Chris Gelfuso

Tax and Financial Advisor @Uplevel Business Services

🧑‍💼 C-level ExecutiveExecutive CoachAccountantBusiness Owner💼 C-level ExecutiveFinancial AnalystAuditor🧨 ConsultingCFO🏦 FinanceFinancial Planner✨ Business OwnerTax ProfessionalTax AdvisorAssociate Partner

Uplevel Business Services offers professional Tax Preparation, Tax Planning, and Financial Planning to small and medium-sized businesses as well as self-employed individuals. Additional services include bookkeeping, payroll processing, Outsourced CFO services, and Wealth Management. Our founder, Chris Gelfuso, has always had a passion for learning, helping others, doing things right, and for continuous improvement. These principles have supported Chris throughout his life as he upleveled his career over the last 20 years from a Staff Accountant at a national CPA firm, an IRS Agent with the Small Business/Self Employed (SBSE) division, the Controller for a global Microsoft subsidiary doing $4 billion dollars a year in revenue, an FP&A leader for Microsoft’s Operating Center processing $40 billion in sales annually, the CFO for a multi-sport and entertainment business and the CFO for a Real Estate Development, Property Management, and Construction company. As life comes full circle, Chris now uses this experience to help others uplevel their businesses, achieve their full potential, and improve their bottom line!

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Work Background

Uplevel Business ServicesCFO Consultant/Tax Strategist

Nov. 2019Downey, CAUplevel Business Services offers Outsourced CFO Services and Tax Planning to small and medium-sized businesses as well as self-employed individuals. Additional services include bookkeeping, payroll processing, and tax preparation. As a Fractional CFO, I help small businesses in the financial management of their company including identifying tax savings strategies. Responsible for training and mentoring the finance/accounting teams in financial reporting and analysis, cash flow analysis and financial evaluation for key business opportunities. Directly create and deliver reporting, planning, implementing, managing and controlling financial-related activities, including the establishment of KPIs and dashboard metrics. Roles & Responsibilities: • Prepare, analyze, and explain monthly and quarterly results and variance analysis relating to the overall performance of company strategies and the contribution to the company’s profitability • Identify metrics to drive operational excellence and drive strategic priorities • Enhance scenario planning analysis and benchmarking capabilities to optimize profit and tax savings • Serve as a member of the management team in guiding the strategic direction of the firm providing advice on the financial implications of business activities • Work alongside senior management to drive profitable growth through analysis, influencing action on risk assessment, pricing, business ventures, customer profitability and cost control • Report financial performance including cash flow, profit/loss and balance sheet items. Analyze financial statements to identify areas of strength and weakness. • Manage and direct the process of financial reporting and budgeting • Provide leadership in the development and the continuous evaluation of the strategic financial objectives, also including development of other team members • Provide support in developing, implementing, and maintaining a costing and pricing models

McKenzie Properties and ConstructionChief Financial Officer

Jun. 2018 - Oct. 2019Reno, Nevada AreaMcKenzie Properties develops, builds, and leases commercial space throughout Northern Nevada. The company owns and manages over 2 million square feet of industrial, office and retail space. As CFO I was responsible for the accounting, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), financial reporting, banking and investor relations as well as all insurance, human resources, and financing needs of the Construction, Real Estate Development, and Property Management entities. Key Accomplishments: -Drove transition of operations to a management company structure which increased revenue 167% and NOI 226% in the first year -Implemented new online customer service and support module which reduced manual processes and increased tenant access to information -Consolidated construction accounting and job cost reporting from Sage into existing property management Yardi ERP to enable more efficient access to data for estimating, modeling, and forecasting future development deals -Streamlined CAM reconciliation process resulting in significant time savings

Alethia Investment GroupController

Oct. 1999 - Oct. 2005San Dimas, CAAlethia Investment Group was a multi-divisional real estate company which acted as a one-stop shop by providing real estate representation, escrow, appraisal and mortgage services. Responsibilities included: -Upon hire, audited and transformed books to conform to GAAP -Established new accounting policies and procedures -Managed a staff of up to four clerks for A/P and A/R -Maintained general ledger and reconciled bank accounts -Processed payroll in-house and prepared and filed quarterly and yearly tax returns -Prepared monthly and yearly financial statements -Responsible for all accounting functions of mortgage company and related appraisal, real estate, and escrow companies -Reported directly to CEO and managed the business and financial department autonomously

Reno Aces Baseball ClubChief Financial Officer

Nov. 2014 - May. 2018Reno, Nevada AreaAs a member of the Executive Leadership Team reporting to the President, I was accountable for the Accounting, FP&A activities including budgeting and quarterly cash flow forecasts, Treasury, IT, and Human Resource functions for the Reno Aces Triple-A Baseball Club, Reno 1868 Football Club, Greater Nevada Field, and the Freight House District bars and restaurants. Key Accomplishments: -Right sized insurance policies which reduced costs by 27% over prior year while increasing coverage in key areas. -Drove transition of the phone system to the cloud saving 10% per year in Opex and thousands of dollars in hardware and maintenance fees while doubling internet speed. -Implemented new enterprise server strategy resulting in more capacity while reducing the number of servers by 75%. -Led an eight month project with multiple governmental entities to rectify property boundary issues and secure the Certificate of Occupancy for the ballpark.

MicrosoftGroup Finance Manager

Nov. 2012 - Sep. 2014Reno, Nevada AreaLed the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Indirect Tax functions for Microsoft's Americas Operations Center (AOC). AOC is one of three global processing centers setup to manage, record and fulfill licensing agreements, orders, revenue, and costs for Microsoft’s Commercial, Advertising, Online Subscription (SaaS, Cloud) and OEM customers and partners in North and South America. Key Accomplishments: -Restructured team to focus and drive 25% reduction in revenue processing transactions and cost savings of $6M globally in FY14. -$7M efficacy achieved in FY14 for local site in partnership with business -Established a rate card for independent contractors which reduced costs to the site by $1.2M in the first year. Responsibilities included establishing business objectives, strategies, and plans in support of company strategic goals, managing and allocating financial and employee resources and selecting, coaching, and developing employees. In addition to my individual deliverables as leader and manager, the key objectives of the FP&A function are: -Drive long-range planning and fiscal year target setting for Opex and COGS. -Partner and engage with senior business and finance leaders to deliver insightful financial and business reporting and analysis, highlight business issues and risks and drive profitability improvement across the organization through ROI analysis. -Own financial deliverables associated with monthly close, quarter-end close and forecast, annual budget planning process and monthly financial performance reviews with business partners. Key responsibilities of the Indirect Tax function (moved under my leadership Jan 2014): -Manage indirect tax compliance and provide guidance to stakeholders on new programs, offerings, products, etc. being launched. -Provide support for customers and partners including exemption requests, contract language review, and general questions related to sales tax and other indirect taxes.

MicrosoftSr. Controller

Oct. 2009 - Nov. 2012Reno, NVManaged the full financial operations of Microsoft Online Inc, a multi-billion dollar subsidiary of Microsoft Corp, which owns the rights to the company’s online advertising business globally. Team of seven was responsible for the Controllership function, GL Accounting, Revenue Controls and Compliance-SOX and Operational, Financial Planning & Analysis, Tax, Accounts Payable (A/P), Payroll, and coordinating with internal and external auditors. Key Accomplishments: -Drove LEAN process improvements for customer agreement to invoice process which resulted in reduction of independent contractor headcount by 30%. -Built accounting process and playbook for the Yahoo! alliance and acted as global process owner training counterparts in China, India, and Taiwan. Responsibilities included: -Served as Vice President and Controller for the subsidiary entity and personally accountable for proper recognition of $4B in search and display advertising revenue for Bing.com, MSNBC, and MSN amongst other websites -Founding member of MOI who established financial team and developed systems, processes, and operational and SOX controls for the entity -Directed the full financial operations of the Sub and individually owned the accounting for proper revenue recognition of $4 Billion per year -Core team member of the Finance PMO for the Yahoo! and Nokia alliance deals, the Skype integration, and other strategic initiatives

MicrosoftAccounting Manager

Jul. 2008 - Oct. 2009Bellevue, WAResponsibilities included: -Reconciled assigned Balance Sheet accounts on a monthly basis -Prepared and posted monthly recurring Journal Entries -Owned intercompany account reconciliations and cash transfers for Online Advertising Business with international annual revenue of $2 billion -Prepared monthly transmit files for Joint Ventures of the Online Services Division (OSD) and post into SAP Production accounting system -Acted as subject matter expert (SME) for Joint Venture accounting -Performed ad hoc variance analysis of P&L accounts -Reviewal and sign-off of balance sheet reconciliations and journal entries for two employees as part of monthly close activities -Provided audit support and performed internal controls testing for Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) Tier 2 controls -Advised Financial Analysts and their business partners on accounting issues to ensure they comply with Microsoft Accounting Policies (MAP) and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

MicrosoftProduct Manager/Business Analyst

Oct. 2005 - Jul. 2008Redmond, WAResponsibilities included: -Managed the end-to-end P&L for the E-Learning Business Group -Led fiscal year planning, forecasting and budgeting process and monitored progress towards commitments -Analyzed monthly performance of actuals to budget for revenue, operational expenses (OPEX), and cost of goods sold (COGS) and explained variances -Drove monthly and quarterly business reviews with Executive team -Assisted with overall business strategy through business modeling, pricing analysis, and vendor and partner contract reviews -Maintained and ensured accuracy of data for reach volume and revenue reporting and presented to key stakeholders -Managed the launch of e-learning products into Volume Licensing, which included, establishing SKUs and pricing waterfall, writing product use rights (PUR), and communication and readiness training to the Sales teams.

Capin Crouse LLPStaff Accountant/Auditor

Oct. 1999 - Oct. 2005San Dimas, CACapin Crouse is a national CPA firm which specializes in providing accounting, assurance, and tax services to not-for-profit corporations and educational institutions. Responsibilities included: -Performed independent, risk-based audits of corporations -Evaluated internal controls of accounting systems -Analyzed and reviewed general ledger and chart of accounts -Utilized audit tests to evaluate reported income and expenses -Prepared budgets, financial statements and complete audit reports -Prepared Form 990 information tax returns for non-profits

Internal Revenue ServiceRevenue Agent

Oct. 1999 - Oct. 2005San Bernardino, CAResponsibilities included: -Conducted independent examinations of income tax returns of individuals and business entities, to include sole proprietors, partnerships and corporations -Worked a pipeline of assigned cases from start to finish -Utilized accounting and auditing techniques to determine tax liability was reported correctly according to the Internal Revenue Code and other various sources of tax law -Evaluated accounting systems and internal controls of the businesses in order to set the scope of the examination -Investigated discrepancies found in books and records and evaluated potential for fraudulent activity -Gathered data and performed research of tax law, regulations, rulings, and court decisions to arrive at a determination -Prepared work papers to document findings in support of adjustments -Issued final audit report and explained adjustments to taxpayers or their representatives, to include attorneys, CPAs, and Enrolled Agents