Teammate Spotlight: Cynthia Swatt

Get to Know The Team

Cynthia Swatt, Accounting Manager

At airCFO, we celebrate our people. We want to share their experiences and a little of their personal side with the world! We started “Our Teammate Spotlight” to do just that. We hope you enjoy!

• How long have you been with airCFO?
  • I joined airCFO in March 2020, about a year and a half ago!
• Tell me about your background - where did you come from, what type of industry?
  • Over the past 11 years as an accountant, I’ve worked in a variety of industries, including fashion merchandising, medical practice management, agriculture, hospitality and more. The wonderful thing about client accounting services is that I’ve had the opportunity to work with amazing companies across the industries.
• Why was airCFO the right place for you?
  • The entrepreneurial spirit of airCFO made it the right fit for me. The clients we work with are extraordinary and their business ventures keep us on our toes. I love working with growing Startups and Founders striving to achieve some challenging goals. No day is the same, which is hard to find as an accountant. I thrive in this ever-changing environment!
• What is your favorite thing about working at airCFO / What type of work do you find most interesting?
  • The airCFO team is my favorite part of the job. From the founder to the administrators, everyone is genuinely a good person. There is a kindness and thoughtfulness present in the airCFO culture, which is invaluable in a busy startup-focused practice. And I think we have the awesome airCFO team-members to thank for keeping up the good vibes.
  • I find the ad-hoc projects requested from our clients the most interesting. Often times our clients are aiming to analyze profitability of a product line, or, customize reporting for their investors. Collaborating with clients on what deliverables will best serve their team and creating a new process around those metrics is often challenging and fun.
• What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
  • Other than snuggling with my husband and cat near a fireplace, I enjoy being in the great outdoors. My favorite outdoors adventure was in 2016; an 8-day trek across two glaciers in the Rwenzori Mountains National Park of Uganda, reaching a summit of 16,763 ft. Today I spend my free time exploring the beauty of upstate New York, hiking the gorges of the Finger Lakes region, and camping in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains with my husband. Our goal is to summit all forty-six peaks in the Adirondack mountains so that we can officially call ourselves a ‘ADK 46er.’
• If you could offer our clients one piece of free advice, what would it be?
  • When it comes to accounting and finances, there are a lot of moving pieces from approving invoices to tracking budgets. My “free” advice is to have a designated right-hand man/woman on your team for all things finance. The startup clients that struggle the most with cash flow management and day-to-day operations are often trying to do everything alone. This means inefficient work processes that ultimately lead to more working hours. With the help of an airCFO accountant, we can create a plan to delegate tasks to your team that maintains controls while freeing up the CEO/founders time to focus on the big picture. Invest some time into building a tech stack, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and a financial road map in the beginning. The airCFO team can help with creating a Diagnostic Toolkit and other SOPs on request. This will save time and energy in the long run.