From “Accidental” Hire to Best-in-Class CFO: Jennifer Tindal on Construction Finance, Culture & Collaboration

Rishi Srivastava (00:41)
Today our guest is Jennifer Tindal Jennifer, welcome.

The first section here is on your journey and foundations. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did your path lead you into construction finance and what kept you in the industry for the long haul?

Jennifer Tindal (00:57)
It was kind of an accident. I’d like to say it was a beautiful accident because my first job outside of some babysitting and, you know, college babysitting and working as a waitress, I found a job that was close to NC State where I was in undergrad and it was in the construction field. It was with the Division 8 and 10.

of material supplier, door and frame supplier. And so that’s where I first got my introduction to construction accounting and it really was looking for the job more because of its location. And I just kind of caught the bug and figured out that construction accounting is a career in itself. And so I just stuck with it. I enjoyed it. I felt like it’s…

was exciting to be able to see something that you’ve actually built or been a part of building. And I really enjoyed that aspect. And once I had that experience, it was just natural for me to continue on in the industry.

Rishi Srivastava (02:04)
Yeah, so I am a CFA myself, but the construction accounting is a different beast, you know.

Jennifer Tindal (02:10)
It is. It’s kind of you kind of have a niche and once you get into the whole, you know, percent complete revenue recognition and that sort of thing, you’re in your own kind of world and you’re going down your own path. And so started going down that path and it made sense to me. It was it was a lot of fun. So I can’t say that in college I even realized that that would be a path I could take. That’s one of the reasons why.

excited about being involved in CFMA because I want to present that opportunity to others. I found it by accident, but I’m hoping we can lead the next group of graduates into the industry.

Rishi Srivastava (02:54)
You’ve worked across material suppliers, concrete subs, general contractors, and now a mechanical contractor. What perspectives from each stage most shaped your leadership and decision-making style?

Jennifer Tindal (03:08)
Well, I did, I mean, with that 1st position being in with the materials supplier, and then work for a couple of different general contractors and other subcontractors. I think the main thing is just the perspective I’ve kind of been in each each of their shoes. And so when I’m making decisions from a mechanical contractors or subcontractors perspective, I’ve also been on the other side.

On the vendor side, or I’ve been on the side with the general contractors, who’s been answering to an owner. And so I think that really has helped as we start looking at our relationship with our vendors and with our customers to be able to have some. And it’s not just me on the team that has that type of experience, but it is a little bit different, I guess, from for a CFO to to have been in that kind of role and.

It come from those different perspectives. So I think that’s helps with negotiating terms on the contract or working with a vendor for payment terms, just to having that perspective from being in their shoes too. And hopefully it makes me a better partner on both sides.

Rishi Srivastava (04:20)
Actually you’re the first guest who’s had so many different perspectives at once. Most CFOs I’ve interviewed were previously a CPA maybe for an accounting firm and they just got into this role.

Jennifer Tindal (04:33)
took a roundabout way into the role. And yeah, most of our most of my peers have done a stint in public accounting. And I didn’t really get in. I didn’t go into public accounting. I went straight through industry, which is a little bit of a different path. It’s it served me well. And hopefully the groups that I’ve worked with, I hope that it’s let me anticipate some of

The challenges that we might run into or some of the needs that that will have. I’ve kind of been in a place where I have. Done all the different roles within the company or within the accounting department at least.

Rishi Srivastava (05:17)
focusing a little bit more on your unique path. Many CFOs come from public accounting, but you took a different route. How has that shaped your soft skills toolkit? Communication, adaptability, empathy, especially when leading finance inside a construction culture.

Jennifer Tindal (05:34)
I think really because I’ve been in the weeds of it and I think most CFOs that come from public accounting started out with more of a broad perspective or overarching perspective from the company’s side. Then I came in and worked my way up. I’ve done AP, I’ve set up jobs, I’ve done job billing. Just as I grew through my career,

the hopes in that I’ve sat in all of those seats. So while I may not know exactly the software because I haven’t set up jobs in VISTA that we’re in now, I’ve done that in several of my roles. And so I think being able to really know where my team is coming from and what some of the challenges that they have, I think has helped me be able to

And help them through to work out processes to respond to challenges that they have. I think it’s.

For me, because I’ve to really be conscious about pulling myself out of the weeds as. as my. Focus needs to shift to more strategic matters. It’s it’s difficult sometimes because I have been in. In the weeds that I think, say, and I’ve been in that role and so it’s hard you have to really make a determination to kind of pull back.

and delegate and empower some of the teams that handle pieces that you could handle because you’ve been here before.

Rishi Srivastava (07:06)
Yeah, when you’re delegating, you’re trusting your teammate. And I have a lot of trouble delegating, So what do you say to people who have trouble in delegating and maybe even with empathy?

Jennifer Tindal (07:17)
I think one of the things that I have to do too, so I’m going to say this with, kind of talking to myself at the same time, is have that trust and allow them the flexibility and the freedom to make mistakes. Because it’s really, that’s the only way that they’re really going to learn and get that confidence is we’ve, at least for me, I have to stub my toe a few times and then I know what I’m looking for.

I know what to watch out for the next time. So I think giving someone the freedom to know that they can make the mistake. I always tell the team, I’m like, there is nothing we can’t fix. We can fix it. We just need to know sooner or later that it needs to be fixed. I think having that freedom is empowering. And then you just have to let it go and not pull it back before they really get a chance to fly.

Rishi Srivastava (08:10)
very hard to learn without making a few mistakes. The next section here, Jennifer, is on MSS solutions and financial operations. MSS has grown substantially since you joined in 2010. What daily operating rhythm and team routines keep financial performance, job cost, and cash flow aligned across multiple divisions?

Jennifer Tindal (08:31)
Well, I really think communication is the key for us. And I would say that’s the most important piece to our success, whether it’s financially for our performance out of the field. It’s also probably our biggest challenge. We’re based out of the Charlotte office. We started in Charlotte, but we have eight offices in North and South Carolina, and we actually perform work all over the country. So to keep that communication.

especially across various divisions is really important. And every time we do fail or run into a challenge, it’s usually because we kind of let that communication slip. some of the things that I’ve put in place or that we practice is we have regular JSR meetings, are for us, they’re our job status weekly meetings.

And those are the meetings between accounting and operations and we go through every job and just talk about everything from the cost and where they feel like they are from a completion standpoint to make sure that the percentage calculation matches up to where they really think that they are in practice. We talked about anything from outstanding change orders. Well, there’s challenges on the job. Labor shortages, you know, just all of the different.

Different topics and that way we have an idea from an accounting standpoint of what we might be up against things to watch out for. Just any it’s a great time for us to communicate about the project. We also do quarterly business review meetings regionally. So, as I mentioned, we have 8 offices. So we go to we combine a couple of those offices into regions and we’ll do.

with the leadership in those areas to talk about everything and anything that the company is facing, whether it’s project specific, if it’s something to do with culture, if it’s something to do with, it could even just be, know, which credit card platform we are, the challenges that we have with one processor. So just an opportunity to make sure that we are.

Intune with what each region is facing because. They each have their own personalities and we want to encourage that, but we also want to keep an standard. So it’s just walking that tight rope And then just 1 on 1s and huddles smaller, smaller groups meeting regularly or leadership team. Meets every other week just to make sure we are in front of each other and talking about.

Things that whether it’s new buyers or just any, any business decision that needs to be make, maybe we want to make sure that we’ve got a leader from each area. That’s involved with that conversation.

Rishi Srivastava (11:19)
Yeah.

Operations and finance, that communication is so vital.

next question is, with HVAC automation, fire slash security, and fabrication divisions, how do you promote cross-department collaboration between project managers, service teams, and accounting?

Jennifer Tindal (11:40)
We use one of my favorite words in this collaboration. We kind of have a little bit of an inside joke because I usually can’t get through an interview with a new hire without using that word. It’s really important to making that work when you have multiple divisions. Each one of our divisions has a full book of business on its own. But then we also perform a lot of projects together. And when you’re on a job site.

and there are multiple divisions, but we’re all wearing the MSS hard hat, we want that to be seen from sparks. So it’s important that our MSS controls division is aware of and supporting MSS mechanical division and vice versa. We practice ⁓ some things that we do to help with that is combine turnover meetings. If there is a project where we have multiple divisions, and we do find a few of those.

We combine those turnover meetings so that everybody is at the table at the same time. We combine the JSR meetings for some of those projects, the job status review meetings that I’m in too. It takes a lot of deliberate effort to make sure that you don’t get too focused on your silo, your area of expertise. One other thing that we’ve.

implemented or in the process of implementing is looking at our bonus plan, our budget bonus plan to make sure that that’s not just promoting one division success, but MSS’s success overall. So that’s, it’s tough to do because you do have a team that is, that needs to be focused, but then everyone has to make sure that as a whole MSS. So that’s really the

Kind of mantra that we are trying to find promote with things like a bonus plan in front of the meetings and that’s that was really.

Rishi Srivastava (13:33)
I used to be a commodities trader and every beginning of month we projected a profit and loss and end of month comes and accounting actually tells us like how good our estimates are and most of the time they were not very good and it got very contentious like when you project things out and they don’t line up for the accounting comes back with it’s kind of tough the collaboration sometimes turns into competition

Jennifer Tindal (13:59)
And some of that, you know, there’s some good, there’s a good place for some competition. It can be healthy, but not at the expense of the other group because as a whole, we want to take care of each other and make sure that the company is profitable, that we’re servicing the customer to the best way that we can and that we’re a good partner with our vendors. Those are.

are important concepts. So anything that promotes that, I think in the end we should all we should all win if we’re taking care of this.

Rishi Srivastava (14:34)
MSS runs about 80 % project based and 20 % service work. What are the key process and people challenges when managing both long-term construction projects and fast run service work?

Jennifer Tindal (14:48)
Probably it’s one of the most challenging parts of being at MSS because we did start out as a service company, an HVAC service company. So we have service in our roots in our blood, but that grew into where more of our revenue volume anyway is really project based work. They’re two totally different animals and at MSS they’re very much comingled

So we can have a service call or work order kind of a daily break, fix type situation. They can end up turning into a project. So we have to again communicate with each other really well. One area that we found the struggle is picking software program because I have one that’s really, really great at project based work. And then another one, and it does service work, but maybe.

not, you it may not be the top. Then you might have a service software that’s also in that service and it’s not going to do everything you need for the scale of work that we do for construction project work. having to make those decisions and having to impress upon our various departments who are focused on one or the other and then

I have to be able to step back and look at it from a broad perspective because we have to find something that works for the whole company in most cases, you know, but when there’s a situation that we need to kind of find something that’s middle of the road and technology is one item. mean, you know, it’s just it’s a growing part of our business is finding the technology to help us. And I’d say that’s one area where

We really, had a lot of discussion before we went with our, new ERP that we’re on because we were trying to find the best product for and realizing that that may or may not be every department’s individual favorite one. So we have to make some discussions. Yeah, I think, failing when those two collide is when, when you run into.

some of the

Rishi Srivastava (16:57)
I know an instance of a company that has construction and service divisions and they tried to do two different ERPs that turned into a big chaos.

Jennifer Tindal (17:07)
That’s not something that I wanted to, that’s not a road I wanted to go down.

Rishi Srivastava (17:13)
Yeah,

yeah. I’m glad. Because even two different ERPs, it’s just too hard for the same company to be able to handle.

Next section is job costing, cash, and technology. How do you coach your team to interpret WIP data, not just as numbers, but as insights that drive conversations with project managers and leadership?

Jennifer Tindal (17:35)
I really think finding out the why is important. We go through some of the conversations of just saying that costs have exceeded the estimate. that’s information that we can provide as an accounting team. But if we can get to the cause of that or what that means, then we can get to the actual correct answer for where our financial issues.

For example, I mean, just because you have a possible in excess of the estimate, does that mean that we’re performing work on our change order that hasn’t been booked yet? If that’s the case, that’s a totally different answer or situation than we have over staffed the job over spending more on labor than we anticipate. I mean, there are a multitude of answers that could be the reason for that happening.

But think it’s really important that we walk through and that’s why we have these these review meetings, because we want to walk through and present some of the possibilities that could be causing this and hope. Walk through that conversation. So what’s really going on here? Because I think if you can get to the cause of it, if it is an issue where. We are performing in a way that’s causing this cost to rewind then we can take steps.

to fix that and the sooner we can find it, the less impact it’s going to So that’s really walking through different scenarios, talking through why something’s happening or what certain metrics could indicate is, and that’s one thing that I’ve really tried to make sure I include when we’re talking about any kind of, any of the finance metrics. I’m going to try to.

make sure that the audience understands what that could mean, what could be causing that. Because I don’t know just from the numbers, but I can guess and then their insight can help me understand that.

Rishi Srivastava (19:34)
Yeah, actually I was talking to a project manager today and he was telling me he’s got one job that’s like doing very well and the other job’s not doing so well and the accounting is like why can you not make this job that’s not doing well the same as the other one but he was giving me good reasons why he cannot. the field operations are pretty complex beast themselves you know in his case it was weather you know and one job’s like has some weather hit

The next question is, when working with lenders and sureties what story do you want your financials to tell? And how do you help your team understand the why behind the numbers?

Jennifer Tindal (20:12)
One of our financials to show that we have an awesome story of controlled and healthy growth success in our job performance. What I will do is if we have growth, let’s say, but we went through a period of pretty substantial growth, and that can be concerning.

If the company isn’t prepared for that growth or ⁓ so to be able to tell the story of where that growth is coming from to give the surety and get the banks some comfort that. First, we know where it’s coming from. We’ve taken steps. We know it will prepare for that growth. That’s a fairly recent example of.

Conversation that we would have with our sureties. It’s just looking through. Okay, here’s the bird. Here’s what we’re doing. This is where it’s coming from. We’re working with, we’re not going through and working on a project that we don’t have any experience in. We’ve worked with this contractor or we’ve got this level of experience. So, while the numbers may be larger, they, we prepare themselves and I think being able to.

I get that color when you’re presenting just the raw financial information is very helpful because if everyone can. Be comfortable with what you’re doing and and possible that you’re going to be able to perform successfully on it. A whole different conversation if you’re kind of shooting bond To you, you’re not really sure where this growth, for example, is coming from, then there’s all those.

along the road to get to that comfort.

Rishi Srivastava (21:54)
Yeah, that relationship with shorties and lenders, it’s so important.

You’ve evaluated different AP automation tools. How do you balance technology adoption with human side training, trust, and user confidence when rolling out new systems?

Jennifer Tindal (22:10)
You absolutely have learned this the hard way sometimes to you absolutely have to have to buy in. You can have the best product out there and if the team is actually using it doesn’t believe in it or feel like it’s going to help them then it’s not going to work. There’s a there is a balance between finding tools to help your team.

And taking away some of the more mundane tasks so that they can use their time and really critical thinking to work through issues or questions that can’t be answered by the technology. That’s really what I’m focused on right now. think earlier in my career and earlier at MSS, it was more about just getting technology in there.

I’m going to date myself, but one big hurdle we had years ago was just going paperless. I mean, that sounds kind of crazy now because most people don’t even use any file systems anymore. I mean, we would spend hours filing something just to pull it out, staple a check, copy to it and file it in another system. So we felt like we were really ahead of the times when we got past that.

Now, I think we’ve taken another step where the technology is taking over some of those tasks that are just repetitive and hopefully allowing our teams to have a little more just interest in their tasks and in their duties where they can use their problem solving skills and have communication with someone else and run down a question and instead of just kind of.

churning, and grew that injury. So that’s really what I look for is ways that I can take away the mundane and hopefully enhance or enrich someone’s day and let them have a job that’s more fulfilling.

Rishi Srivastava (24:08)
Yeah, I mean nobody is meant for pure data entry all day. What role do soft skills and communication play when resolving vendor issues, exceptions, or job cost discrepancies inside the finance team?

Jennifer Tindal (24:24)
So that’s essential. We actually had a competition earlier today. We had a meeting with our project coordination team that’s on our operations side and our AP team. We have regular calls where everyone can get on and just talk about challenges that they have questions they have both sides. So just trying to make sure that we’re we’re working together. And one of the questions that came up was about terms And so I think.

most people are pretty reasonable and having that conversation with a vendor say about terms. I think it’s is essential because if you have a situation where a vendor wants terms and you can’t fulfill those because of your processes and in one conversation that I’ve actually had is I want to actually be able to do what I say I’m going to do. So I don’t want to just

agree to these terms and then do whatever I actually can. I want us to have to manage those expectations and make sure that if I explained to you how my process works and that I want to pay you as soon as I can pay you but I can’t do it in 15 days. I just I know my history and I can tell you I’m going to do it and we could get the first order and then you and I are going to have conflict and that’s that doesn’t do anyone any good.

I found that most of the time when we have the conversation about the reality of what you can do and maybe it’s even taking steps to well, this is what I can do today. And then I’m putting these things in place. So hopefully by this point, we can have this discussion again. And I think that’s a pretty reasonable ask and I’m encouraged because on the other side of that, we have conversations with our.

General contractors that we work with and the owners that we work with and, know, contract negotiations. Okay, you know, we all want to protect themselves. I can’t give you all the terms you want because then I’m going to leave us exposed. And I also need to be fair because I know that you were trying to do the same thing to yourself. I think that’s think it’s key and I think people who are really in business for the long haul.

And we are, I we work with the same customers over and over. So we’re not here to just burn through new customers. I think another key besides just having the communication is to recognize that you’re not perfect and admit when you’re wrong. And because, and I really try to do that. I try to be honest and I try to admit when I’m wrong because

You know it if I’m wrong and I know it so I’m not fooling anyone by not admitting it. ⁓ I just think that gives you a sense of we can get a lot further if you’re just going to go ahead and own that tour. And I just think that’s really important in business and in life.

Rishi Srivastava (27:04)
Yeah.

Yeah, a lot times people try to protect themselves by lying, but being vulnerable is so important in business. vulnerability is not weakness.

Jennifer Tindal (27:23)
Right, well that’s, mean, every stage that I’m in now, I’m working for the largest company I’ve worked for. So I feel pretty vulnerable a lot of the times because I don’t have all the answers and I’m gonna mess up sometimes. So best I can do is just tell you when I do and try to make it better.

Rishi Srivastava (27:43)
Next section here, Jennifer, is on leadership, people, and culture. What’s your approach to managing team dynamics, especially among field operations, accounting, and executives who sometimes see priorities differently?

Jennifer Tindal (27:58)
That’s a good question.

Yeah, I hate to sound like a broken record, but the communication and collaboration is really important. I think it’s important when you’re in those situations to listen and really fear what the other side, what their pain points. At least I know it, no one is attempting to just trade pain in one area and push it to another. That’s not the goal. The goal is to.

get rid of that pain point and let’s let’s have a smoother process. It can sound sometimes like someone just wants to push them over over to another department. And that’s not I don’t believe that that’s really the goal. So I think really listening and without already deciding what you’re going to say next.

And kind of here and where they’re coming from, like we said before, it is tough to manage projects in the field. And there is a reason that I am not out there because I don’t think I would be very good at it. So I’m going to stay here and we’ll do what I’m good at and hopefully be. Supported and be able to provide our operations team with data they need information they need perspective that they need. So, yeah, I think I think really just listening.

while you’re having this.

Rishi Srivastava (29:15)
How do you nurture growth and confidence in your accounting staff so they evolve from data processors into business partners?

Jennifer Tindal (29:24)
think the best way is to encourage them to work directly with maybe across departments. Kind of like what we were saying before, delegate and then give them the flexibility to go and make decisions or set up a meeting. They’ve got an issue. Give them the freedom to set up the meeting with the person that can help them resolve it.

Have that conversation with that person walk through all the details. They don’t need me holding their hand through that. These are adults that I think get a lot of confidence from walking through an issue and solving that problem. And I think when you next time, they’re much more willing and even excited to tackle something like that. That meeting that I mentioned that we had earlier today, that’s that sort of we just set up the platform.

And then we let them talk and it’s amazing. You might hear one side says, well, this is what’s happening over here. And the other says, oh, well, if I click this button, then it will do this. Or someone was had an issue trying to figure out who issued a purchase order. Well, one of our project coordinators said, well, here’s a tool that I’ve been using and lo and behold, that’s exactly what they need. it’s just, one of the, I don’t want to say problems, but it’s one of the challenges.

That comes to when you grow, you don’t know everything about the company. so having that one on one relationship across the various departments, I think it’s really, really helps build that confidence. they can go and run through any kind of little issue that pops up and they’re going to pop up on a daily basis.

Rishi Srivastava (30:59)
Yeah, I mean, you know, the top quality a leader has is can they create more leaders? They create a lot of leaders, good leaders.

As MSS has scaled, what specific people management frameworks, mentorship, check-ins, empowerment have helped you maintain a healthy, motivated finance culture?

Jennifer Tindal (31:19)
Well, yeah, I we’ve done all of those mentorships. We have a fairly informative program that I’m actually, I’ve mentored one of our up and coming engineers and I was able to celebrate with her when she passed her PE exam. I’m currently mentoring someone on our marketing team. So we go outside of our department for the mentorships for that program.

Rishi Srivastava (31:37)
Thank

Jennifer Tindal (31:45)
And it’s been really good for me because it gives me another perspective from different areas of company. And then it gives those on the accounting team, they have mentors from outside of accounting. So they’re probably here enough for me. It’s probably good for them to hear a little bit from some of the other leaders in the company from different backgrounds. So our mentorship program, we definitely do check-ins.

We have more formal processes like performance reviews and mid-year reviews. And so we try to do a lot of a range of informal to formal so that because everyone doesn’t speak the same language. So while one person may get a lot of value out of something that’s more formal, another person might need that less formal check in.

You know, my doors always open policy. And I think that’s important to you. I think most people definitely on the finance team, but in the company know that they can stop by anytime. You know, if I’m not on the call and I’ve, you know, the question is, you have a few minutes always. I always have a few minutes because that’s the most important thing I can answer email later. But I’ve always got time to.

Try to just run through a question. I feel like if someone is taking the time to seek out an answer, then they care and they want to learn. And I want to promote that every time.

Rishi Srivastava (33:11)
You’ve been an active CFMA leader in Charlotte. How has peer collaboration through CFMA sharpened your leadership skills and improved how you manage your own team?

Jennifer Tindal (33:23)
That has been everything to my career because I started, I guess I got involved in CFMA on a local level over 15 years ago and then being on actual board has been a great experience. I was president and I served as treasurer and then vice president and president.

But since I’ve come off of the president’s role and just in the, or on the board, I’ve joined a peer group through CFMA and that’s been a great experience because you’re matched up. I’m in a peer group with other subcontractors there across the country. So we’re not competitors, but that’s an opportunity to really hone in on asking questions.

What platform do you use for this? There was a question going around the other day where everyone wanted to know, what’s your budget for IT and software? I mean, just those kinds of questions that are difficult to… You really need that peer group to be able to gauge if you’re using the same kind of metrics. I use the Connection Cafe for seeing for me a lot too. Those are more quick.

Chins, I guess, about certain topics, and I found that very valuable. I think the peer group is probably a little more in depth and you get to know those, those people a little bit more, but just overall, the involvement at CFMA has given me the relationships with people across the country where I can call them up. I have a question about something like I mentioned a little bit earlier. We’re growing and so MSS is larger than it’s been in my history.

And so how am I going to help us get to the next level? Because we haven’t been there yet and I’ve never been there personally. So I lean a lot on my relationships with my peers and hopefully I’m offering them some of the same benefit. I just think it’s it’s key to everything from understanding if you’re on the right track as a company from budget.

metrics and how you run everything from expense reimbursements. mean, it could be, you know, is there a better way to do this? And we’re all trying to figure out, is there a better way to run this business? And if there is, if somebody else is doing something, we may, you know, take bits and pieces of it, merge it together and make it fit in the assess. So I think it’s been, I think it’s been that peer involved.

Rishi Srivastava (35:55)
A lot of your CFMA peers, listen to this podcast, so they will definitely appreciate you sharing your insights.

so the last section is actually on risk, resilience, and the road ahead. This is the last question. Looking ahead, 12 to 18 months, what’s next for your finance organizations, whether in talent development, technology enablement, or culture building, to keep MSS financially strong and people-centered?

Jennifer Tindal (36:18)
I tell my team I want us to be best in class. I want our vendors, when they see our name come across, that they have 100 % confidence in the finance team at MSS. I want our customers, when they see that we’re going to be a subcontractor on one of their jobs and our MSS has got their act together, they know what they’re doing. From performing the work, absolutely, but I want our accounting team to be best in class.

So, what are we doing? His work? mean, we’re not there. We’re not perfect. We definitely fumble sometimes, but some of the things that we’re doing definitely implementing technology where we can eliminate some of the mundane tasks that we talked about before. If we can shorten that that road from start to finish on whether it’s the billing process or the accounts payable process.

We are in the process of implementing managers over each one of our divisions in the accounting department. So we’ve got like our accounts payable team and we’ve recently hired an accounts payable manager to just manage that team because it’s growing and we noticed like we started adding people to do the work. But then you have a whole team of people that need a leader that’s

focused 100 % on what they are doing. And I can’t do that full time because I’ve got other responsibilities. And for a while, our controller could do that, but now it’s growing more. And so that’s one thing that we’ve noticed, we’ve got a responsibility to be.

I mean, so really just kind of, guess, narrow that down for everyone. I think he’s focused attention as we’re growing so that we are continuing to improve each one of those processes. Otherwise, we found we would put a lot of attention over here and this side would kind of drop off a little bit. We’re like, no, we got to, you know, it’s like spinning plates. We got to run over here and spend this one for a little bit.

And then this one would drop off a little bit. We are also in the process of moving some talent out of the Charlotte headquarters. So we’ve been in business for almost 30 years and we are just now at the point where we’re going to have an accounting team member in each one of our offices. And I’m hoping that that will be really good for our our relationships internally with our.

Rishi Srivastava (38:37)
Thanks.

Jennifer Tindal (38:43)
our operations team. It’s a big move for us because we just, you you’ve always done it this way. So you just keep hiring in Charlotte and you’re like, this is crazy. They should be over there with the team that they’re supporting. And so that’s a big move for us too. So it’s, it’s definitely a time of change for the accounting team. I think overall our eye is always on culture.

That’s really important to MSS. It’s important to me for our accounting team. That’s the key step that’s maybe helped us from spreading our accounting team across our eight offices because it’s harder to keep that culture. So we’re going to have a Thanksgiving pot lock and the people from the regional offices that are part of the accounting team are going to tomorrow and we’re all going to have lunch together.

You know, just make sure that we have that time when we can just sit back and really enjoy each other’s company.

Rishi Srivastava (39:40)
Yeah, Thanksgiving is coming. Very close. I’m glad that you’re thinking so carefully about culture. Culture is very important.

Jennifer Tindal (39:44)
Yeah.

just did a survey recently for the accounting team and just to find out what things were important to them, how they felt the culture was, because it really doesn’t matter. If I think we’re doing a great job on culture, if everybody on the team disagrees, then we’re doing a terrible job on culture. So we did the survey and one of the responses that I was really pleased with, every one of the team members

Rishi Srivastava (40:08)
Yeah.

Jennifer Tindal (40:16)
noted that team success was a key factor that was important to them. And I’m like, I can’t ask for any more than that. If you come in every day and you want the whole team to succeed, then that’s what need. You got the heart in it, then we’ll make all the other stuff happen. So yeah, the culture is really, really important, especially in such a digital age.

Rishi Srivastava (40:38)
Jennifer, thank you so much for your time. I had a great time chatting with you.

Jennifer Tindal (40:42)
Thank you, I really enjoyed it, I appreciate the opportunity.