AUX Blog

Why This Start Up CU Chose To Oursource Their Accounting

October 26, 2018

Clean Energy FCU, a newly-launched institution based in Boulder, Colorado, has partnered with us to outsouce their accounting function. The credit union, launched in April of 2018, was founded to empower the public to participate in the clean energy movement and they strive to keep their costs down in order to provide members better loan terms. We have been so excited to assist such a motivated, quickly growing credit union.

We interviewed Clean Energy FCU CEO Terri Mickelsen to learn about her credit union’s unique start-up challenges, her philosophy, and why she chose us as a partner. Mickelsen, who’s had a whirl-wind year of launching the CU and managing the flood of loan applications for green services, found precious time to sit down with us.

“Using outsourced accounting just makes sense,” said Mickelsen. “We are brand new and trying to do a lot with less. I wanted to make sure that our accounting function was streamlined and while hiring was a possibility, hiring CU Service Network made more financial sense.”

Mickelsen has more than 25 years of credit union operations experience. Prior to her new role at Clean Energy FCU, she served as COO and VP of Internal Operations at two credit unions, each with over $500M in assets. Efficiency and cost savings are core principals to her.

Our outsourced accounting service does not aim to replace current staff, but simply allows them to focus on strategic or higher priority tasks. And in Clean Energy’s case, where there wasn’t any staff to begin with, outsourcing the accounting function made even more sense. Mickelsen commented, “If you are looking at expanding your accounting or adding another employee, this is where you are going to see the cost savings. Why not outsource some of the duties? Allow the staff you already have to do alternative tasks to save even more money.”

Branda Gilmore, our CFO and head of our Outsourced Accounting Service commented, “We are excited to help a startup credit union. Clean Energy FCU doesn’t have the internal staff to complete these duties, and hiring an internal staff didn’t make sense for them at this point in their journey. Outsourcing to us will give them the ability to focus on growing the credit union.”

While Mickelsen is a champion of outsourcing, she knows it is critical that you choose the right company. “CU Service Network is not just a start up, like Joe Schmo’s Accounting Service. They have a reputation. They already have experience with our accounting software; having a team of people ready to help me, not having to train – that is a huge time saver for me.”

Related Blog Posts