Capacity is a company that’s built on helping teams do their best work. Because of this, we have a Slack channel dedicated to praising the work of our team members. Once a month, there’s a random raffle that includes everyone who has been thanked or put in the spotlight for their heroic efforts in the office. Only one person is drawn from the raffle, and that person wins the Shout-Out of the Month.
This month, we’re recognizing Bre Evans, the Controller at Capacity. She was originally shouted out for her efforts in securing our 2019 tax credit dollars! Keep reading to learn more about Bre and her personal and professional financial advice.
Q. What brought you to Capacity?
After working for Deloitte and a private equity company, the idea of a tech startup seemed really intriguing. I was attracted to the opportunity to build an amazing company without the extra bureaucracy to slow down the process. I like to be casual and work at a fast pace.
I also LOVE the founders’ dedication to two nonprofit entities (Create a Loop and Prepare.ai) that were started at the same time as Capacity. I often wondered how to pair my professional goals with my altruistic ones, so this was a perfect fit.
I often wondered how to pair my professional goals with my altruistic ones, so this was a perfect fit.
Q. What did you do before joining the team?
I started my career with Deloitte. I worked in the St. Louis office first and later worked in the London and Dallas offices where I focused primarily on the Financial Service industry. After Deloitte, I worked as a Fund Accountant at a private equity company in Texas and started a side hustle in watercolor painting.
I finally moved back to St. Louis with my husband and got introduced to Capacity by a coworker. Though living in the south and out of the country was great, Missouri will always be home.
Q. As the Controller, what does a typical day look like?
There’s more of a typical quarter rather than a typical day as many finance and accounting cycles recur annually, i.e. budgeting in Q4 and tax returns in Q1. But generally as a SAAS company, we are focused on how to increase our annual recurring revenue (ARR), which means I get to translate our contracts into GAAP revenue and keep the team informed on our progress. My team also stays busy with treasury, forecasting, and my favorite: financial analysis. I love to research finance and accounting best practices and look at actionable trends in our numbers.
Q. You were recognized for your efforts in securing our 2019 tax credit dollars! Can you tell me a little about what goes into that?
Funny enough, tax is my least favorite part of accounting! We’ve had a great tax credit partner, Tri-Merit, that’s helped educate me on getting a tax credit for the research and development we do to create our product. It’s been a huge help to our company and pretty unique to the startup scene.
Q. What’s something that the typical person wouldn’t know about tax credit dollars?
For other startups in St. Louis, there is another very cool credit called the MO Works Program that provides a benefit (with a few rules) for basically hiring people, and you can get that benefit every year for 5-6 years. #Perks of having a business in Missouri!
Q. If you could share one piece of financial/budgetary advice to our readers, what would it be?
Professionally, you’d be surprised how informative it is to just create a budget without even sticking to it. Just in its creation, you glean so much about your habits, which makes it that much easier to stick to a plan.
Personally, budgets go out the window when it comes to travel for me. There’s never enough time to budget and plan for a trip and it will never be perfect, so you just have to rip the bandaid off and book a flight!