Overview
TakingITGlobal (TIG) is a registered charity focused on delivering interactive education and training programs to youth around the world. Operating with a team of 25 staff, TIG runs some of the most grant-complex youth programming in Canada, and has been recognized as one of Canada's Top 100 Charities by Charity Intelligence, reflecting their commitment to financial transparency and measurable impact.
ConnectCPA has been TIG’s external finance department since December 2020 - a partnership now entering its sixth year. What began as bookkeeping support has grown into a full-service financial operation: daily transaction processing, accounts payable, payroll, controllership, and multi-platform automation - all managed by a dedicated ConnectCPA team.
As their impact grew, so did the complexity behind the scenes. Multiple projects running simultaneously, each with its own budget, grant requirements, and reporting obligations. The volume of daily transactions - from processing school facilitation payments to disbursing youth grants - demanded accuracy that was challenging for a small internal team to maintain.
Michael Furdyk (Co-founder and Director of Innovation at TakingITGlobal) and his team needed a financial partner who could keep pace with their expanding mission without forcing them to build out a full internal finance department.
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Challenges
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TIG’s accounting demands were increasing faster than their team could scale. With over 5,200 transactions posted every month across 21 accounts - including bank, direct deposit, and expense card accounts in both CAD and USD - the volume alone required dedicated expertise. When key personnel changes occurred, the strain only intensified.
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Tracking 38 unique projects and grants across key programs meant tracking separate budgets, grant conditions, and reporting timelines for each activity and funding partner.
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TIG was operating across different platforms (Quickbooks Desktop, Excel spreadsheets, Airtable, etc.) Without a unified financial operations layer, data lived in silos, errors were difficult to detect, and reconciliation consumed hours that could have been spent on programs. Additionally, TIG was operating with an internal team exclusively (which exposed them to leaves of absences and re-training in a fast-moving environment).
Solutions
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Full-Service Financial Operations
ConnectCPA took ownership of TIG's core financial functions: bookkeeping, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales tax compliance, and monthly close.
The scope of daily operations is significant. ConnectCPA manages a total of 17 internal bank and credit card accounts, alongside 2 direct deposit clearing accounts and over 100 payment card accounts - all maintained in both CAD and USD. Given that TIG averages over 5,000 transactions posted monthly, this requires constant monitoring and daily reconciliation to keep everything accurate.
On the accounts payable side, ConnectCPA runs the full daily AP cycle: draft bills from TIG's Airtable system are automatically synced into Xero via a Zapier integration, reviewed and approved by the ConnectCPA bookkeeping team, and then set up for payment in Plooto or Float - all without requiring TIG staff to touch a single invoice.
For payroll, ConnectCPA handles the complete payroll processing for TIG's team of employees and contractors - including the filing of 300 T4A slips with the CRA, a compliance milestone that requires precision and an intimate knowledge of CRA reporting requirements.
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Automation-Driven Workflows
One of ConnectCPA's most impactful moves was migrating TIG from QuickBooks Desktop to Xero - a foundational shift that unlocked a full suite of integrated tools. The current tech stack includes Airtable, Zapier, Plooto, Expensify, Dext, Float, and TIG's custom project reporting platform.
The Zapier layer is particularly important: it automates the sync of bills from Airtable into Xero as draft bills, eliminating manual data entry and the errors that come with it. Float, integrated in 2022, solved a specific operational problem: getting funds to grantees efficiently. Rather than collecting banking information upfront and chasing refunds when grant funding went unused, Float cards are issued directly to grantees and team members (coded to specific projects and chart of accounts), so spending is tracked in real time as expenses are incurred. Last year alone, TIG issued cards to over 160 grantees, processing approximately 2,000 transactions through the platform.
As TIG's own systems evolved - including the development of an internal software tool to track project costs - ConnectCPA's controller role expanded to include reviewing that custom platform for discrepancies against the books. This kind of embedded financial oversight is what separates a transactional vendor from a true operational partner.
Daily auditing of all automation workflows ensures that data accuracy is maintained and errors are caught before they compound into larger reporting issues.
Full-Service Financial Operations
ConnectCPA took ownership of TIG's core financial functions: bookkeeping, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sales tax compliance, and monthly close.
The scope of daily operations is significant. ConnectCPA manages a total of 17 internal bank and credit card accounts, alongside 2 direct deposit clearing accounts and over 100 payment card accounts - all maintained in both CAD and USD. Given that TIG averages over 5,000 transactions posted monthly, this requires constant monitoring and daily reconciliation to keep everything accurate.
On the accounts payable side, ConnectCPA runs the full daily AP cycle: draft bills from TIG's Airtable system are automatically synced into Xero via a Zapier integration, reviewed and approved by the ConnectCPA bookkeeping team, and then set up for payment in Plooto or Float - all without requiring TIG staff to touch a single invoice.
For payroll, ConnectCPA handles the complete payroll processing for TIG's team of employees and contractors - including the filing of 300 T4A slips with the CRA, a compliance milestone that requires precision and an intimate knowledge of CRA reporting requirements.
Automation-Driven Workflows
One of ConnectCPA's most impactful moves was migrating TIG from QuickBooks Desktop to Xero - a foundational shift that unlocked a full suite of integrated tools. The current tech stack includes Airtable, Zapier, Plooto, Expensify, Dext, Float, and TIG's custom project reporting platform.
The Zapier layer is particularly important: it automates the sync of bills from Airtable into Xero as draft bills, eliminating manual data entry and the errors that come with it. Float, integrated in 2022, solved a specific operational problem: getting funds to grantees efficiently. Rather than collecting banking information upfront and chasing refunds when grant funding went unused, Float cards are issued directly to grantees and team members (coded to specific projects and chart of accounts), so spending is tracked in real time as expenses are incurred. Last year alone, TIG issued cards to over 160 grantees, processing approximately 2,000 transactions through the platform.
As TIG's own systems evolved - including the development of an internal software tool to track project costs - ConnectCPA's controller role expanded to include reviewing that custom platform for discrepancies against the books. This kind of embedded financial oversight is what separates a transactional vendor from a true operational partner.
Daily auditing of all automation workflows ensures that data accuracy is maintained and errors are caught before they compound into larger reporting issues.
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Beyond day-to-day bookkeeping, ConnectCPA provides dedicated controllership services to TIG - a layer of strategic financial oversight that is critical for an organization managing 38 active projects.
TIG’s revenue is diverse - each funding stream carries its own grant terms and reporting obligations, requiring a controller who understands not just accounting, but the regulatory environment charities operate in.
ConnectCPA’s controller works closely with TIG’s leadership to ensure accurate financial reporting across all projects, oversee the integrity of the books, and support strategic decision-making. This includes reviewing TIG’s internally built project cost tracking software for discrepancies against supporting financial systems - a uniquely embedded role that goes well beyond traditional controller responsibilities.
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With 38 active projects tracked simultaneously, project-level financial clarity isn’t optional for TIG - it’s mission-critical. ConnectCPA applies project tags to every single transaction processed: payroll, expenses, and donation revenue alike. This granular tagging means TIG can pull a real-time view of budget performance on any individual project at any time, rather than working from aggregated overhead numbers.
Weekly project spend reviews in Xero give TIG’s program leads clear visibility into budget performance across all active programs - giving them the confidence to make spending decisions without waiting for a month-end close.
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When TIG experienced internal staffing transitions, ConnectCPA absorbed the bookkeeping responsibilities without missing a step. Rather than scrambling to hire and train replacements, TIG leaned on ConnectCPA’s experienced team to maintain continuity. No ramp-up time, no loss of institutional knowledge, no disruption to program delivery.
View Our Results
6+
ConnectCPA migrated TIG off QuickBooks Desktop and disconnected spreadsheets into a unified tech stack: Xero, Airtable, Zapier, Plooto, Dext, Float - built, integrated, and audited daily.
100%
Six years of accurate, on-time grant reporting across dozens of concurrent programs - maintaining the funder confidence that keeps TIG's mission funded.
300
Full payroll compliance handled end-to-end, including the filing of 300 contractor T4A slips - a detail-heavy compliance requirement that TIG never has to think about.
Key take-aways for Entrepreneurs
The AP cycle is where time and errors hide
Running 5,000+ transactions through 21 accounts every month is an operations challenge. Automating the Airtable → Zapier → Xero → Plooto pipeline eliminated an entire category of manual error and freed staff to focus on programs rather than invoices.
Controllership is not optional at this scale
At TIG’s scale, having a dedicated controller is a compliance requirement. Organizations that try to get by with bookkeeping alone at this stage put their funding relationships at risk.
Build systems that scale with your impact
TIG's partnership with ConnectCPA meant that when growth surged and staff changes happened, the financial operations didn’t stutter. Organizations that wait until they’re in crisis to outsource their finances pay a steeper price in lost accuracy, delayed reporting, and eroded funder confidence.
Your Finance Partner Should Scale With Your Mission
TIG needed a financial operations team that could absorb complexity, maintain accuracy across multiple programs, and flex when the organization's needs shifted. That's the difference between a vendor and a partner.
ConnectCPA gave us something that would be difficult to build and maintain internally - a finance team that scales with our mission. When our staff changed, they didn't miss a step. When our programs grew, they grew with us. We get to focus on empowering youth because we know the financial foundation is solid.
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Michael Furdyk, Co-founder of TakingITGlobal
Why ConnectCPA?
ConnectCPA specializes in becoming the financial backbone for growing organizations. For nonprofits and charities like TakingITGlobal, that means building the systems, integrations, and reporting infrastructure that let mission-driven teams focus on impact instead of invoices.
From daily transaction processing to multi-platform automation management, ConnectCPA delivers the financial clarity and operational resilience that scaling organizations need to grow with confidence. Ready to build a financial foundation that scales your mission? Let's talk.
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