By Kathy Rue, CPA

I was asked to reflect upon my career as a CPA in industry and share an aspect of my work that I truly loved. I have had many different jobs over the course of my career that I have enjoyed – external auditor, internal auditor, accountant, accounting manager, controller, director of finance, even business development manager. But the one experience that resonated with me the most, and brought about a profound sense of accomplishment on a regular basis, was my role as operations controller in the late 1990s for a startup company called DIVA Systems Corp.

DIVA was a pioneer in the development of video on demand (VOD) services, and comprised two R&D units that had spun off from SRI International: one based in Redwood City, Calif., and the other in Princeton, N.J. I joined the Princeton team as their accountant in 1996, and reported to the general manager. At the time, aside from the general manager and two administrative assistants, I was the only staff member who was not an engineer. Over the next two years, our two groups grew from about 50 employees to more than 200, and many roles were reconfigured. We also added field deployment teams in King of Prussia, Pa., and London. My initial role at DIVA had been the traditional monthly accounting tasks – payroll, payables, month-end close, and internal reporting – but when we reconfigured, those tasks were centralized in California. I was moved into the operations controller role, and I wasn’t exactly sure what that was.

When I asked the CFO what he had in mind for me to do, his response was that he wanted me to be the liaison between senior management and key functions within the organization. For example, the field operations team needed to develop an implementation checklist for VOD systems that would enable DIVA to prepare progress billings to the customer, and also to recognize revenue at the appropriate time. My job was to represent the finance team while the checklist was developed, to assist with its refinement as it was rolled out, and to ensure that invoicing and revenue recognition occurred in a timely and well-documented manner. Once a VOD system was installed and live, the IT team needed to provide finance with reports that captured and properly summarized the programs and movies that were being viewed by customers, because commissions needed to be disbursed to content providers as well as to ourselves. My job was to identify the key data elements and reporting formats needed for the commission calculations, and to work with the IT team through testing until we were comfortable that all content was being captured and commissions were being properly calculated. I also continued to support the Princeton R&D team as they developed more advanced hardware components, assisted the vice president of purchasing in pricing out bills of material during the R&D phase, and liaised with our third-party manufacturer in Minnesota once the hardware was released for procurement and production. I worked with the manufacturer to develop work-in-process and finished-goods inventory reports that provided finance with the needed information to book the cost of goods sold and monthly inventory adjustments.

Through these roles, I represented finance and worked with key operations staff as well as their functional vice presidents to develop, refine, and release processes and documentation to support our products and services. I was fortunate to be given this opportunity to accept new challenges and go above and beyond the traditional tasks that I had been comfortable doing. CPAs constantly stay abreast of business and economic changes, and continually look for new ways to solve issues and create efficiencies. My boss recognized that, with my CPA designation and acquired skills and experience, I could be an integral liaison with the operations teams. This opportunity may exist for other CPAs, especially those working in startup environments or growth industries. A conversation with senior management at your company may offer you the chance to suggest roles for you beyond traditional finance tasks.

DIVA Systems was ultimately sold in late 2002 to another California entity, and our New Jersey and Pennsylvania operations were shuttered. At that time, I took a year off to stay home with my infant son. I did work for two additional startups from 2003 to 2007, but never experienced the same sense of connectedness between finance and operations that I had had at DIVA. It was a unique and wonderfully enjoyable experience to be a part of a holistic business unit.

Do you have a story to share about your role as a CPA who acted as liaison between senior management and operations? If so, I would love to hear from you.

Kathy Rue is director of finance at the YWCA of Bucks County and serves on PICPA’s Corporate Finance Cabinet.