Finance in Plain Language

User case card

Present Perfect Agency is a language services agency that helps businesses with translations, support, business documentation and everything related to languages.

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Website: https://presentperfect.agency/
Facebook: @present.perfect.translations

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Olena Mironik is the founder and head of Present Perfect Agency.

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She first used Finmap while working for an IT recruiting agency.
In her business she has been keeping track of finances in Finmap since the first day.
Olena likes to keep track of money, especially when it comes in.

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In your opinion, when does a business need to implement cash flow management?

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1. After the cash gap, so as not to repeat the experience.
2. When profits fall, to find the cause.
3. When the business gets big enough.
4. Before the cash gap occurs in order to avoid it.

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Of course, it is never too late to implement cash flow management, but ideally a smart entrepreneur will have a system for accounting for money from the first day of business. Olena, the founder of the language services agency Present Perfect Agency, agrees with this.

From the very first transaction, I started keeping all the records in Finmap. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

In this case study, we explain why even though she runs a small business, Olena decided to keep system accounting right away and how Finmap helps her.

Problem

Originally, Olena worked at an IT recruiting agency, but at the end of 2020 she decided to strike out on her own and founded the Present Perfect Agency. Both then and now she trusted Finmap to account for business money. Why?

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The deciding factor to try Finmap was its simplicity.

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Olena learned about the service from Alexander Solovei (co-founder of Finmap), whom she had known for a long time. She saw on social networks that he was developing a solution for cash flow management. Therefore, when the IT recruiting agency had the task of accounting, Olena immediately decided to try the product.

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Before that, she had analyzed services to automate processes. However, she found only solutions suitable for large businesses, which were too complicated and expensive for a small company. Finmap, on the other hand, was simple, straightforward, and accessible.

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When Olena decided to start her own business she knew from experience that she wanted to use Finmap to keep records.

Task

Olena had no difficulty in keeping a financial account. But there were three key tasks:

• Accounting shouldn’t take a lot of time. Olena knew that she was already going to be spending a great deal of time getting her business off the ground and didn’t have extra time to spare manually maintaining spreadsheets.

The lack of scalability, the manual operations, and the limitations in the amount of data make the whole process around an Excel spreadsheet quite time-consuming. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• She wanted simple to use and easy to understand data:

Both Excel and Google spreadsheets require a certain amount of expertise. Every time I needed to calculate new values I had to reopen Excel, perform manual operations and recalculate. I didn’t start my business to become a spreadsheet expert. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• Keeping records in one place. At her job at an IT recruiting agency, Olena encountered situations where she had to give someone access to a spreadsheet. But at the same time she didn’t want to open all the data. As a result, she had to create copies of the tables. Of course, afterward they got mixed up, and the meaning and logic of their maintenance was forgotten. It was easier to burn everything and start all over again, than to figure out what was what.

The Decision to go with Finmap

I’m glad I don’t have to use some big-business solution and try to bolt it onto the smaller projects I’ve had to work with. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

After analyzing the financial accounting at her former places of work, Olena noticed that many important indicators were not taken into account. In Finmap, she started entering absolutely all data, including hosting and email costs. She categorized expenses and incomes*. In this way a system appeared and payments stopped getting lost.

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* Categories in Finmap allow you to designate types of income and expenses. This helps you keep track of income and expenses in each specific type. For example, how much a company spends on Facebook ads, how much it earns on one particular project.

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When she started her business, Olena also set up accounting by categories right away. Present Perfect Agency has a small number of fixed costs (e.g. software for translators), as well as variable costs for paying translators depending on the projects.

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All expenses can be planned in advance and tracked in the Payment Calendar* to avoid cash gaps.

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* The Payment Calendar in Finmap displays all scheduled receipts and expenses by date. For example, you specify that you pay $500 in office rent each month on the 17th. The payment calendar will note each month on the 17th that you have $500 to spend.

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Olena also finds the account panel very helpful. Present Perfect Agency clients pay to accounts in Ukraine, foreign banks, personal cards, cash, and can even do it in cryptocurrency.

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All actual information about the amount of money in the accounts is displayed in Finmap. Olena doesn’t have to go to each bank and wallet separately. She can see at any time how much money is on hand and where it is exactly in the company right now.

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It is also important for Olena to keep track of the movement of funds, to understand where they are coming from, and where they are going. The company has accounts in different currencies, not only in Ukraine but also abroad. The “Money (Cash Flow)”* report helps her in this.

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* The “Money” report in Finmap shows your cash flow. It allows you to see how much money is coming into the company and how much is being spent.

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Another key report at Present Perfect Agency is the “P&L “* report. With its help Olena can identify profit for a certain period, which departments are generating profit, and where she is incurring loss.

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* P&L report is a profit and loss statement. Shows the company’s profit and loss for a certain period, for example, a month. To do this, all expenses for the same period are subtracted from all income for that period.

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It is also important to Olena that she can enter all the data in just a few minutes, not only from her computer, but also through a Telegram bot. Therefore, the information is not lost and is always as up-to-date as possible.

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Because business has been going well, Olena recently hired an assistant. As a result she is now able to delegate some of the record keeping. With Finmap it is easy to set restrictions and choose what information the employee can add, what information can be viewed, and what information is reserved for Elana’s eyes only. This means she doesn’t have to make copies and create chaos in accounting for the sake of confidentiality.

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As a result

It’s that headache you take off yourself and you don’t have to think about it along with the other issues in the OP that come up every day. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• When Olena worked for an IT recruiting agency, she learned that Finmap was an efficient, easy-to-use system for recording money. She saw that with Finmap not only was incoming money from clients and expenses for recruiters’ bonuses recorded, but also many fixed costs, such as hosting fees, corporate e-mail, etc. were organized and easily accessible. This past experience was the reason she chose Finmap when she opened her own company.
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• It is convenient for Olena to create useful reports. Finmap itself generates them on the basis of the data entered in the form of clear charts and graphs. Reports can be exported to PDF or Excel.

In our last job (at an IT recruiting agency), we had a tradition of managers also reporting to employees. And, of course, it’s convenient when you can just upload a PDF and that’s it. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• A systematic accounting of finances is also set up at the agency. Olena sees at any time how much money is in each account, which payments from clients have been received and which are pending, how much has been spent, and what payments are planned.
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• Accounting takes minimal time. This is especially important in a small business when the owner has many tasks on a daily basis and no large team to delegate to.

Everything is in front of your eyes, you press 2-3 buttons, and you can enter/receive all the information. — Olena Myronyk, founder of the Present Perfect Agency

• To enter data, all you have to do is use a Telegram bot. That is why nothing is lost, because you can add incoming or outgoing data even when standing in traffic or drinking coffee.
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• And most importantly, Olena notes, thanks to Finmap there is:

An understanding of where we are going, how we are developing, whether we are scaling and what is worth paying attention to.

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Connect Finmap to implement systematic cash flow management and see the full picture of your business at any time.

You can learn more about the Present Perfect Agency at: https://presentperfect.agency/

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Finmap, a cash flow management service for businesses, closed a new round of investments amounting to $1.2 million. Presto Ventures, Sturgeon Capital, SID Venture Partners, startup incubator Startup Wise Guys, as well as the investment companies BRISE Capital and TBI Bank CEO Peter Baron, all took part in the round.

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The investment will be used to expand the team of developers, increase marketing, and extend service into Central and South Europe. Finmap will continue to develop and adapt to meet the needs of users in these markets. Further integration with new banks and CRM systems, as well as adding an invoicing option, are also planned for 2022.

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Finmap is a simple and convenient cash flow management service for modern businesses, with accessible functionality and a user-friendly interface. It synchronizes with user accounts via API, allows business owners to set up a payment schedule, makes it possible to delegate the data entry process, and provides in-depth, easy-to-understand analysis of all financial transactions.

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The service ensures anonymity and security of data storage, as it does not require clients to provide official data about the company (for example, USREOU code). The data is stored on cloud servers using the banking standard of data encryption. In addition, the transmission channel from the browser to the server is encrypted using SSL protocol.

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Subscriptions for small and medium-sized businesses cost from $25 per month.

Cash flow management is an important part of the business for entrepreneurs from all over the world. Understanding the amount of money that is generated and consumed is the only real way that you can see and understand the true state of your company in order to make critical growth and development decisions. Technological approaches in money management will help to effectively control and develop your company. Currently, we are working with companies from 12 countries, with plans to expand into Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Turkey. — Finmap founders Alexander Solovei and Ivan Kaunov

Until they discovered Finmap Presto Ventures, one of the investors, assumed there was a lack of innovative solutions for cash flow management services.

In 2021, Finmap showed rapid growth in business performance, completely relaunched the product and expanded the team. Such results aroused investor interest. In this round, the company was further strengthened by core innovation capital from the Czech Republic and the UK. Finmap has new markets ahead, many growth opportunities, more to offer their clients, employees, and investors, and therefore an even more exciting adventure. We at BRISE are happy to support the team and be by their side on this journey. — Alexander Yatsenko, Managing Partner at BRISE Capital

Sturgeon Capital is pleased to be part of Finmap’s funding round. The product is elegant in its simplicity, powerful in its functionality, and clearly solves a pressing business problem. We believe that with a strong team and experienced investors, Finmap will continue to strengthen its position in existing markets, while also reaching out to new markets to drive growth. We look forward to being part of that. — Robin Butler, Partner at Sturgeon Capital

Startup Wise Guys made their first investment in the project in early 2021, when the Finmap team joined their acceleration program and continued their support after the release.

While the team initially focused on scaling in Ukraine with very promising results, during our acceleration program they invested their time to re-launch the product, taking many first-user ideas into account in preparation for an international launch. This launch in several Eastern European countries looks very promising. And the way Ivan and Alexander coordinated their teams in scaling (and doing it all completely remotely) is impressive and a strong indication of their managerial potential. — Cristobal Alonso, Global CEO at Startup Wise Guys

The Finmap project has a good combination of funders with expertise in IT solutions and business aspects. A strong team has created a quality product that provides effective solutions to common problems of the largest SMB segment of the market. Financial accounting for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs becomes easier, which opens new opportunities for their development, while the educational component of the service allows them to influence the general level of financial literacy. Finmap became one of the first portfolio investments of SID Fund I, as it not only corresponds to our investment focus, but also has a predictable potential for scaling, in particular, outside of Ukraine. — Dmitry Vartanian, Managing General Partner at SID Venture Partners

Finmap integrates with 4000+ European banks and PayPal, Wise, Revolut, ApiXDrive, Fondy services, as well as Western Bid data import.

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Integration with PrivatBank, monobank, PUMB, Alfa-Bank and Raiffeisen Bank Aval statements import is available for Ukrainian users. It is also possible to add accounts in more than 70 cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, LTC, ADA, BNB etc).

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In addition to the desktop version and Telegram bot, mobile apps for iOS and Android are already available.

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About the service:

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Finmap was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs Alexander Solovei and Ivan Kaunov. At the beginning of 2021, Dmytro Dubilet, who is also the co-founder of the fastest-growing neobank in Europe monobank, joined the team. In the same year, the company attracted a round of investments from Ukrainian and European venture capitalists.

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Over the past year, the Finmap team grew eight-fold, from 7 to 58 specialists, all working entirely remotely.