Authors: Scot Mollot & John Truong

Pave is the leading compensation management platform, powered by real-time data, that helps companies benchmark, plan, and communicate compensation. Pave’s real-time market data and streamlined workflows inspire trust and confidence in every compensation decision. Pave is a SaaS business that most recently raised a Series C round of funding, and has raised over $160 million to date.

Finding the right accounting partner
 

Pave was determined to find a new accounting partner to help the company, particularly with invoicing and collections. Sam and his team spoke with firms that offered one-size-fits-all engagements but felt that Pave would ultimately need a more engaged approach. 

“Attivo focuses on a personalized partnership,” shares Sam, “The team knew the right tactical approach to take with our short-term goals around invoicing but offered a vision for what the engagement could be like– scaling up or down depending on how our needs evolved. Their goal was to build the best possible accounting function for Pave.”

Clear communication through onboarding

“Attivo provided a steady presence during the handoff from our previous accounting team and ensured a smooth transition,” recalls Sam. “They ran an audit to identify systems that had exceeded capacity due to Pave’s growth, resolving inconsistencies and outlining opportunities for improvement as these systems were updated.”

Attivo’s early work centered around maturing Pave’s accounting function– up-leveling billing and collections systems to scale with demand, auditing Quickbooks for the kinds of inconsistencies that build up as a company becomes more complex, and flagging issues across Pave’s accounting stack that would inhibit further growth.

John Truong, an Assistant Controller at Attivo, and the initial point of contact between the organizations, reflects, “Sam was adamant about getting more detailed in Pave’s understanding of its spending and collections. He had identified these as areas of opportunity, and Attivo’s job was to give timely access to that information.”

“They walked me through each line item in the financial statements, highlighted what needed to change, and presented what the numbers should look like after the system was updated,” Sam says, “The team was incredibly responsive to our questions. John was willing to jump in however he could to get us quick, detailed answers.” 

 Rebuilding Pave’s accounting function

“A key change Attivo helped us make immediately was to revamp the core processes around our invoice and billing system. We needed to adapt to meet our business demands, and the workflows and automation Attivo put in place led to material cash collections on outstanding invoices almost immediately.”

Sam continues, “Attivo’s team came in with extensive knowledge of the procurement, invoicing, and equity enterprise software we used. They helped us maximize our existing software while guiding us in selecting and learning new tooling where needed. In both scenarios, Attivo used their expertise to coach our team in what best-in-class usage looks like for these systems.” 

Partnership that scales

Attivo’s engagement has grown to fit Pave’s emerging needs. Attivo’s team took ownership of equity management to help Pave maximize the value it was getting from its equity management platform, Carta. 

A significant component of Pave’s Series C fundraising was the acquisition of another company. John and the Attivo team worked with Pave’s Revenue Operations/Partnerships team to understand the nuanced service/revenue structure of this new part of the business and how it was recorded in their CRM. Through this work, Attivo led the integration of this new structure into Pave's core automated billing system.

“It’s incredible how seamlessly Attivo has fit into our team,” Sam says. “Attivo hasn’t required extraneous management from me, which I was initially worried about with any outside firm we brought in. Attivo has been effective and professional as they’ve diagnosed our needs and integrated into our workflows.”

John adds, “We've developed a strong relationship. Pave often reaches out to Attivo first, as a trusted thought partner. It started with software selection and tooling, but it’s not uncommon for our team to be in dialogue with Pave’s Head of Legal, Revenue Operations, and Head of Sales to brainstorm solutions.”

“One of the highest value things I’ve done is bring in Attivo”

“We are more confident in our ability to forecast revenue performance and operating spend. Attivo has worked hard to ensure that our systems help us make the best decisions possible in several accounting-related areas: setting and keeping department budgets, invoicing, and collection, to name a few. Now, they’re refining our strategic approach to Pave’s metrics through our work with Scot Mollot via Attivo’s fractionalized CFO services.”

Sam continues, “As Pave scales, we will hire an internal accounting resource. But Attivo will be a part of that hiring process because we want to get the right person, and we trust Attivo to help us. One of the highest value things I’ve done in my role with Pave is bring on Attivo to partner with us.”

Key Takeaways