies, which has implemented Finmap for fintech, has grown by 400% in one year. And last year, even despite the pandemic, there was ~150% growth.

In particular it is a credit to Finmap, because even in difficult times we understood how much money we had, what we could count on, what we could buy and so on.

P.S.
– Why did you decide to implement Finmap in your business?
– Because it is cool! — Mykola Mostovyi, founder of the Intelligent System

And to find out more about Intelligent System’s consultancy services, click here: https://intelligentsystem.com.pl

User case card

Present Perfect Agency is a language services agency that helps businesses with translations, support, business documentation and everything related to languages.

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Website: https://presentperfect.agency/
Facebook: @present.perfect.translations

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Olena Mironik is the founder and head of Present Perfect Agency.

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She first used Finmap while working for an IT recruiting agency.
In her business she has been keeping track of finances in Finmap since the first day.
Olena likes to keep track of money, especially when it comes in.

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In your opinion, when does a business need to implement cash flow management?

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1. After the cash gap, so as not to repeat the experience.
2. When profits fall, to find the cause.
3. When the business gets big enough.
4. Before the cash gap occurs in order to avoid it.

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Of course, it is never too late to implement cash flow management, but ideally a smart entrepreneur will have a system for accounting for money from the first day of business. Olena, the founder of the language services agency Present Perfect Agency, agrees with this.

From the very first transaction, I started keeping all the records in Finmap. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

In this case study, we explain why even though she runs a small business, Olena decided to keep system accounting right away and how Finmap helps her.

Problem

Originally, Olena worked at an IT recruiting agency, but at the end of 2020 she decided to strike out on her own and founded the Present Perfect Agency. Both then and now she trusted Finmap to account for business money. Why?

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The deciding factor to try Finmap was its simplicity.

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Olena learned about the service from Alexander Solovei (co-founder of Finmap), whom she had known for a long time. She saw on social networks that he was developing a solution for cash flow management. Therefore, when the IT recruiting agency had the task of accounting, Olena immediately decided to try the product.

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Before that, she had analyzed services to automate processes. However, she found only solutions suitable for large businesses, which were too complicated and expensive for a small company. Finmap, on the other hand, was simple, straightforward, and accessible.

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When Olena decided to start her own business she knew from experience that she wanted to use Finmap to keep records.

Task

Olena had no difficulty in keeping a financial account. But there were three key tasks:

• Accounting shouldn’t take a lot of time. Olena knew that she was already going to be spending a great deal of time getting her business off the ground and didn’t have extra time to spare manually maintaining spreadsheets.

The lack of scalability, the manual operations, and the limitations in the amount of data make the whole process around an Excel spreadsheet quite time-consuming. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• She wanted simple to use and easy to understand data:

Both Excel and Google spreadsheets require a certain amount of expertise. Every time I needed to calculate new values I had to reopen Excel, perform manual operations and recalculate. I didn’t start my business to become a spreadsheet expert. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• Keeping records in one place. At her job at an IT recruiting agency, Olena encountered situations where she had to give someone access to a spreadsheet. But at the same time she didn’t want to open all the data. As a result, she had to create copies of the tables. Of course, afterward they got mixed up, and the meaning and logic of their maintenance was forgotten. It was easier to burn everything and start all over again, than to figure out what was what.

The Decision to go with Finmap

I’m glad I don’t have to use some big-business solution and try to bolt it onto the smaller projects I’ve had to work with. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

After analyzing the financial accounting at her former places of work, Olena noticed that many important indicators were not taken into account. In Finmap, she started entering absolutely all data, including hosting and email costs. She categorized expenses and incomes*. In this way a system appeared and payments stopped getting lost.

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* Categories in Finmap allow you to designate types of income and expenses. This helps you keep track of income and expenses in each specific type. For example, how much a company spends on Facebook ads, how much it earns on one particular project.

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When she started her business, Olena also set up accounting by categories right away. Present Perfect Agency has a small number of fixed costs (e.g. software for translators), as well as variable costs for paying translators depending on the projects.

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All expenses can be planned in advance and tracked in the Payment Calendar* to avoid cash gaps.

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* The Payment Calendar in Finmap displays all scheduled receipts and expenses by date. For example, you specify that you pay $500 in office rent each month on the 17th. The payment calendar will note each month on the 17th that you have $500 to spend.

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Olena also finds the account panel very helpful. Present Perfect Agency clients pay to accounts in Ukraine, foreign banks, personal cards, cash, and can even do it in cryptocurrency.

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All actual information about the amount of money in the accounts is displayed in Finmap. Olena doesn’t have to go to each bank and wallet separately. She can see at any time how much money is on hand and where it is exactly in the company right now.

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It is also important for Olena to keep track of the movement of funds, to understand where they are coming from, and where they are going. The company has accounts in different currencies, not only in Ukraine but also abroad. The “Money (Cash Flow)”* report helps her in this.

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* The “Money” report in Finmap shows your cash flow. It allows you to see how much money is coming into the company and how much is being spent.

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Another key report at Present Perfect Agency is the “P&L “* report. With its help Olena can identify profit for a certain period, which departments are generating profit, and where she is incurring loss.

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* P&L report is a profit and loss statement. Shows the company’s profit and loss for a certain period, for example, a month. To do this, all expenses for the same period are subtracted from all income for that period.

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It is also important to Olena that she can enter all the data in just a few minutes, not only from her computer, but also through a Telegram bot. Therefore, the information is not lost and is always as up-to-date as possible.

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Because business has been going well, Olena recently hired an assistant. As a result she is now able to delegate some of the record keeping. With Finmap it is easy to set restrictions and choose what information the employee can add, what information can be viewed, and what information is reserved for Elana’s eyes only. This means she doesn’t have to make copies and create chaos in accounting for the sake of confidentiality.

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As a result

It’s that headache you take off yourself and you don’t have to think about it along with the other issues in the OP that come up every day. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• When Olena worked for an IT recruiting agency, she learned that Finmap was an efficient, easy-to-use system for recording money. She saw that with Finmap not only was incoming money from clients and expenses for recruiters’ bonuses recorded, but also many fixed costs, such as hosting fees, corporate e-mail, etc. were organized and easily accessible. This past experience was the reason she chose Finmap when she opened her own company.
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• It is convenient for Olena to create useful reports. Finmap itself generates them on the basis of the data entered in the form of clear charts and graphs. Reports can be exported to PDF or Excel.

In our last job (at an IT recruiting agency), we had a tradition of managers also reporting to employees. And, of course, it’s convenient when you can just upload a PDF and that’s it. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• A systematic accounting of finances is also set up at the agency. Olena sees at any time how much money is in each account, which payments from clients have been received and which are pending, how much has been spent, and what payments are planned.
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• Accounting takes minimal time. This is especially important in a small business when the owner has many tasks on a daily basis and no large team to delegate to.

Everything is in front of your eyes, you press 2-3 buttons, and you can enter/receive all the information. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• To enter data, all you have to do is use a Telegram bot. That is why nothing is lost, because you can add incoming or outgoing data even when standing in traffic or drinking coffee.
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• And most importantly, Olena notes, thanks to Finmap there is:

An understanding of where we are going, how we are developing, whether we are scaling and what is worth paying attention to.

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Connect Finmap to implement systematic cash flow management and see the full picture of your business at any time.

You can learn more about the Present Perfect Agency at: https://presentperfect.agency/

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Finmap, a cash flow management service for businesses, closed a new round of investments amounting to $1.2 million. Presto Ventures, Sturgeon Capital, SID Venture Partners, startup incubator Startup Wise Guys, as well as the investment companies BRISE Capital and TBI Bank CEO Peter Baron, all took part in the round.

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The investment will be used to expand the team of developers, increase marketing, and extend service into Central and South Europe. Finmap will continue to develop and adapt to meet the needs of users in these markets. Further integration with new banks and CRM systems, as well as adding an invoicing option, are also planned for 2022.

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Finmap is a simple and convenient cash flow management service for modern businesses, with accessible functionality and a user-friendly interface. It synchronizes with user accounts via API, allows business owners to set up a payment schedule, makes it possible to delegate the data entry process, and provides in-depth, easy-to-understand analysis of all financial transactions.

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The service ensures anonymity and security of data storage, as it does not require clients to provide official data about the company (for example, USREOU code). The data is stored on cloud servers using the banking standard of data encryption. In addition, the transmission channel from the browser to the server is encrypted using SSL protocol.

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Subscriptions for small and medium-sized businesses cost from $25 per month.

Cash flow management is an important part of the business for entrepreneurs from all over the world. Understanding the amount of money that is generated and consumed is the only real way that you can see and understand the true state of your company in order to make critical growth and development decisions. Technological approaches in money management will help to effectively control and develop your company. Currently, we are working with companies from 12 countries, with plans to expand into Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Turkey. — Finmap founders Alexander Solovei and Ivan Kaunov

Until they discovered Finmap Presto Ventures, one of the investors, assumed there was a lack of innovative solutions for cash flow management services.

In 2021, Finmap showed rapid growth in business performance, completely relaunched the product and expanded the team. Such results aroused investor interest. In this round, the company was further strengthened by core innovation capital from the Czech Republic and the UK. Finmap has new markets ahead, many growth opportunities, more to offer their clients, employees, and investors, and therefore an even more exciting adventure. We at BRISE are happy to support the team and be by their side on this journey. — Alexander Yatsenko, Managing Partner at BRISE Capital

Sturgeon Capital is pleased to be part of Finmap’s funding round. The product is elegant in its simplicity, powerful in its functionality, and clearly solves a pressing business problem. We believe that with a strong team and experienced investors, Finmap will continue to strengthen its position in existing markets, while also reaching out to new markets to drive growth. We look forward to being part of that. — Robin Butler, Partner at Sturgeon Capital

Startup Wise Guys made their first investment in the project in early 2021, when the Finmap team joined their acceleration program and continued their support after the release.

While the team initially focused on scaling in Ukraine with very promising results, during our acceleration program they invested their time to re-launch the product, taking many first-user ideas into account in preparation for an international launch. This launch in several Eastern European countries looks very promising. And the way Ivan and Alexander coordinated their teams in scaling (and doing it all completely remotely) is impressive and a strong indication of their managerial potential. — Cristobal Alonso, Global CEO at Startup Wise Guys

The Finmap project has a good combination of funders with expertise in IT solutions and business aspects. A strong team has created a quality product that provides effective solutions to common problems of the largest SMB segment of the market. Financial accounting for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs becomes easier, which opens new opportunities for their development, while the educational component of the service allows them to influence the general level of financial literacy. Finmap became one of the first portfolio investments of SID Fund I, as it not only corresponds to our investment focus, but also has a predictable potential for scaling, in particular, outside of Ukraine. — Dmitry Vartanian, Managing General Partner at SID Venture Partners

Finmap integrates with 4000+ European banks and PayPal, Wise, Revolut, ApiXDrive, Fondy services, as well as Western Bid data import.

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Integration with PrivatBank, monobank, PUMB, Alfa-Bank and Raiffeisen Bank Aval statements import is available for Ukrainian users. It is also possible to add accounts in more than 70 cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, LTC, ADA, BNB etc).

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In addition to the desktop version and Telegram bot, mobile apps for iOS and Android are already available.

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About the service:

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Finmap was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Alexander Solovei and Ivan Kaunov. At the beginning of 2021, Dmytro Dubilet, who is also the co-founder of the fastest-growing neobank in Europe monobank, joined the team. In the same year, the company attracted a round of investments from Ukrainian and European venture capitalists.

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Over the past year, the Finmap team grew eight-fold, from 7 to 58 specialists, all working entirely remotely.