Milestone Brings Back Office Synergy to Jackrabbit Learning Experience 

“Milestone does all kinds of things for us, but the biggest benefit is sleeping better at night. With Milestone, I don’t have to worry about where I am financially, or if my business is in compliance.  Their team stays on top of that so I can focus on running my business. ”  Jason Gorman, Jackrabbit LX – Founder & CEO

Situation

Jackrabbit LX’s back office solutions were serviceable but disjointed and not positioned to scale. CEO Jason Gorman noted that the communication and execution of the back office function centered around him. After the retirement of their previous part-time HR person, Jackrabbit LX searched for a solution to take care of all the services at once in order to communicate seamlessly with each other. 

Solution

Milestone provided their full suite of back office solutions, including, HR, Payroll, Accounting, and fractional CFO services. Milestone implemented best-in-class technology and proven processes to drive efficiency in their business. 

Outcome

Jackrabbit LX has greater forward-looking clarity on the financials of the business, and an HR and payroll solution that is set up to grow with the business. Gorman has reclaimed significant hours in his work week and sleeps better at night because of the work of Milestone. 

Jackrabbit Learning Experience, or Jackrabbit LX, is an education company founded by Jason Gorman. Their company builds extraordinary educational experiences for students, employee training, employee onboarding, and more. They work with a wide variety of industries, but their sole focus is creating impactful learning experiences. Jackrabbit LX was founded in 2018 and has grown to a team of 10 employees dedicated to their mission. 

Before engaging with Milestone, Jackrabbit LX outsourced their bookkeeping and HR to two freelancers. Gorman thought these partners did great work, but he was still spending too much time focused on communication and translation. While the tasks had been delegated, Gorman still owned the back office functions. Gorman was also spending multiple hours being the middleman for information and wanted to look for a solution to integrate these functions more seamlessly. 

Jackrabbit LX engaged with Milestone for their full suite of services, including a fractional CFO. Gorman recognized their business was becoming more complex, so he wanted forward-looking financials to understand the future outlook of his business. 

“Milestone has been great in helping us set up our financial forecast. We can really understand how our people’s time is being used, how that translates to billable dollars, and what that means in terms of revenue and profit. We can also run sensitivity analyses to understand a range of potential outcomes under different scenarios. We have really good financial visibility because of Milestone.” Jason Gorman, Founder & CEO

When Gorman first engaged with the Milestone accounting team, he noted that “we didn’t know what we didn’t know”.   The Milestone team reorganized its chart of accounts and reporting structure so the management team could see how the business was performing.  Milestone worked collaboratively with the Jackrabbit LX team to assess their needs and implement technology and process solutions that would provide greater efficiency and a better flow of financial information.  In the end, the management team was much better positioned to grow the business and make confident, informed decisions.  

Gorman highlighted Milestone’s use of Fathom as a robust financial reporting, dashboarding, and forecasting tool, that integrates with Quickbooks. It allows Jackrabbit LX to not only see how the business is performing compared to its operating plan, but it has the forecasting capability to understand a range of potential outcomes for different business scenarios.  “With Fathom, we have a powerful forecasting tool that helps us manage our business and plan for the future”, noted Gorman.  

Milestone started working with Jackrabbit in the HR function of the company, where they were replacing a retiring part-time resource.    “Sometimes change is good”, noted Gorman.  “The Milestone team has helped take a fresh look at our HR function.  They have introduced new processes, policies, and a new way of thinking that has made a big difference for our team.”  Today, the Jackrabbit team is better positioned to meet the needs of its growing team.  

Gorman described the transition to Milestone’s HR services as smooth. Milestone was quick to establish trust with the Jackrabbit team because they were responsive. “That’s how trust is built. It doesn’t matter whether their email is @jackrabbitlx or @milestone. It matters that their needs are being met,” said Gorman. 

“The overall experience with Milestone has been fantastic”, noted Gorman. “They have an experienced team of back-office professionals who really care about our success.  In the end, it’s all about finding solutions that work, and Milestone delivered.”