Matas Pranckevicius Headshot

Content Manager

Matas Pranckevicius

author-yoseph

Co-Founder & CEO

Yoseph West

Abigail Gamble Headshot

Content Writer

Abigail Gamble

Blake Oliver, CPA Headshot

Accounting Community Advocate

Blake Oliver

Ziwei Chen Headshot

Content Marketing Specialist

Ziwei Chen

Headshot of Nick Cole, Chief Commercial Officer of Float.

Nick Cole

Content Marketing Manager, Relay Financial

Leigh Doyle

paula kehoe

Senior Writer

Paula Kehoe

Henry Fuz

Head of Product

How Nancy McClelland, owner of accounting firm The Dancing Accounting, has built a remote advisory team she loves by thinking creatively.

Hiring for a remote accounting and bookkeeping firm

Relay - a digital envelope system integrated into small business banking

Relay - Digital Envelope System Integrated into Small Business Banking

Qube Money - Digital Envelope System

Goodbudget - Digital Envelope System

Mvelopes - Digital Envelope System

Don’t let the envelope budgeting system intimidate you — it’s just grandma’s commonsense way of sticking to a budget that people have been using for centuries. 

In this article, you’ll learn about the the digital envelope system from a small business lens, and how it can keep you accountable and within budget.

How to Use a (FREE) Digital Envelope Budgeting System for Your Business 

Operating Profit = Gross Profit (Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold) - Operating Costs - Depreciation - Amortization 

Operating Profit Formula

Operating Profit Margin = [Operating Profit/ Sales Revenue] x 100

Operating Profit Margin

 Operating profit tells you how efficiently you’re running your business. How much money do you have left over after all the necessary expenses of running your business are deducted? The operating profit formula helps you figure out this number. 

 The operating profit formula helps you determine if your business is successful from an operations standpoint, and is arguably one of the most important accounting formulas a small business owner should understand.

Understanding the Operating Profit Formula & How to Calculate it

Microsoft’s 2021 Q4 income statement, total revenue highlighted. 

Microsoft Income Statement 

Aritzia’s 2021 Q4 income statement with net profit highlighted.


Aritzia Income Statement

If you make $1 million a year in revenue, but can only pay yourself a profit of $20,000, is your business successful?

What's the difference between revenue vs profit? In short, revenue is how much money a business makes, while profit is how much a business keeps after deducting expenses.

Revenue vs Profit: The Difference (In Plain English)

Revenue vs Profit: The Difference in Plain English

AP Automation Step One — Receiving Invoices

AP Automation Step Two — Processing Invoices

AP Automation Step Three — Approving Invoices

AP Automation Step Four — Paying Invoices

Automated Accounts Payable (AP) Process Example -Workflow for Invoice Receipt, Processing, Approvals, and, Payment using Relay and Dext

What is accounts payable (AP) automation? ⚙️ Understand the four steps of the AP process, including an example of an automated AP workflow.

What is AP Automation? (With Workflow Example) | Relay

What is AP Automation? (With Workflow Example)

Bench Dashboard

Budgeting for your business can be done in more than one way. Learn how to choose the best budgeting method to keep your business on the road to success.  

5 Business Budgeting Methods: How to choose the right one? | Relay

5 Business Budgeting Methods: How to choose the right one?

In this episode, Phil Gaudiano shares how he created standard operating procedures in Karbon to ensure his firm delivered a consistent client experience.

Scale your firm with standard operating procedures in Karbon 

In this episode of Gearing Up, we talk to Andrea Rotondo about how she uses Loom to build personal connections with clients, speed up communication and save time writing out instructions for clients.

How to deepen your personal connection with clients — and communicate faster — with Loom

In this episode of Gearing Up, Clay Sandoz shares the interactive nonprofit financial dashboard he built with Google Sheets and data from Kindful.

Build a nonprofit donor dashboard with Google Sheets and Kindful

In Episode #1 of Gearing Up — Relay's interview series — Blake Oliver interviews Safietou Russell about how to simplify client intake with Cognito Forms

How to Simplify Client Intake with Cognito Forms with Safietou Russell

Accounts Payable Automation with Relay Pro: Integrate with accounting software, view the status of unpaid bills, and centralize all your AP

Accounts Payable Automation with Relay Pro - Bills Dashboard

AP Internal Controls with Relay Pro: How to create single- or multi-step approval rules for all of your bills

AP Internal Controls with Relay Pro - Approval Rules

Thinking about automating AP? 🤖 Here are eight accounts payable automation benefits for your small business to help you decide.

8 Accounts Payable Automation Benefits for Your Small Business | Relay

8 Accounts Payable Automation Benefits for Your Small Business

Comparing the security response rate with Relay vs. traditional banks

What are accounts payable internal controls? 🧾 We explain how these controls help protect your small business from risk during the AP process.

Accounts Payable Internal Controls: Simple Checklist | Relay

Accounts Payable Internal Controls: A Simple Checklist

Accounts payable outsourcing can introduce efficiency in your business — but it also has risks. 😱 Here are the top 4 pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Accounts Payable Outsourcing: 4 Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them | Relay

Accounts Payable Outsourcing: 4 Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them

Relay - Accounts Payable Software Integrated into Small Business Banking

Dext - Software for Managing Accounts Payable for Small Businesses

What's the best accounts payable (AP) software for small business in 2022? Here are the best tools to manage cash flow, process invoices, send checks and handle your bill pay.

What's the best accounts payable (AP) software for small business in 2022? Here are the tools to manage cash flow, process invoices, send checks and handle bill pay.

10 Best Accounts Payable Software for Small Business: Complete Guide

Relay Case Study - Fearless Foundry company profile

How setting up Relay's virtual debit card saved the day after an instance of employee fraud

Madeline Pratt: If you're running a modern business, you need a modern banking solution

Hit with employee fraud, Madeline needed to close and re-open multiple bank accounts. While other banks took weeks, Relay helped her do this instantly.

Relay Case Study: Hit with employee fraud, Madeline needed to close and re-open multiple bank accounts. While other banks took weeks, Relay helped her do this instantly. Learn why Relay's virtual debit card was pivotal to Madeline staying operational.

Case Study: How Relay helped Fearless Foundry deal with employee Fraud — Relay

How Relay saved the day after Madeline uncovered employee fraud at her firm

I'm excited to join Relay's team as their Accounting Community Advocate and help build better banking for accountants and bookkeepers.

It's Blake Oliver, CPA here. I'm excited to introduce myself as Relay's Accounting Community Advocate! I'm thrilled to take on this role and to work with Relay's community of accountants and bookkeepers.

Why I'm joining Relay as the Accounting Community Advocate

Momentum Accounting firm's profile. Founded in 2016, today they're a remote team of seven. Sevices include outsourced accounting, bookkeeping and payroll, as well as advisory CFO services.

Relay Case Study with Momentum Accounting - Firm Profile

Relay case study with Momentum Accounting. Why banks create administrative work for firms: no access to client's bank, poor data quality, and lack of flexibility.

Relay Case Study with Momentum Accounting - Friction from Banks

Relay case study with Momentum Accounting. Comparing data quality of most banks vs. Relay. While the majority of banks provide you with limited and incomplete data, Relay sends enriched data to your accounting system.

Relay Case Study with Momentum Accounting - Data Comparison

Relay case study with Momentum Accounting. "Reconciling bank transactions with Relay is up to 5x faster compared to a traditional bank. There's no reason a business shouldn't be on Relay — it just makes everything so much faster."

Relay Case Study with Momentum Accounting - Nikole Quote

A former “accounting app addict,” Nikole explains why every business should use Relay if they want to be efficient.

We spoke with Nikole Mackenzie, Founder & President of Momentum Accounting. A former "accounting app addict," Nikole explains how Relay makes her firm's accounting process up to 5x more efficient, and how she gets her clients to open an account.

How Relay helps Momentum Accounting make their accounting process 5x more efficient

PROKONECT is an advisory firm launched in 2020. Services include monthly accounting, financial strategy, and financial operations.

PROKONECT Firm Profile

Using a traditional bank delayed the firm by 3 months — whereas with Relay, PROKONECT was able to set up in a few business days.

Relay Remote Banking Timeline vs Traditional Bank

Apps map by PROKONECT, showing how different software integrates with Xero. Includes Relay, Hubdoc, Gusto, Fathom, PayPal, GoCardless.

Sample apps map by PROKONECT

Relay's long-term vision is perfectly aligned with a tech-driven accounting firm.

Salma Hatim on Relay

Salma started her advisory firm remotely. She soon learned that no access to a physical bank branch also meant no service — until she found Relay.

Relay case study with Salma Hatim, Founder & Managing Director at PROKONECT. Salma started her advisory firm remotely. She quickly learned that no access to a physical branch also meant no service from her bank — until she found Relay.

How banking with Relay helps Salma’s remote clients avoid month-long delays

Relay Pro - Partner benefits table, showing discount rates per number of clients in your partner portal.

Relay Pro - Partner Benefits Table

Today, we’re launching Relay Pro — a powerful, intuitive way for SMBs to automate bill payments.

Today, we’re launching Relay Pro — a powerful, intuitive way to automate SMB accounts payable. Pro makes it easy to collaborate on AP with your team, complete all approvals and payments from one hub, and process 50 same-day ACH payments each month.

Introducing Relay Pro 

We’re on a mission to build a banking platform that not only saves business owners time and money, but actually makes their businesses more successful.

Relay has raised USD $19.4 million in funding, including a $15 million Series A from Bain Capital Ventures. 

We raised USD $19.4 million to increase the success rate of small business

Nick Cole, Chief Commercial Officer at Float, explains how to accelerate revenue growth for your firm by offering cash flow advisory services.

Unlock revenue growth for your accounting firm by offering cash flow advisory services. Get started with this guide.

How to use cash flow advisory to unlock revenue growth

For those of us who rushed to #TaxTwitter and #Accounting for much needed laughs during a year full of twists and turns. 

The 14 funniest #TaxTwitter & #Accounting tweets of 2020

Relay partner program benefits and tiers. 

Relay Partner Program Benefits And Tiers

Small business success is core to Relay’s mission. An effective relationship with an accountant or bookkeeper is a foundational pillar of that success. That’s why we built Relay, to support partners like you in the work you do with small business owners. 


Overview of Relay’s Partner Program

Our guest for this interview is Michael Ly. Michael is the founder and CEO of Reconciled It, a cloud accounting firm recognized as a "Firm of the Future" by Intuit. Reconciled It employs over 30 staff and has grown 100% year on year for several years. 

Interview with Michael Ly, CEO & Founder of Reconciled It - Relay Trailblazers Series

Cash flow management is something that requires continued attention from small business owners and their advisors. That's why it's so critical for firms to have effective workflows for managing challenges as they arise. 

Workflows for managing client cash flow

In 2019, 55% of SMBs added or changed financial institutions. A simple decision such as clients’ banking can have a profound impact on your own practice, workflows, and tech stack. Which is why you need to be in control of the conversation.

Transitioning clients to collaborative banking

Check out our interview with Hector Garcia, an award-winning accountant, Top 100 ProAdvisor, and YouTuber with a channel that boasts millions of views. We asked Hector about branding, pricing, hiring and a lot more. 

Interview with Hector Garcia - Relay Trailblazers Series

Relay NPS Score

The bank your client chooses can cost your firm hours each month, not to mention your team's sanity. In fact, there's probably banks you'd rather avoid. If that's the case, here's a comprehensive guide on how to get your clients to switch banks. 

As an accountant or bookkeeper, you're all too familiar with client banking issues. Broken feeds, messy data, and access issues can make month-end a whirlwind. Here's a guide to helping your clients upgrade their banking. 

How to persuade your clients to change banks

More than 50% of firms report wanting to offer advisory services but only one in ten firms are offering them today. Learn how to get started with advisory with this on demand webinar. 

More than 50% of firms report wanting to offer advisory services but only one in ten firms are offering them today. Are you in that 50%? 

How your firm can unlock more revenue through advisory

Clients want the convenience of emailing you their sensitive data but also want the peace of mind of knowing that you're securely handling all their data. How can your firm navigate this tricky balancing act?

How can your firm balance security and convenience for clients?

An interview with Josh Lance, founder and managing director of Lance CPA. Josh is an award-winning CPA, named a 40 under 40 advisor by CPA Practice Advisor and also the Head of Accounting for Practice Ignition. 

Interview with Josh Lance of Lance CPA - Relay Trailblazers Series

In this installment of Relay’s Trailblazers series, we're excited to interview Susan Boles. Susan runs ScaleSpark, an advisory firm that offers CFO services to agencies & consultants. Susan is also the host of the popular Break The Ceiling podcast.

Interview with Susan Boles - Relay Trailblazers Series

An interview with Nayo Carter-Gray, Founder of 1st Step Accounting. We discussed her approach to brand building, networking, and diversity in accounting. 