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Plenty of companies doing tens of millions in revenue run their accounting function through one person. That person knows how the whole thing works. Vendors, contracts, collections, and why there's a recurring entry every January since 2019.
A business owner called me a few years ago, an hour or two after his longtime accounting employee had resigned. He was still in shock. She had been with him since the company was being run from his kitchen table.
By the time she left, the company had grown to twenty people and moved into a real office. The business had changed considerably, but the back office was still running the way it had at the kitchen table. Everything ran through her. Over the years, she assumed more and more responsibility, but little ever was moved off her desk.
Nobody looked closely at her processes, because in the end they worked. It didn’t matter that they were manual, lived half in Excel and half in her head, somehow the books were closed every month.
From the outside, an accounting function held together by one person can look the same as one that is properly staffed and documented. Bills get paid and payroll runs.
The difference becomes clear on the first Monday that person isn't there
Somebody discovers that Friday's invoices never went out and that the payment run needs an approval nobody else can give. A spreadsheet used to calculate payroll has three hard-coded numbers in it and no explanation of where they came from.
None of this happens because someone guarded the information. Most people in that accounting seat would hand it over gladly if anyone asked them to write it down and document it.
The problem is that documentation has no deadline
Every other job in accounting has a date on it. Payroll, the close, the filings. Writing down how the close works doesn't, so it moves to next week indefinitely and the process stays in one person's head.
That makes this a business continuity problem before it becomes a staffing problem
It usually surfaces when somebody outside the company asks a question: a lender wanting interim financials, a buyer starting diligence, an insurance renewal asking who is authorized to approve a wire.
Anyone examining the business from the outside finds the single point of failure quickly, and a process that runs on one person's memory gets priced as risk. Risk comes out of the multiple.
There's a simple way to find out how exposed you are
I ask owners to run an exercise. Assume the person running your back office is unreachable for two weeks starting tomorrow, with no handoff, then walk through the calendar:
- Who sends Friday's invoices
- Who approves the payment run
- Who has access to the bank and payroll systems
- Who knows which recurring journal entries still need to happen every month
Anything you can't answer in under a minute is the first thing to document.
Documentation has always been hard because the person who understands the process is the same person already at capacity. Asking them to spend hours writing procedures from scratch never makes it to the top of the list.
Today, documenting a process requires far less effort
Record a screen share while the employee runs the monthly close and explains what they're doing. Save the transcript from a training call. Collect the notes and checklists they already use.
Those materials can be turned into a rough procedure that captures the steps in sequence, without the employee having to write it themselves. It will need review and correction, and correcting a draft is a far smaller ask of someone already at capacity than starting from a blank page.
The result won't be a polished accounting manual. The company will have a written record of how an important process works.
This isn't about making a good employee replaceable. The person carrying the entire back office is the one paying for it right now.
They take vacation with a laptop and check email when they're sick, and every month-end close depends on them being reachable. They know it. Writing down the process lets them step away for a week and come back to a company that ran fine without them.
Every business built this way eventually gets some version of that Monday phone call. The ones that come through it in reasonable shape started writing things down while the person who knew everything was still down the hall, with no plans to go anywhere.
Most of my work is sitting in that seat. I do outsourced controller and CFO work for construction shops , dental practices , restaurants and plenty of businesses that have outgrown the kitchen-table setup, sometimes documenting what already works, sometimes putting real support around the person carrying it. If you ran that exercise and couldn't answer half of it, book a meeting with me and we'll start there.
About Dark Horse CPAs
Dark Horse CPAs provides an integrated suite of services including tax , accounting , fractional CFO , and wealth management to small businesses and individuals across the U.S. The firm was established to transform the client experience by offering personalized, high-quality services that small businesses and individuals deserve. As Dark Horses in their industries, these businesses benefit from advanced tax strategies and accounting insights typically reserved for larger companies. With a nationwide presence and a team of dedicated professionals, Dark Horse CPAs is committed to your success. Get a quote today.
