Celerity Accounting LLC

Founder and CEO

Intuit

Intuit Partner Council

Blackhawk Technical College

I am teaching a course on Accounting Technology this semester!

Adjunct Professor Accounting

Contrail Aviation Support, LLC

Assistant Controller

BDO USA, LLP

I am currently responsible for performing and overseeing the full cycle general accounting function for small to mid-size organizations.

Duties include(but not limited to):
- Manage the daily, monthly, and annual accounting close procedures.
- AR/AP, fixed Assets, deferred revenue, compilations, and other accounting transactions.
- Balance sheet reconciliations
- Financial reporting & variance analysis
- Budget creation & presentation
- Payroll & payroll returns(941/940/etc).
- Transitioning or implementing new accounting software & accounting processes
- Management reporting & presentation of financial statements

Experienced Senior Associate - Business Services & Outsourcing

TrafficCast International, Inc.

Accounting duties (but not limited to) 
- Office administrative duties.
- AP/AR, Inventory tracking, Cost accounting(BOM), Purchasing, Month-end & year-end close, Fixed assets, and other transactional accounting.
- Monthly and annual financial statement preparation.
- Assist in moving through annual Audits.
- Weekly cash sheet tracking and forecasting 
-  Purchasing, Coordinating shipments, Minimize BOM costs, Material tracking, Finished goods, overseeing shipment arrivals, & Inventory/stock planning.
- Quickbooks desktop, Excel, Google Docs, and Bill.com

Senior Accountant and Procurement Specialist

Food Fight Restaurant Group

Accounting for up to 8 restaurants using Microsoft Great Plains, Sharepoint, Microsoft Programs, Swipely, Upserve, Posi, Aloha, Icontrol, Restaurant365, and other programs. 

Duties included(but not limited to):
- Monthly financial statements & close process 
- Balance sheet reconciliations 
- Gross Margin & other KPI tracking
- Weekly Cash sheet tracking & forecasting
- AR/AP
- Journal entries 
- Training staff on best practices
- Work with restaurant GM's to make better financial decisions
- Sales tax
- Compliance for both state & federal

Accountant

Seneca Foods Corporation

- Accounts Payable
- Ad Hoc reporting
- Other accounting duties
- SAP ERP system

Accounting Accounts payable

I demystify finances for 7 & 8 figure business owners | Founder @ Celerity Accounting | Top 100 Proadvisor 2024

I’m Tailor Hartman, founder and CEO of Celerity Accounting.

We’re a fractional accounting and advisory firm for 7 and 8-figure businesses using NetSuite and QuickBooks Online.

If your books are messy, your reports are unclear, or you’re scaling fast without the right financial visibility, we’re the team that fixes it.

A few milestones along the way:

- Named one of CPA Practice Advisor’s “40 Under 40 CPAs in the Profession” 
- Built Celerity from a solo operation into a trusted partner for $5–50M businesses.
- Launched a modern firm owner newsletter called "The Net Effect" for accountants

We partner with e-commerce, manufacturing, and other growth-minded companies to turn chaos into clarity.

Because accounting shouldn’t just be about compliance. It should be a system that drives better decisions, faster growth, and fewer surprises.

At Celerity, we don’t just clean up your numbers. We own the outcome. That means clear communication, controller-level oversight, and real partnership.

If your NetSuite or QBO setup isn’t doing its job, let’s fix it.

Happy to connect and share what we’ve learned!

Email: info@celerity.io
X: @tailor_hartman
https://linktr.ee/tailorh

I turn 34 today.

10 lessons I’ve learned this year:

1/ Everything is about expectations.
If you don’t set them clearly with your team or your clients, nothing runs smoothly. Every problem I’ve had this year ties back to unclear expectations.

2/ Niching was the best move I ever made.
Going all-in on NetSuite and leaning into referrals gave me a steady pipeline faster than any cold outreach ever did.

3/ Hire for puzzle-fit, not paper credentials.
Skills matter, but culture-fit matters more. When the team dynamic clicks, everything gets easier.

4/ Hire before you think you need to.
Waiting too long cost us momentum. Every month I stayed in operator mode was a month we weren’t growing.

5/ Trust is the real currency.
It takes time to build and seconds to lose. The best businesses protect it at all costs.

6/ I stopped chasing validation.
Now it's all about impact. Helping others win is way more satisfying than trying to impress anyone.

7/ Creativity needs space.
The best ideas never come from working all the time. They come on airplanes, hikes, or in the shower when you’re not forcing them.

8/ Energy has a trade-off.
Every extra hour I pour into work comes out of something else: my health, my relationships, my hobbies. Burnout doesn’t just drain you, it drains from your life.

9/ Head-down isn’t always progress.
This year I worked A LOT. It helped us grow, but it also made me realize that my role had to change to keep growing.

10/ Growth sneaks up on you.
The first time is awkward/scary. The tenth feels natural. Growth sneaks up on you. Just keep showing up

Here’s to 34: more impact, more creativity, and a little more room to breathe.

Let me know if any of these stand out to you!

Tailor Hartman

(7) Notifications | LinkedIn

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Talks about #cpa, #business, #acccounting, and #businessaccounting

Bringing clarity, speed & automation to $5–50M SMBs | Founder @ Celerity

My 6-figure accounting firm started with $50.

4 years ago, I was done with the corporate world. The structure, the meetings, the fixed hours.

It all started to drain me.

It wasn’t a bad job.
But I wanted my time back.

I remember looking at the clock and realizing I hadn’t done anything meaningful all week. Just meetings, emails, and check-ins that went nowhere.

So I set up an Upwork profile and started applying for projects.

They were all basic.

Cleanups.
QBO consulting.
Financial statement prep.

The kind of work most accountants scroll past.

And that’s exactly why I took them.

My first gig was a $50 cleanup.

I still remember hitting “send” on that proposal, wondering if I would ever get a project.

I didn’t know it then, but that small job would change everything.

Those small projects taught me how to scope clearly, communicate well, and deliver fast. A few of those clients came back for monthly work. Some referred friends.

And slowly, those small wins became the foundation for something bigger.

Fast forward, and Celerity is now a 6-figure firm with an incredible team behind it.

If you want to achieve what most people never do, you have to be willing to do what most people never will.

The cheap jobs, the late nights, the messy clients.

That’s where it starts.

I'm speaking during Intuit Connect ON this Thursday!

It's a panel discussing accounting & using the new developments at Intuit to run your firm. I'm joined by Rozlynn Yong, Jessica McCracken, and Marlie Rumsey.

We go philosophical, practical, and a little nerdy. 

Register here: https://bit.ly/4iwgeO4

We're hiring!

Looking for a Client Success & Ops person to add to our small team.

Please forward to anyone you think may be interested.

If it doesn't let you apply, please email info@celerity.io your resume. 

Thanks!

What if you ranked clients by energy instead of revenue?

Every client relationship has a cost.

• Time
• Attention
• Emotional bandwidth

But not all clients cost the same.

Some lift you up.
Some drain you quietly in the background.

Your P&L won't show this. But your calendar, your mood, and your team absolutely will.

When you look closely, energizing clients tend to communicate clearly.

They respect your time.
They trust your process.
Your team enjoys the work.

Draining clients feel different.

The calls are heavier.
The expectations are unclear.
Your team tenses up when their name pops up in Slack.

Both groups pay you.
Only one makes you want to keep going.

Energy is a real business metric.

It shows up in morale, quality of work, hiring confidence, and even the speed of delivery.

If a client drains you consistently, the numbers might still look fine, but the partnership is costing you somewhere else.

Something to think about the next time you review your client list.

No alternative text description for this image

Chicago today to see this guy! 

Jason Staats, CPA

Are you tuning in today??

Intuit Connect ON starts at 11 CST. AKA in one hour!

Find the link to sign up in the comments! 

See you soon 😌

Most business owners wait too long to hire an accountant.

In the beginning, doing it yourself feels manageable.

The books are simple. You know where every dollar goes. And it feels like you’re saving money by not hiring help.

But then things start to pick up.

A few more accounts. A few more systems. Suddenly, the numbers stop lining up as neatly as they used to.

When that happens, you lose visibility.

You stop knowing what’s current and start relying on what used to be true.

Decisions take longer.
Cash feels tighter.

And you start managing from instinct instead of data.

That’s usually the turning point.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a few moments where hiring an accountant makes the biggest difference:

1. Launching

Get your structure and systems right from the start. It’s easier to build clean books than to clean up a mess later.

2. Scaling

As revenue grows, your decisions get bigger. You need real financial data to guide them.

3. Time pressure

If accounting is stealing your weekends, it’s time to delegate. Good books give you back time to focus on what actually moves the business forward.

4. Expansion or exit

When you’re opening new locations or planning a sale, you’ll need clean, consistent financials long before the deal closes.

My advice: 

Hire an accountant before you need it.

When your books are current, everything else in the business runs smoother: payroll, forecasting, cash flow.

That’s what good accounting does.

If you’re starting to outgrow your current setup and want to know what that next step should look like, DM me. I’m happy to walk you through it.

One of my biggest regrets is waiting too long to hire a senior accountant.

For the first 3.5 years of my firm, all the training and onboarding landed on my plate. 

Processes, cleanups, questions, everything flowed my way.

It worked... until it didn’t.

I became the bottleneck.
I was still deep in client work.
And my time was going to things someone else could have done better.

Looking back, I should have brought in senior help much earlier.

Someone who could take client work off my plate and level up the team at the same time.

If I had done that sooner, I would’ve pulled myself out of the weeds faster and spent my time where it actually mattered.

Don’t wait until you are drowning to hire help.

If a hire frees you to focus on higher-leverage work, it’s usually the right move.

I used to think the only way to get great work was to do everything myself.

If I reviewed every transaction, triple-checked every report, and personally spoke to every client, nothing could go wrong.

And for a while, it worked.

The work was tight. Clients were happy.

But I was exhausted.

Every close, every deliverable, every late-night email went through me.

It wasn’t sustainable, and deep down, I knew it.

Still, the idea of handing things off made me nervous.

What if the team didn’t do it my way?
What if clients noticed?
What if something slipped?

Then one month, I had no choice.

We took on a few big new clients, and my schedule was maxed out.

So I handed off two accounts to a team member and hoped I wouldn’t regret it.

A week later, the client emailed to say how seamless the experience was.

I realized that letting go didn’t mean lowering the bar.

It meant raising the ceiling.

Since then, I’ve focused on building a team that owns their work, trusts each other, and takes pride in getting it right.

And that’s the main reason the firm keeps growing.

When you start working with a new client, everything is clear.

Scope, expectations, responsibilities.
It's all laid out.

6 months later, things feel even better.

They trust your team.
You want to help.
So you say yes to a few extra things.

A year in, they love you.

They lean on you for more.
Your team steps up.
And before you realize it, the work has doubled.

You’ve become the one who always says yes.

That’s called expectation drift.

It doesn’t happen because anyone is taking advantage.
It happens because nobody stopped to recalibrate.

Lately, we’ve noticed this creeping in with a few clients, so we’ve been working on tightening up how we handle it.

A few things we’re experimenting with:

• Regular alignment checks
• A living expectations list for every client
• Training the team to flag “small” requests that have a big downstream impact

We don’t have this perfect.

But being more intentional about it has already helped a lot.

Every “yes” adds weight.

Fail to rebalance regularly and the partnership eventually tips over.

If you haven’t realigned with a client recently, it might be worth a quick check-in.

Most $10M-$50M companies don’t realize they’ve outgrown their accounting system until it’s already slowing them down.

It starts small.

An extra spreadsheet here.
A manual consolidation there.
A few late closes that used to be on time.

Then one day, you’re trying to explain last month’s numbers, and no one’s sure which version is right.

That’s usually when they call us.

Because the system that once worked perfectly is now holding everything together with duct tape.

Here are a few signs it’s time to graduate:

1) You can’t see the full picture
Each team has its own version of the truth

2) Your CFO sounds more like IT support
Half their week is spent cleaning integrations and reconciling errors.

3) You’ve built a maze of tools
Every time you solve one problem, you uncover two new ones.

At that stage, moving to NetSuite becomes the clear next step.

One platform for every entity.
One source of truth for the entire team.
One version of the numbers leadership can trust.

When your systems can’t keep up, your decisions start falling behind.

If you feel your systems aren’t keeping up with the pace of your business, send me a DM. I’m happy to point you in the right direction.

Every time I hit a wall in my business, I solve it the same way.

Whether it’s a client issue, a growth challenge, or one of those days where nothing clicks, I don’t sit there trying to power through it.

I don’t open another tab or stare at the problem harder.

I move.

Sometimes that means working out. 

Sometimes it means cooking something so elaborate it forces me to disconnect.

My favorite dish to prepare is ramen.

Not the quick kind.
The authentic kind.

Broth made the day before. 12 hours on the stove. 

There’s something about slow, intentional cooking that resets me. It pulls me out of urgency and back into clarity.

I've realized most of the time, the problem isn’t the problem.

It’s your state of mind.

If you’re stuck, don’t grind harder.

Move.
Reset.
Come back different.

Works every time.

—

Curious, how do you reset when you feel stuck?

Good podcast with Rob Brown!

We covered a lot but we really talked personal branding & social media as an accountant. 

Check it out below ⤵️

I demystify finances for $5-50M SMBs | Founder @ Celerity Accounting | 40 under 40 CPA

New episode alert! 🎙️

Tailor Hartman left his $100K corporate job just hoping to survive. Instead, he made over $200K in his first year working about 20 hours a week.

His secret? CAS clients, niche specialization (QuickBooks Online + NetSuite), and keeping all the revenue instead of handing it to a firm.

In this episode of Leaders of the Ledger, Tailor shares his journey from BDO to building Celerity, why authenticity beats AI-generated content, and how community connections became his referral engine.

If you're thinking about starting your own firm or growing your influence in accounting, this conversation is for you.

Watch now: https://lnkd.in/gYB8uD5K

🐻 Dan Luthi and I will I'll be speaking at LIVE Intuit Product Leaders: Real Purpose of IAS & Evolved ProAdvisor! 

We will be interviewing two of my favorite Intuit people: Jaclyn Anku & Karla Uribe!

Make sure to attend it on December 17 at 12 PM Central time.

Partner and COO | Tech-Loving Accountant | Father of Four

Join us LIVE with two Intuit Product Leaders to discuss the REAL purpose behind the Intuit Accountant Suite and Evolved ProAdvisor Program updates Tailor Hartman Karla Uribe Jaclyn Anku Intuit Accountants

Adrian Langhans, Wyatt D. Kneaper and 57 other attendees

LIVE Intuit Product Leaders: Real Purpose of IAS & Evolved ProAdvisor

🗣️ "'JUST DO IT' – Shia LaBeouf" – Nelson Curtis, CPA

at Intuit Connect, we asked users what they would say to someone considering FinOptimal's apps, and we got some great answers:
💬 "a complete game-changer"
💬 "what took you so long?"
💬 "one of the best products in my tech stack for sure"
💬 "your life is going to get so much easier"

The bigger your business gets, the harder it becomes to trust your own numbers.

Most mid-market companies don’t realize how much disconnected systems slow them down until they’re already feeling it.

I see it all the time.

When new clients come to us, we often find 5-6 tools running different parts of the business. Finance in one platform. Operations in another. Inventory and sales tracked separately.

Each system tells a slightly different story.

Cash flow looks healthy in one place and tight in another. Revenue reports never match the bank balance.

And by the time leadership gets a full picture, the data is already weeks old.

This is a huge problem.

When your data is outdated, you start making decisions in the dark.

You hire too late.
You over-order inventory.

You miss early signs of cash trouble because the information lives in five different places.

That’s why my firm focuses on NetSuite integrations.

When finance, operations, and reporting live in one connected system, the noise disappears and you finally see reality as it happens.

Every time we set up NetSuite for clients, that's the first thing they notice.

They can finally see everything in one place.

Clarity speeds everything up.

And once you’ve had that kind of visibility, you never want to go back.

If you feel your systems aren’t keeping up with the pace of your business, send me a DM. I’m happy to point you in the right direction.

If you could rebuild one part of your firm from scratch, what would you change?

Most firms (mine included) are built one decision at a time.

A process here, a policy there, a tool that made sense 3 years ago but doesn’t fit as well today.

Before you know it, you’ve layered so many patches and systems that the whole thing starts to feel heavier than it should.

When I step back, I realize there are parts of my firm I’d design completely differently if I were starting today.

Maybe a simpler tech stack.
More focused roles.
Clearer communication rhythms.

The hard part is most of us don’t pause long enough to ask:

“Does this still make sense?”

That question alone has made us take a fresh look at how we do things.

Sometimes we don’t change a thing.

Other times, it leads to major improvements.

It’s uncomfortable at first.

But it’s how you keep the firm modern instead of mechanical.

So ask yourself... if you could rebuild one part of your firm today, what would you change?

Some of the best people in the accounting space will be speaking next week for Growing your Firm Summit.

Did you sign up yet?

Link to join here --> https://bit.ly/4okc6lP

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