Technology
40 Under 40 Honoree: Robert J. Chandler — 36
Founder, President & CEO, ManageComm, Inc., El Cajon, CA
Aug. 29, 2007
40 Under 40 Honoree: Robert J. Chandler — 36
Founder, President & CEO, ManageComm, Inc., El Cajon, CA
EDUCATION: BS Accounting & Business Management —
Southwestern College
FAMILY: Wife Brianna; Daughter Makenna (1)
HOBBIES & INTERESTS: God, family & friends, baseball,
reading, traveling, computers
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS: AIPB, Sleeter Group Network, QuickBooks
ProAdvisor
What’s the one piece of technology that MOST helps you get through
your normal workday?
“ManageComm’s ‘e-Dashboard,’ which is a portal that
manages workflow by bringing the entire client’s information together
into a single source, allows me to be much more efficient and profitable. The
e-Dashboard is a personalized, interactive user interface for accessing financial
administrative resources, and an integrated, paperless document storage and
retrieval (DSR) system for storage, retrieval and distribution of the complete
library of documentation relating to each client. It also allows remote access
to the client’s QuickBooks files.”
What will be the biggest change over the next five years in the ways
tax and accounting firms operate?
“More and more practices will want to get their clients online with an
Application Service Provider (ASP) to enable remote access to accounting files
and documents via the Internet. With ASP in place, they will be able to offload
time-consuming routine tasks, such as data entry and statement reconciliation,
to an outsourced bookkeeping team that will carry out all recording and reporting
tasks within 24 hours of receipt. The result of this change will allow the accounting
firm to concentrate on more lucrative work such as financial reports, budgeting,
cash flow management and business consulting.”
What Robert’s peers had to say about him:
ManageComm was one of the first U.S. bookkeeping firms to train and utilize
an offshore back office of bookkeepers to provide support data-entry work to
assist U.S. bookkeeping staff in doing client bookkeeping work on a timely basis.
In meeting head-on the problem of finding reliable, qualified bookkeeping and
accounting staff, Robert Chandler is a true global entrepreneur. After earning
his accounting and business management degree, Robert prepared for his career
as an innovative accounting business owner by holding professional positions
in restaurant management, accounting, pension administration and financial services.
He went into private practice in 1997, and then in 2000 launched the ManageComm
Inc. bookkeeping company with one employee. By 2003, he had eight employees
and 150 clients, and today has 15 employees and 400 clients nationwide.
With ManageComm, Robert created the first (and now the largest) online bookkeeping
firm in the U.S., providing his clients with application service provider (ASP)
capabilities that include remote access to their QuickBooks files via the Internet
so that they can access their books anytime, anywhere they have a Web connection.
Following this innovation, Robert Chandler developed RealTimeBookkeeping.com
and the “first of its kind” Real Time Bookkeeping (RTB) System,
which grew organically out of the real-world conditions of his own bookkeeping
business serving small business customers. The RTB System is designed for professional
bookkeepers and accounting firms nationwide, providing a reliable solution for
increasing billings and reducing costs by completely automating the QuickBooks
bookkeeping process.