When we first started working with Kiln in 2018, they were a recently seed-funded company in the process of building out their first 2 locations: One in Lehi, Utah and the other in Salt Lake City, Utah. A big problem in the space is the newness of co-working software (or lack thereof) and the need to create new systems and processes to deal with these challenges. Our first challenge was splitting their records into 3 new entities and navigating the gauntlet of creating the new member billing processes, accounts payable systems, bank reconciliations, and financial reporting.

Enter COVID. The response by Kiln was phenomenal. They approached us early in the pandemic to re-forecast projections to get an understanding of worst-case scenarios. We used Jirav to help navigate the multitude of hurdles the pandemic has thrown Kiln's way. Additionally, we helped secure needed SBA financing, communicated with investors and vendors to ensure cash flow timing. We also reported back regularly on variances from budget/forecasts to actual.

Kiln has been eager to grow. Over the last 3 years, we've been involved in 3 new site capital raises as well as their Series A. Currently, we are excited to be working on 10 new locations with them, modeling site financials, and discussing options with JV partners. They are amazing to work with - because they believe in the synergies created by working closely with team members in a sharing environment.

There is a continuous list of needs on the accounting & finance teams. Because Kiln has positioned itself to grow, we're helping structure and build the back-end of a massive company. Some of the significant items over the last few years have been: 

• Separate entity financials for multiple entities
• Need for real-time financial forecasting
• Membership billing and revenue collection systems
• Monthly budgets for site management complete with Budget Variance
• Access to real-time OPEX and revenue figures with visualization of data
• Construction Management Systems implementation
• Need for Investor Board Pack on multiple entities
• Series A Proforma's
• A multitude of new site model evaluations
• Accounts Payable processes
• Complete Treasury functions

We started with the foundation by using Xero for the accounting platform. Xero makes it simple for us to handle the daily repetitive tasks. Keeping the books up-to-date and reconciled is a breeze because we save so much time on bookkeeping tasks. From there we explored several different routes to create an effective tech stack. Innovation has been constant with Kiln, and they haven't been afraid to try new technologies. So in addition to our standard platforms, we needed to use out-of-the-box thinking to create custom solutions as well.

At the core, we use Bill.com to make sure our controls are sound for Accounts Payable. We currently use Operate by Essensys for Member Management. Our reports and dashboards are powered by Reach Reporting. And as mentioned before we use Jirav to ensure our budgets and forecasts are sound.

Our software partners are just part of the solution. The other is our internal processes. We created customized Asana projects for each Kiln entity. Our daily interfaces with each system, weekly check-ins, monthly closing processes and reporting schedules are all calendared and someone on our team is held responsible for the completion of these tasks. Each Kiln company has 3 ProvenCFO team members assigned (accountant, controller and partner) to ensure there is sufficient task coverage and to review possible inaccuracies. In addition, our process manager ensures the team is staying current with their tasks and helping to redistribute workload when things get busy.

Each client is unique. Our favorite part of working with Kiln has definitely been the willingness to learn. Accounting, finance, software, operations, and systems are usually the least favorite part of any enterprise but Kiln has been unafraid to learn how these items are being impacted by internal and external forces. They are always looking to improve and be better.