Ep. 197: Rachel Baesler - Accountants as Business Partners for M&A

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Full Episode Transcript:
Adam:



Welcome back to another edition of Count Me In. The podcast that
explores the world of business from the management accountants
perspective. My guest today is Rachel Baesler, VP of financial
reporting and technical accounting at FLEETCOR Technologies, a
leading global business payments company. We talk a lot on this
show about the need for accountants inside the organizations to
partner cross-functionally with leaders and groups, driving
business performance and growth as an accounting leader at a
company that has completed over 90 acquisitions, Rachel is the
perfect guest to help us better understand how accountants can
overcome common stereotypes and thrive as strategic business
partners. So let's get started.


Adam:



So, Rachel, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today,
and we're just gonna jump right in cuz we're talking about
strategic partnerships today and when you're building those
strategic partnerships, a common term or role today for
accounting and finance professionals is business partnering.
That's the term we've been hearing a lot. And so how do you
ensure success when building these relationships across
departments?


Rachel:



So to ensure business success, collaboration and partnership
across departments is critical to the success of the
organization, I was reading this Deloitte report that said that
83% of organizations want to increase the time spent on finance
business partnering over the next three years. So it can be
difficult to foster open communication with accounting. We're
often seen as an impediment rather than a strategic business
partner. So they understand that we handle the numbers and that
we handle compliance, but it's up to us to, you know, articulate
our value and demonstrate how we can be a strategic partner. A
major component of FLEETCOR's success is our M&A strategy
we've had over 90 acquisitions to date. Each of these require
extensive involvement from accounting. So last year we purchased
AFEX for over 400 million. They are part of our cross-border
payment solutions similar to Cambridge global payments, which are
all newly aligned under our court pay business unit.


Rachel:



We have noticed over time that we are getting similar accounting
issues come up in these deals. So for our deal team, we created
this quick reference guide and we shared it with them. So these
matters that come up over and over again, they have them at the
front of their mind versus the back. This helps, you know,
demonstrate our value as a partner cuz they know every decision
they're making and an acquisition, there is an accounting impact.
It also helps just foster a relationship with them. Now they
know, you know, they know my name, they know to come to me, when
things come up, I can help them work through issues and they
understand their accounting implications.


Adam:



So is that why it's so important for accounting and finance
professionals? Because you have to be a seat at the table, no
matter what's happening, whether it's an M&A, or the strategy
that's being run or FP&A like all those different things are
happening. Why is it so important for accounting and finance
professionals to be a part of that?


Rachel:



Well, there's, you know, the compliance matters, obviously it's
our job to ensure that the books and records are accurate, but
also, you know, in the business environment today, all
departments are being asked to demonstrate their value and
partnering with other departments is how we demonstrate our value
in an organization. And this also helps us, you know, foster
culture of governance and compliance because you know, we have a
seat at the table and we know what's going on in the business. It
also helps us, you know, understand what's going on in the
business. So we can better communicate with our stakeholders. You
know, I'm the one preparing a lot of investor documents, right?
So knowing what's going on across the organization helps me
communicate more effectively with our investors.


Adam:



So what skills have you had to develop to be a successful
relationship builder in this process?


Rachel:



Okay. So I read another Deloitte study and it was talking about
the main competencies you need to be a successful finance
business partner. And it talked about you know, being able to
challenge negotiate, have, you know, commercial acumen, strategic
thinking. And then one, I think for me has been critical, which
is relationship management, such a simple thing, but building
interpersonal relationships with people in other departments
helps foster open communication and builds trust. You know, we
live in an environment where we receive lots of emails. Whenever
possible, I try to meet with people in person or have a face to
face video call even pick up the phone, you know, you're not, you
don't really have the opportunity to build a relationship when
you're communicating over email, this, you know, just helps
facilitate an open dialogue and create a trusted relationship.
I'll give you an example.


Rachel:



I was working on this project with, you know, it was KPIs and I
was having to talk to different leaders of the businesses. I'm
sure it felt like an incremental ask. One of our lines of
business leaders I was working with on this project. We just
started chit chatting about Disney world. He has kids, I have
kids, he was giving me some tips. I haven't taken my children
yet. They're a little too young, but we built this, you know,
great rapport fast forward a few months. And we acquired a
business and he didn't understand, you know, how the revenue
recognition pattern was working with one of the new products.
Fast forward a few months later, we acquired a new business and
we have a new product and there's trouble with the business
leaders, understanding how the revenue recognition pattern works
for that new product. You know, now they know my name, they know
my face. They know to reach out to me, I can help them, you know,
translate the, you know, the product to the accounting impact. So
it helps me, you know, I'm getting to know the business that
we've acquired from the business leaders and from the target
itself. And you know, I'm at the front end of the issue they know
to get me involved and it's just a really productive relationship
and it, you know, helped us get involved early. So.


Adam:



Yeah, it's almost like you've you learned how to connect on a
human side with your other collaborators and then because you
connected, you developed the relationship and that allowed you
to, when that you needed their help or they needed your help, you
were able to connect in a better way.


Rachel:



Absolutely. I mean, you know, if I'm just shooting an email, so
I'd be like, give me this, you know, or even asking politely. You
know, I'm not gonna be the front of their mind when a problem
comes up. So, you know, just spending a little bit extra time
with folks, you know, building that connection, it really helps
create a good relationship. And you know, it enables you to have
a strategic partnership. I think that's really hard to just like
force that on someone.


Adam:



Yeah. I was thinking, you know how it's always easy for us to
talk about for as accountants to say, how do we partner with
everybody else? What advice would you give to somebody who is not
an accountant? How do you best partner with the accounting team?
We've already talked about the human side and building that
relationship, but are there other elements that we can say, Hey,
this would, this would be best way to communicate. This is the
best way to kind of ...