Many of Zivo’s clients come to the team with manual, paper-based processes. Not only are these slow and inefficient, they lack the robust financial controls needed to manage risk and protect their assets. While they might have some processes in place, often these aren’t mapped out or followed every time.

“With clients, we often see invoices coming in as paper copies. These are then passed on for review but in some cases they might not even go through the proper authorization process. Once, we discovered one executive director who was signing checks without a chance to question the cost in the earlier stages,” says Gomez.

As a remote advisory practice, once clients come on board with Zivo, they’re moved onto the cloud if they’re not already using cloud-based accounting software. This allows the team to mitigate risk and set up controls that protect both clients and Zivo, particularly when offering accounts payable as a service to make sure only fully approved invoices are paid.

As part of Zivo’s standard plan, the team offers subscriptions to ApprovalMax as part of a tech stack including QuickBooks, Dext, and a payment tool. This means that all clients have access to the right controls and are always audit-ready. 

“Because ApprovalMax is already included in our standard plan by default, it’s easy for clients to say yes instead of being reluctant about not having enough budget for it. That shifts the conversation to focus on the controls they have, and those they need,” says Gomez.

ApprovalMax sits as part of the workflow for accounts payable, allowing Zivo’s team to make sure all incoming invoices are approved by the right people from each client's business before they’re paid. This not only saves time but gives peace of mind by ensuring sign off each and every time – the tool even automatically flags duplicate invoices and makes it easy to check if an invoice has been processed. “Clients see a big difference. They have accountability and it just takes a few seconds to approve documents from their mobile phone,” says Gomez.

“With my audit background, I want to create controls that enable a clean audit and keep everything running smoothly. ApprovalMax is one of the solutions I’ve found that can do that,” says Gomez.