Brandon Fields
What is the most interesting thing about working here, and about the work you do?
A couple of things stand out to me as making TORA an interesting place to work. One is the truly global nature of our company, both in terms of the product and the internal teams. I typically have some interaction with a client or fellow employee from Asia and the EU each day, and after having worked with counterparts in other offices, I’d wager that the same is true for them.
While this may lead to some calls at odd hours to account for time zone differences, it’s invigorating for me to know that our product has such a wide reach, and to be able to work with and learn from people from a variety of places.
The other thing that keeps TORA interesting is the new challenges that perpetually arise. We work in a competitive industry filled with smart, driven people, which begets constant innovation and adaptation, so leadership (and employees) are always on the lookout for new opportunities.
Although primarily a SaaS company, TORA has a broker-dealer component as well, and also created a side venture in the cryptocurrency space. My job is to figure out how to account for our varied business activities and then summarize them into distinct, actionable reports for the company, so the ever-evolving nature of the company forces my team to stay agile and continue to improve our own knowledge and skills.
How has your job changed since you started working here?
When I started as a senior accountant, I was responsible for closing the books of our software licensing entity as well as the consolidation of the financial statements of our various entities and helping with the audit of the company as a whole. Since then, we’ve added 5 more entities, along with new revenue streams, and I’ve been exposed to a variety of things, from entity incorporation, to hedge fund and broker-dealer accounting and regulatory compliance.
As the global accounting manager, I play a role in the accounting for all 15 of our entities (though much of it is just to provide support to the rest of the very capable members of the finance team), and work closely with the rest of the team to coordinate and pass external audits, but my job is increasingly focused on developing and setting policies and working with other teams to foster cohesiveness and achieve operational goals. Once we entered the cryptocurrency space via Caspian, I researched and determined accounting policies for all of our “virtual currency” transactions including the ICO, worked with operations to track all cryptocurrency transactions we entered into, and coordinated with some of the dev team to spec out a billing and invoicing solution for our cryptocurrency software.
Later, I worked with those teams again along with the sales and client services teams to resolve various Caspian billing friction points and implement a standardized process for onboarding and billing, including the creation of FAQ documentation for our clients. Working on these cross-functional projects has been a rewarding experience, as it has helped deepen my understanding of each team’s expertise and the company as a whole (while also making it abundantly clear that there is still a lot for me to learn)”.