From 15 Attendees to 300: How Caryl Coronis Rebuilt the CFMA Lone Star Conference

We recently published a study whereby the AI models, they went and took CCIFP, and they were able to easily clear the CCIFP. Uh, we submitted that to CFMA’s leadership. Welcome to Finance at the Jobsite, the podcast where construction finance meets the field. I’m your host, Rishi Srivastava, founder of Beiing Human. In each episode, I sit down with construction CFOs, controllers, owners, project managers, IT leaders, ERP consultants, and industry experts to uncover how they connect the back office with the field, choose and implement technology, manage cash flow, and drive profitable projects.

Whether you are running the numbers, leading the team, or designing the systems that keep projects moving, this is your place to learn what’s working, what’s broken, and what’s next in construction finance. Today, our guest is Caryl Coronas. Cary, Welcome. Well, uh, thank you for having me, Rishi. I, uh, look forward to our conversation. First section, Caryl’s hired as CFO and told to scrub everything. Take us back to 2006. You were at a commercial landscape company when growth forced a move to percentage of completion accounting. What did that shift actually feel like from the inside, and how did it lead you to CFMA?

So that’s a very interesting point, and I, I got to CFMA like I think a lot of people do. My surety bond agent, who was Chuck Adams, he said, “You guys are gonna have to do percent complete.” I said, “I know nothing about that. How do I learn?” And so he said, “I’ve got the right organization for you,” and he invited me to a CFMA Houston chapter meeting, and literally the rest is history. Once I went to the first meeting and I met people a- and I learned a lot from the education, uh, I was hooked. Yeah. Percentage of completion accounting is very special.

It’s not like typical, uh, bookkeeping. It, it’s really not, and, uh, you know, when I’m in a group of, of CFOs or, or just financial managers, I sometimes forget that people who are not in construction or some types of manufacturing don’t really know what I’m talking about. But it- it’s definitely something that if you’re gonna be in construction or in an industry that needs this type of accounting, you definitely need to get training on it, and that’s really where sh- CFMA shone. You were hired in as the CFO with a mandate to scrub every part of that business, and equipment turned out to be one of the big ones.

You told me about four people with push mowers versus one person on a rider. Unpack that story for our audience and what it taught you about where the money really goes. Yeah. That, that’s a very, very interesting story, and one that I never in a million years would have, would have thought about. And as you mentioned, uh, a group of us were charged with looking at every single aspect of the landscape company because it had grown to a very large company from a very, very small one. And, uh, we ended up analyzing line item by line item on the, the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet as well.

And even though the landscape business doesn’t generally use, like, really large pieces of equipment, the largest is tractors with bat wings, we found that the money that the company wasn’t making, a lot of it was really in the equipment. And we talk about utilization, and we talk about reliability, and one of the things I think that people overlook when you’re looking at equipment is, of course, the money that’s going out for repair and maintenance, that’s definitely real. The cash that’s going out to purchase equipment is definitely real. But what a lot of people don’t, don’t understand is what the downtime might cause you.

So if you have a piece of equipment, like in this case, the story where the riding mower was down, the people still need to get the work done, right? Like, we’re contracted to do the work, so the work has to be done. So when the rider isn’t available, which has one person, then, you know, they replaced it with four people with push mowers out there, and that labor will absolutely kill you. In construction, labor is the thing that you really, really have to control. So when, uh, one of the things we did was studies and looking at how we could be more lean, and so this was a study.

When the piece of equipment went down, they got the work done, but it was a lot more expensive. So definitely looking at the equipment is very, very, very important. Um, I know some people use equipment in construction. They use large equipment. They use small equipment. Some might only have a white fleet of pickup trucks. But I would encourage everyone in this industry to really look at their equipment and, and find out what it’s really costing you when the equipment is down. CFMA also has a, a benchmarker for equipments, right? Yes. It’s the heavy equipment comparator.

Thank you for bringing that up. I have spent a lot of my time, uh, in the heavy construction industry, but also in landscape, and that’s where I really learned some of my fundamentals was in the landscape business. But, uh, we actually did develop s- with a partnership with AEMP, the heavy equipment comparator. And basically it, we set standards for what the metrics, actually the definitions are. We went out, did a survey, got people to respond, so that way we could benchmark not only against ourselves on these KPIs, but also against other people. And, uh, we found that a lot of people were really asking, “Well, what should this metric be?

What should my repair and maintenance cost be if I’m this size company, for example? Or what should my ratio of predictive and preventive maintenance be in relation to my total spend?” So it’s very good. I would say suggest that everyone just go take a look. It’s, it’s the hecomparator.com. You can find it and, uh, definitely just go in, look at the metrics, look at some of the KPIs. There are other things that you can do there, but just go ahead and visit the website, check it out. 10 years at a specialty bridge builder. What did that seat teach you that the landscape business couldn’t, and how did the equipment plus accounting combination become your edge?

I, I think the main difference, and when, when I tell people that I learned my equipment fundamentals at a landscape company, you know, they sort of, sort of look around for a moment because the range of equipment at a landscape company runs from weed eaters, push mowers, riding mowers, tractors, bat wings, and that’s about the largest that you have. And so people think that it’s not really impactful, but when you look at it, the fundamentals are the same. And so I’m really glad I kinda got to get my feet wet in the landscape business because I got to see what some of the, the main things that you really need to do with that equipment is take care of it, do your preventative maintenance, and find that sweet spot of do you wanna repair or do you wanna replace the equipment.

And so doing that modeling, it’s, it’s just amazing how much money you can really save. So I was able to apply those principles then to a larger company and larger equipment to include even large cranes. And so the amount of money that you can spend, and I’m saying not only expenses, but cash, because a lot of times if you look at utilization, you may not need to purchase that large crane. Maybe you need to just lease it or whatever it might be, looking at what the needs of your company are. So I would say that by switching from the landscape company to the bridge builder, it’s the… what I had learned was really magnified.

And so, you know, just really money going to the bottom line and more fundamentals in terms of making sure that you’re spending the money, you’re getting the ROI that you need. Because when you’re in the construction business, sometimes the margins, depending on where you are, are not that great. So if you can even shave one or two percentage points on your equipment costs or your money going out for equipment, it, it can really mean a lot of dollars. And so I think that’s something I would encourage everyone really to look at. The next section, Caryl, is resurrecting the CFMA Lone Star Conference.

The CFMA Lone Star Conference had been abandoned after drawing 15 people. Most volunteers would have let that die. What made you and the chapter presidents decide to bring it back? Well, that, that’s a really interesting story. It goes back to CFMA networking. So I was at a CFMA na- uh, National Conference, I think it was around 2013 or so. And I was talking to some fellow, uh, presidents of chapters in Texas. I was the Houston chapter president, uh, Anna Fisher was from Austin, Vivian was from, uh, San Antonio. And so we started talking about why Texas no longer had a regional conference.

And as large as Texas is, as, as many CFMA members are, are… that are there in Texas, it makes you wonder, you know, “Hey, we need to have a conference.” So we started really digging into it and found that about really 10 years even before that, that the last regional conference in Texas only had 15 people. So we started talking about how do we resurrect it? What can we do? We went back to our chapters. The Houston chapter, for example, said, “Well, I don’t really know. You know, it might cost us money. We don’t wanna lose money. What can we do?” And so we sought out to get sponsors for the Lone Star Conference.

And so I would say, you know, the initial risk was with the chapters, but then once we got sponsors, you know, they were risking their dollars to actually sponsor the Lone Star Conference when we weren’t sure how many people we would get. So we tried to concentrate on making it affordable because a lot of people just can’t afford coming to the national conference because it’s expensive. And then a lot of times maybe a company will only send one person to the national conference. But we felt by getting a regional, a good regional conference, uh, back, back together for Texas, that we would be able to serve the CFMA members a lot better.

So we started out, and we actually got some sponsors who, who risked their dollars for us. We had to get some seed money from the chapters, so they ended up risking their dollars as well. And so our first conference was in Austin when we resurrected it, and we had over 100 people. It was very successful, and we’ve grown from there. So I would just say if you feel like, uh, if people feel like they want to have a regional conference, it’s even easier now because there are a lot of people who are running regional conferences who will be happy to share their information and, and how to make it happen.

But I can’t say enough about the sponsors. The sponsors are really the ones who allow us to put on really good events. Uh, without the sponsorship dollars, we simply couldn’t do it. We humans, we succeed when someone takes a risk and the other person kinda make sure that that risk doesn’t fail Yes. And, you know, again, talking about the CFMA networking, I can’t say enough about the synergies that, that come from people working together for a common cause. And so, you know, even though in Texas our, our major cities are kinda spread out, uh, we got together a- and definitely made it happen.

We weren’t, we weren’t gonna let it fail. But again, I’m so happy that, that some sponsors really said, “Okay, you know, we’ll do it. We’ll h- we’ll, we’ll help, and let’s see where this goes.” So it was definitely a success story. Rotated between Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and El Paso was a deliberate call. Walk us through the reasoning and what you’d tell another region trying to copy the playbook. I, I think that each region really needs to make that call for themselves. Uh, in Texas, for example, with, we have many large cities, and so it doesn’t make sense for it to be, like, in one particular spot because, you know, people are traveling there.

And so we wanted to make sure that, that we, for our model, it was really good to just rotate the big cities so that way people would only have to fly when they needed to. Like El Paso is a little bit far, but the other cities are really within driving distance. And so we made that decision to do it that way, and it also allows the chapters to shine. So, uh, this year the conference is in Austin, so the Austin chapter is supporting it. The Austin chapter has a lot of pride in it. Last year it was in San Antonio. Next year it will be in Houston. So it just allows people also to become more involved with that.

I do know that there are some conferences who have found success in having it at one particular location that might be convenient for all of the, the cities or all the people in their area to drive to or to get to. And so I think that when the committee is coming together, it’s just a decision to make. And you can also try different things and, and if they don’t work, you might settle on a particular, a particular location that ends up working out for you more. So I think it’s just an individual decision. I know Florida tends to have theirs in Orlando every year.

The Carolinas Conference is in the same city, Greensboro, every year. And I think each committee really can make the decision that’s best for them. But for Texas, especially with the pride that the cities have, rotating cities definitely worked out better for us. Texas is, I think, the biggest- Alaska is bigger, but Texas was- Yeah the biggest for a long time. But I, I think what makes it unique is that there are large cities. You know, like Houston is so large. Dallas area is so large. San Antonio- Mm-hmm … uh, is large in and of itself. It’s a big small town.

So I, I think it is unique in that way that there are large areas that are kind of spread out and so there’s not really one area that, that is convenient for everybody. And, and also the pride. You know, Texas is known for bigger and better and having the, the best, and so each chapter has their own unique flavor. Each city has its own unique flavor, and it gives them a chance to shine. You went from 15 attendees to roughly 300. What was the inflection point where you knew it was going to work? I think actually we knew that it was gonna work after our first successful conference, uh, which was the first one, uh, that when we brought it back, it was just around 100.

But really seeing the excitement of the sponsors, I know I’ve mentioned that already, but, uh, in order to produce a really good conference, you have to have that sponsorship commitment. Texas is lucky in that we have a lot of associate members who actually participate at the chapter level a lot, and we were able to gain the support of the sponsors. Everyone was really excited about it, and again, that Texas pride was good. So I think it probably took us maybe five conferences to get to that 300 level, but, but that’s, that’s really where we are, and I think it’s, it’s really good, and it’s at a comfortable level now.

So we’re really, we’re planning our conference really every week. We’re having calls, uh, trying to make sure that we have good speakers, good events, a good sponsor, and exhibits for the exhibitors who are there, and other sponsors who really support us. So we’ve, we’ve managed to make it a success. Really looking forward to the, the conference this year at the end of September. Yeah. The inflection point when you know something’s gonna work, it’s so important. Uh- That’s so- I run a software company, and there, like it takes a while before you figure out that this is gonna work.

Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it’s, it’s very interesting, and I think I, I say it was probably after that first one in Austin, but, but it could have also just, just ex- imploded at that point. But our next one was in Houston, and it seemed like each year we picked up a few more. And so, uh, really, really a good and good success story. So happy we were able to do that for, for the CFMA members. Yeah. Resilience and persistence, both of them you showed. Yeah, just r- taking that risk, like you mentioned early on. Yeah, you gotta take that risk sometimes to make things happen.

Yeah. Then universe kind of collaborates with you if you do it with your full heart. Yeah, it certainly has. It certainly has with us, for sure. The next section here, Caryl, is national leadership. Treasurer to chair. Treasurer, vice chair, chair, immediate past chair. Your term wrapped in March. Looking back across that run, what’s the thing you are proudest of that most members will never see? Uh, I, I think that the thing that I’m most proud of is the fact that, that my path towards CFMA leadership wasn’t exactly the path that a lot of people take, and I was able to make it, make it work for me.

And that’s what I would like to really encourage anyone who’s looking at becoming involved at the national level to do. There are a lot of opportunities within CFMA to, you know, get your feet wet, to do… Maybe you just wanna write a Building Profits article. Maybe you want to present a topic. Maybe you want to get involved with the membership committee because you feel like you have something to contribute there. So I, I think looking at the whole picture and knowing where you can contribute and how you’re gonna go is really a good thing. And so I started really at the, at the chapter level, like I mentioned, my first meeting with where Chuck Adams invited me, and then I was invited to be on a committee, and then I was a committee chair, and then I was on the board, and then I was a chapter officer.

And then when I was chapter president, we decided to get the regional conference going, and then I went to national leadership. So it’s, you know, it was definitely, you know, a long continuum. And so I think I’m most proud of, of the fact that we are able to keep the members involved and just how involved the members are. It’s just really amazing. The, the number of hours that volunteers contribute to CFMA is it’s, it’s off the charts when you look at it. And the, you know, the truth about it is that you get more out of it than what you give. And I I’ve given a lot of hours on all of those levels that I just mentioned, and I’m still involved, uh, with committees where I think that I can contribute and also bring up new leaders to contribute and, and add what they have to s- to for this organization.

It’s really a great… It’s a great thing to see what can happen when people get together and they move together in a common way for a common cause. You can just really get so much done. So I’m thankful that I’ve been able to preserve that. We did have a transition at the president and CEO level of CFMA, and so that was really during my term of, of office in that those positions that you mentioned earlier. And so just continuing that. I’m a member of many different organizations but on different levels. Some of them I’ll just go and take a course or I’ll, I’ll listen to something that they might have or I might order something from them.

But CFMA is different in that you can really get involved and feel like you’re making a difference. And if there’s something that maybe you feel should be done a new, another way or make an improvement, or even if it’s on the, just the chapter level or if it’s on the regional level or writing an article, whatever way you choose to contribute, you’re really making a difference. And so it’s like together we built CFMA, and we’re keeping it that way. We’re all contributing and moving it forward. Thank you. You spearheaded offering the CCIFP exam at regional conferences, including a free retake.

What was the resistance you had to work through to get that approved? Well, it’s really interesting, uh, when you look at the history of it, and when I took the CCIFP exam, you couldn’t take it on a computer. You had to take it on pencil and paper, and it had to be at a place that was, was really sponsored, and they were gonna have the CCIFP exam there. So it was really important to offer the CCIFP exam. I, I actually took it at a Viewpoint users conference, uh, in Portland, Oregon, coming from Texas. So that was what I was, was really accustomed to, was that pencil and paper and, and studying for it.

So then what happened was it was changed. It was changed to where you can do it on the computer, and you could do it either at a test center, and then we got remote proctoring, so you could even do it from your home. And so really a, a difference in it. So we had to overcome that. So the Lone Star conference did offer it when it was pencil and paper. And, uh, then we started talking about, okay, what can we do to really increase s- the number of CCIFPs and the number of, of people involved with that. And so I was thinking, can we offer it at the conferences again, maybe on a computer, even though it’s not on pencil and paper anymore?

And so we really had to go through and look at how can you do that, because the model really wasn’t to take it all together in a particular spot. It was to take it at a test center or in your home through remote proctoring. And so we had to work through all of that. And so thankfully we did. Uh, we did some pilot programs last year, and we actually had the exam at the conference in… at, uh, the Lone Star conference and the Florida conference. And, uh, we were successful at it. Since it was pilot, there were a few things that we had to work out, but We did get the, some perks in there, like a free retake, like some, a lot of study sessions that we put forward.

And what I found was really the study groups and people working together, which is what we had before. I actually went through some study groups in the Houston chapter, and then I put on some study groups myself. And I found that, like, studying together was really, it was a good synergy, and so we reinstituted that and, and it’s really been a great success. Last year, we had people take it at the conference, and we had some people pass. The people who didn’t pass, we continued to have study groups every single week and went over the material, making people comfortable with, with the content, and also they had already taken it then once.

They knew what the experience would be like. And many more people passed, so I’m very, very happy to have been a part of this. Uh, we’re going through that right now. We have some people who are gonna be taking it at the Lone Star and Florida conferences again. Um, I encourage the regionals, the other regionals who might be interested, please reach out. I, I’m happy to, to tell you everything that I know. But really just seeing the group come together, excuse me, has been really rewarding. It, it’s been a great experience We recently published a study whereby the AI models, they were– they went and took CCIFP, and they were able to easily clear the CCIFP Uh, we submitted that to CFMA’s leadership.

So tell us, like, how do we keep CCIFP relevant when the models are just so capable now? I think really what happens, and actually we’ve been using some, uh, AI models to produce some practice problems. They’re not being used to actually produce the, the questions that are on the exam. But I think, I think the real relevance is that the people themselves need to be able to know the information. And so even if a model can put together a WIP schedule, which certainly it can, even a lot of the ERP systems can put together a WIP schedule. The relevance of people knowing the information is that when you get into a WIP meeting, for example, and you’re talking to the project managers, that connection that you make within your organization is really, really meaningful.

So even though it can be done by a computer, it can be done by AI models, a lot of it can, it’s, it’s not the same. I think having that personal interaction and pushing the company forward is really, is really, really important. So again, the people aspect of it, the people knowing the information, and being able to look things up when you don’t really know exactly what it is, um, I think that’s really the model moving forward. Yeah, that makes sense. And construction accounting, it’s very closely tied to actually operations. Yes. It really, really is. And so I, I think to make it a success, having that connection between operations and the finance department is extremely important.

I think it’s discounted in some organizations, but it, it’s, uh, it really does help to make, make the organization successful. The next section here, Caryl, is the politics nobody puts in the job description. Most finance leaders will tell you the hard part isn’t the numbers, it’s the relationships that sit outside the policies and procedures. The owner’s longtime friend who still reports straight to the owner, the person everyone quietly treats differently. How do you actually navigate that from the finance seat? Yeah, I, I think, you know, you’ve brought up, you’ve brought up some very interesting concepts and, and I have definitely experienced that.

I would say that from the CFO level, that’s, that’s an area where you, you see that a lot because people are really wanting– The people who aren’t a part of the family, for example, or who aren’t that person that’s treated a little differently, they wanna see, they wanna see like a level playing field. So I’ll say like construction companies, especially like mid, mid-size construction companies, a lot of times may be owned by one person. They’ve had relationships. They, they have things their way. And so from the finance seat, I think you really have to be cognizant of, of those politics that are going on.

Try to convey to the owner, for example, “Hey, you know, some other people who aren’t in those, those favorited seats, uh, are looking at that,” and trying to smooth it out as best you can. I think when you’re the CFO especially or the controller and you’re controlling a lot of the, the conversations, you have to be willing to walk through that political maze and try- Mm-hmm to make things just the best they can. When you’re talking about on a job description or, or even in a, a job offering when you’re looking at it and you’re maybe thinking about, uh, is this a job that I want, trying to really understand what the politics are gonna be is a good thing.

But in the end, you have to be really looking at the overall health of the company and knowing that maybe even if some things aren’t the way that you would set them up, you have to work within that political environment and, and just trying to make it work as best you can, unfortunately- Yeah is, is the position that you’re in a lot of times. Right. In construction software world, there is a lot of politics. We need to be mindful about the roadmap of our partners in order to succeed here in construction software business. That’s interesting. Uh, can you give an example of that?

So let’s say we integrate with an ERP, and if we are building anything that is there in their future roadmap, they could perceive us as competitive threat, you know, and they may try to lock us out of their ecosystem. So that has happened to other companies. It’s a very tricky situation. We gotta be very careful ’cause, uh, we wanna make sure that we are able to work well with other software vendors in this space, especially the ones that are, uh, like ERPs and project management systems. Yeah. A-absolutely. Uh, so I understand now exactly what you’re saying.

And then I know with AI, you mentioned AI earlier, um, a lot of companies are doing things, you know, themselves with AI agents. And so it’s gonna be very interesting to see really how everything lands. But one thing that, that I’ve really seen, and, and I just went through an extensive study on the ERP systems and, you know, what might be best for particular types of companies, is that we all used to really think that maybe one ERP system was gonna answer everything that we needed. But as you see now, that’s not the case. You know, there are a lot of things- Mm-hmm … that people are gonna bolt on, I’m gonna use that term bolt on, to their ERP system, and it is important the integration, how everything is gonna work.

We went through a phase where a lot of salespeople would tell us, “Oh yes, it integrates,” but it really doesn’t. Or you’re gonna have to do 15 steps, and it may be old information at that time. But I think people are really realizing now that there are some systems that do things very well, and it’s gonna be a bolt-on to your ERP. But I think where does AI fit into all of that is gonna be really important, and I’m, I’m sure you’re watching that. Yeah, definitely. Actually, construction software world has been disserviced by so many sal- salespeople who lie.

That, that’s a, that’s a strong word, but, uh, they may say things, they may say it’s integrated, and maybe it really is in some level, but not seamlessly. Okay. Maybe it’s different definitions of integrations. So you’ve lived a version of that, an owner with sons on the payroll, one of them selling out of a two-seat sports car with a list of restaurants he wanted to get to. A management team that would make a decision on Friday and find the whole plan reversed by Monday after a family dinner. No names needed. Tell us that story and what it’s like to be the outsider in that room.

Yeah. Be- being the outsider, you know, it’s, it’s really no fun in a, in a family-owned business, for example, where, as you mentioned, I mean, people could get together and decide to go on a completely different path over a family dinner. So I, I would just say that probably the easiest thing to do is to make sure that if it is a family business, that you let the owner know, “Hey, I’m really trying to, trying to work for everybody here. We’re trying to row in the same direction.” And to just let them know, “Hey, I need to be a part of this. At the very least, I need to be informed before somebody else tells me.” Because it’s, it’s so important for the people in the finance role to know what the goals of the organization are and to be pushing for that.

And so you definitely really need to be a part of that decision that’s made. And sometimes it’s hard, you know? It’s really hard. And it could be family or it could just be that you’ve come into a group of people maybe that have worked together for 20 years, and so they’re really, really tight, and maybe you’re, you’re outside of that group. So trying to navigate it, again, the best you can. I don’t think there’s a- an absolute wonderful decision or wonderful way to make it happen. But it is to be a part of that and to, to make sure that you do convey, “Hey, I, I do need to be a part of these decisions if we wanna get to our goal.” And that’s really the ultimate, uh, the ult- outcome that everybody wants.

If you’ve budgeted, you wanna get there, and how do you get there? You all have to be rowing in the same direction. And then I know you mentioned the story of the sports car, and that wa- that was really funny, where the owner actually had two sons in the business, and one of them was a salesperson, and he was told to go and buy a car that he could take people out in, and that’s really what people did at that time. And so instead of buying, like, a larger car that he could actually haul people in or take people to, to, uh, luncheons and things like that, he bought a two-seater sports car.

And then he was just trying to get– he was just trying to go to the restaurants he wanted to go to and not really looking at the goals. Well, he didn’t make it in the business. Uh, he ended up going somewhere else. But, uh, it, it really just showed the owner, his dad, where his priority was. So, uh, just, just sort of a fun example of someone who, who isn’t rowing in the same direction as the company. So we all have those, and, and I know that there are people who have worked for the company maybe for many, many years who really are not on the same page as the people that are trying to achieve the goals.

So trying to make it happen any way you can, I, I think is the best thing. The next section is the handoff nobody plans for. You said something that stuck with me. When one person leaves and another steps in, things just quietly stop getting done, and nobody notices for months. What does that look like inside a finance department? I think it, you know, it really happens. It’s, it’s really amazing, especially if, if people are not working together, and especially maybe if it’s a small finance group where everyone’s not really aware of what everybody else is doing.

When somebody new comes in, especially when it’s not a situation where you can overlap and have somebody training another person, that I have found that many things just really, they just fall by the wayside. It, it’s, it’s easy sometimes just not to do things. And so I think it’s really, really important to try to make sure that when that happens, when a role may, may be eliminated and maybe somebody else is taking on that, to make sure that they are doing all of the things that were done before, and if they’re not, that it’s an intentional decision. It’s not just that it f- it fell by the wayside, but it’s an intentional decision.

So how can you really make that happen? I think, you know, the, the main things are you wanna have a job description, you wanna have a task list, you want to try to have the manager go through, okay, these are all the things that you do, and assign them to somebody. Um, and being prepared, as prepared as you possibly can, and being very intentional during that handoff situation. Or sometimes in the case where it’s not even a handoff from one person to another, it’s just that maybe somebody quits, and you may have to wait a little while to hire somebody else.

Then when somebody else comes in, making sure that you’re training them on all the things. Which brings up the point of software training. I have been in many situations where they’ll just give you, they’ll give you the passwords to the software and say, “Okay, you know, you’ve done something like this before.” Have at it. But you will achieve a lot better results if you do the training, if you pay for some additional training or have the software university where people can really go through it. And that way they are using it the way it’s intended to be used instead of just the way they intuitively work their way through it.

So I would say training is, is really one of the important aspects there. And then also just trying to know, have it documented. Policies and procedures are very, very important. And in fact, if you can go back to those policies and procedures again and again, uh, it’ll just be make, make things much easier, much better. Then that way you can say, if you’re going, if you’re going along with the policies and procedures, then everything should be a success. And if not, you know, reviewing those, if it doesn’t need to be done, then intentionally remove it. This handoff between people that you’re talking about, the same thing I think about the software integrations, they are the same problem.

The data doesn’t move from one software to another s- software very well Yeah. It, it’s, it’s, it’s very interesting and I know, you know, I remember the concept of data warehouses being brought up many, many years ago, and I know AI is looking at that concept or utilizing that concept of getting the data out there too. But, you know, I, I think it’s, it’s just really, really important to look at, to map out and make sure that you’re, you’re, what you’re gonna accomplish what you intend to accomplish. Right. The last section here is Caryl the CFMA path and paying it back.

Nobody’s path through CFMA looks the same. Chapter, regional, international, or being perfectly content at one level. What do you say to someone’s in year one who thinks they don’t have time for a committee, a conference, or a certification and worries they are on the wrong track? Say, you know, that that’s very important and of course, you know, we’re all very limited on our time right now. Time is very, very precious. So I would say whatever amount of time that you feel like you can contribute, CFMA has an opportunity for you there. It can be local, it can be regional, it can be national, it can be writing an article, as I mentioned earlier.

It can be presenting an education course. It can, it can be… And what I’ve seen can be so rich is maybe you know how to do something really, really well and so you can, you can suggest a course, you can develop a course. You can- Mm-hmm … you can write something that is posted on the CFMA hub. But contributing in whatever way you feel like you can, I think is important. And again, I mentioned earlier that how you will get back so much more than you put in. I recently presented a course on financial management essentials for non-financial managers in North Carolina last week, and it was so rewarding to see the project managers there.

It was an audience of project managers and financial people who may not be at the highest level, but they, they had so many questions, wanted to know so many things, and, uh, you know, it’s very rewarding to be able to teach other people and to transfer the knowledge that you’ve gained. And so that’s where you mentioned paying back. We’ve all gained a lot from CFMA, and there are ways that you can pay it back. And, uh, the networking and the people that you meet, and even lifelong friends, you’ll definitely be paid back for it. So I would just suggest jumping in at whatever level you’re comfortable.

If you have a few hours on the, the local level just to let the, let the leaders know, “Hey, I’d like to get involved. I don’t have a lot of time. What can I do?” And generally they’ll find something. So I would just say getting involved is important, and again, you’ll get much more out of it than you give. Right. Everyone sells CFMA on education and networking. You’ve said the real payoffs are much greater. What did CFMA build in you that you did not walk in with? That’s a very, very important concept because we do think of education, and we think of the networking, and those are really, really important.

I have learned so much through those education opportunities that, that I’ve received. But looking at what you get out of it that’s in addition to that, especially if you get into a leadership role, but you learn a whole lot. Like, you learn about managing volunteers, for example, if you’re managing a committee. You learn about prioritizing your time. You learn a lot of leadership skills. Through your education, you develop a lot of confidence that you know what you’re talking about because you’ve studied it, and it helps you to transfer that knowledge over.

And then the presence that it might take, the courage that it might take to speak up in a meeting, the courage that it takes to lead whatever it is that you’re leading, and trying to get the feedback from everybody in the room. So I have learned so many techniques, and I’ve learned so much confidence through this path that’s my individual path with CFMA, and I mentioned everybody’s path is gonna be a little bit different. So jump in, uh, contribute where you can. You’ll meet a lot of good people. You’ll develop a lot of skills and gain confidence. So CFMA is, is so wonderful in that it contributes in so many ways.

Right. Uh, I feel like, uh, if you don’t have a CFMA with you as a finance and construction person, you may not have the ability to articulate yourself very well That’s right. A- and one thing I, I don’t think we’ve mentioned directly, but that is the CFMA community is there also. Like, when you have a question, even if you’ve been in the business for a long time, and as we see things change every day, especially with AI. But we have so many forums. We have the Connection Cafe, and I hope everyone goes in there and, and looks at what’s being talked about because it, it’s very insightful to know what’s happening and what’s really being talked about.

But also just to be able to pick up the phone with people that you’ve met and ask the question, like if you … if, if you’re going to do… start doing work in another state, for example, you can pick up the phone and call somebody that you met at the national conference or put something on the Connection Cafe. I have found that within CFMA, everyone is more than willing and very happy to share what it is that they’ve learned. So I, I think it’s definitely an edge that you can reach out and take advantage of all of the wisdom in the CFMA community. And we, you know, I know we talked about, and I’ve, I’ve been talking a lot about general members, but also the associate members have a lot to teach us too, to teach general members.

You know, we have CPAs, advisors, insurance people, bonding people, software people. You know, it’s right there at your fingertips. So definitely take advantage of that. Thank you. Last one is yours. Make the pitch. The regionals are coming up, and they are far more affordable than the national conference, member or not. Why should someone listening sign up, and what’s the best first step? So I would say, first of all, one of the, one of the best statistics that I heard earlier this year is that collectively more people attend the regionals than they do the national conference.

So knowing that, that, that a lot of people are attending is really… You know, it, it’s amazing that the regionals, which are volunteers. I mean, the volunteers are the ones, the grassroots have gotten together and created these regionals. We do have support from national, but it’s, it’s really driven by local volunteers. And so the content that you get there is gonna, gonna really be from a lot of local people, some national people, some leadership motiv-motivation. But talking about the affordability of it, you know, you’re looking at it’s gonna cost you, you know, half or less to attend a regional conference, and you’re gonna be getting so much out of it.

So I would definitely recommend just getting out there. See what your regional conference is. You can look on the website. You can just go to cfma.org and search for regional conferences, and, uh, they’ll pop up for you. Look at the websites. They’re all populated now with the agendas, with the pricing of the hotels, and this is the conference season. We’ve had a couple already, but the rest of the conferences are coming up, so this is a great time to look at it and definitely attend. I would, I would recommend it. It’s also a great opportunity for more people within your organization to go and be exposed to CFMA.

You know, it’s very expensive to send more than one person to the national conference, but you can afford to send more than one person to the regional, and I would definitely recommend that. And we talked about education. We talked about networking that’s gonna happen there, and that’s really good because you’ll be meeting people who are in your region. But again, you know, just knowing that you’re gonna learn a lot, you’re gonna meet a lot of people, you’re gonna gain some confidence by being there, so it, it’s all good. And it’s not that expensive, and won’t take you away from the office nearly as long as the national conference.

So definitely an opportunity that I wouldn’t miss. And if you’re interested in the CCIFP exam, we’ve got that being offered at a couple of the conferences this year. And also just, just really reaching out to people. So the first step is looking at it, looking where it is, and then registering. And I think once you attend one, you’ll be back. Yeah. You’ll be back for more. You’ll be back for more. So we’ll be in- We will be in this CFMA Carolinas, our booth, uh, October 22 and 3rd. It’s in Greensboro. Yeah, that’s a great- Beiing Human booth great conference.

I, I attended that last year. It’s really, it, it’s really amazing, and, and I would miss it. At a great facility, great people. And, you know, we haven’t really mentioned fun, but generally, the, the, the regional conferences will have some opportunities to do some fun things and get to know people in, in, in a little more relaxed environment, too. And as Rishi said, you’ll get to see a lot of things that the associate members are bringing to CFMA. And we couldn’t do it without the associate members. They bring a lot of content. They bring a lot of innovative ideas, products, things to look at, people to talk to.

You know, just all good, all good things. Caryl, thank you so much coming onto the show. Well, I appreciate it. It’s been a great conversation, Rishi, and thank you for the opportunity. Really appreciate it. Of course. Thanks for listening to Finance at the Jobsite. If you found today’s conversation valuable, share it with a teammate and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or watch on YouTube. Just search Finance at the Jobsite. Until next time, here’s to building smarter, faster, and more profitable projects.