Finance management is the key to business success. Efficient bookkeeping helps organizations achieve operational efficiency, regulation adherence, and optimized business decision-making. While corporates across the globe have their dedicated team of accountants for financial management, small and medium-sized companies usually opt for third-party bookkeeping service providers to keep the budget in check. Starting its operation just 3 years back, Finovalence, a Delhi-based Accounting and Bookkeeping Service provider firm, has been growing through the ladder quite fast, owing to positive word of mouth and excellent customer experience. At the helm of its overall operations is Priyanka Dang, an accomplished chartered accountant with over 15 years of extensive industry experience and the founder of the firm. A strong believer in women's empowerment, she has ensured a healthy and safe work environment for female employees at the organization.

In an exclusive interview with Women Entrepreneur Review, Priyanka sheds light on her early education and overall industry experience, the inception journey of Finovalence, and much more:

Shed some light into some important facets of your life and professional journey.

I belong to Hisar, a tier 2 town in Haryana, where I did my initial schooling. After my graduation, I came to New Delhi to pursue CA. While the opportunity gave me exposure to the corporate world, I also had to face rejection from many firms and several challenges due to my Hindi medium schooling background. Fortunately, I got through my Chartered Accountancy pretty quickly and even got an opportunity to work for Barclays Bank, London. That's how my professional journey started. For the next decade, I gained broad exposure at Big 4s, including Ernst & Young and Deloitte, and the global RBS bank

At that time, I was expecting my second son and had to take a planned career break of around one year due to some complications. That's when the Pandemic happened. I lost one of my pillars of strength, my mother-in-law, to COVID-19. She was the one who gave me the opportunity and the wings to fly, allowing me to confidently work while the kids got the best care at home. Losing her was a huge turning point. Because of the situation, I couldn't return to my job. That's when I decided to start something of my own. My first client was one of my friends who was trying to get their books cleaned up for a startup, and there was no looking back. In the last three years, the firm has experienced tremendous growth through positive word of mouth and tons of referrals from my clients.

What led you to establish Finovalence? Tell us about the underlying idea behind the venture.

Having worked in the corporate world for so long, I have always wanted to build a safe, friendly, and flexible workplace for female employees. Along with the corporate culture, we give a lot of importance to people's emotional quotient. Each employee has their own motivations and journeys, and we individually recognize and work on them for cumulative success. Even the male associates at Finovalence are well-trained in maintaining a female employee-friendly workplace. As an organization, we offer bookkeeping and accounting outsourcing services to small and medium-sized organizations in the US and Canada. I am extremely proud of the fact that till now, we have never spent even a single penny on advertisement or have done any digital marketing. Our current growth can be attributed to our client's referrals and positive word of mouth.

What makes Finovalence stand out is the kind of exposure we offer to our employees. I strongly believe in allowing even younger accountants to deal directly with clients. At the same time, I also ensure to be involved in all the calls to guide them. Besides boosting their confidence, this also gives them a better understanding of the client's requirements and expectations while fastening their learning curve. Usually, people don't get such opportunities in other firms. Team collaboration and mutual growth is our core value. We have a mandatory “Each one, teach some” policy, where everyone tries to train each other with their skills and expertise through regular demo sessions.

As the Founder of Finovalence, what are the key roles and responsibilities you shoulder? What has your success mantra been over the years?

Finovalence is a startup; for now, I am engaged deeply in pretty much everything we do! There is a lot of learning, and ground level presence has enabled me to establish the right culture and quality bars, which are critical to maintain as we scale with our customers. That said, I have established team leaders to drive bookkeeping and accounting in a streamlined and timely fashion while continuing to do pre-delivery reviews actively. A majority of my time goes in client engagement both at bootstrap and delivery, which I love to do. In case of a client call, both the manager and associate join me in taking up the call, so that all stakeholders are looped in through the journey.

The success mantra that I believe in is to keep going. Don't lose hope. It’s never too late and one day, you will be there. You just need to have a clear vision, and persist through the waves with a smile on your face. Also, I am a strong believer that high customer engagement is the key to success. We differentiate ourselves by actively following up with clients as if their business were ours, for their success is definitely ours too!

How can more women be motivated to foray into the finance sector?

To encourage better involvement from women, we first need to teach our sons. The moment our society understands the concept of equal partnership, women will start finding their way to success. In terms of mental toughness, women are extremely strong. It's just bottlenecks get created for them. To bring that change, those values should be imbibed at home and through educational curriculums. Finance, I think, is a great place for women to be with diverse career paths, leadership opportunities, and, most importantly, financial knowledge for financial independence! It also provides for flexible work arrangements and an opportunity to drive change. Remember, our Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman is a woman who has established several records and set new standards in financial governance.

Priyanka Dang, Founder, Finovalence

An accomplished chartered accountant and industry leader with over 15 years of extensive industry experience providing consulting services across multiple industries, Priyanka started her career at Barclays Bank before working for some of the most esteemed consulting organizations, including Deloitte, EY, and RBS. Currently, as the Founder of Delhi-based Accounting and Bookkeeping Service provider Finovalence, she has been guiding the firm to experience rapid growth through positive word of mouth and excellent customer service.