JUNE 2026
Client Perspectives
Megan Fisher, GM for GreenTree Market, client since May 2024
“CFS has ultimately made my work as a general manager easier by taking a few hats off my head. My CFS Accounts Payable (AP) contact keeps me on track week-to-week and at month-end by requesting missing documents before I even know they’re missing, while my CFS Accountant understands my co-op’s intricacies and suggests ways to improve and automate operations.
Emerging co-op centered financial services brought to the table by CFS have saved me time and bookkeeping headaches over the past two years, services that I find to be invaluable as a general manager.”
CFS Team Member Spotlight
Meet Yakira Spica-Rivera, Accounts Payable Supervisor
I’ve been working in Accounts Payable for 20+ years. I came from the restaurant industry, specifically Applebee’s. I started as the receptionist for Applebee’s Corporate office and got promoted into the Accounts Payable Department after a year. Our AP department provided excellent service to 30 locations.
Now working in a new industry, Food Cooperatives, I can say that “Accounts payable is Accounts Payable.” It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in the goals are the same: maintain good vendor relationships and process payments on time, all while providing high-quality bookkeeping. At CFS, our AP department is set up to serve many food co-op clients much the way we served multiple locations in my earlier job.
1. What is your role at CFS, and how does your work help our clients be successful? Please include an example if possible.
As the Accounts Payable Supervisor at CFS, my role is to oversee the full accounts payable process while ensuring vendor invoices are accurately reviewed, approved, and paid on time for our clients. I work with our AP team to ensure the processes we have in place benefit our client’s workflow while still in compliance with our company policies. We want to work smarter, not harder!
2. How do our standardized systems help you work effectively and support clients?
Our standardized systems help me work effectively by providing consistent processes, clear workflows, and established controls for managing invoices, approvals, and payments. Having standardized procedures reduces errors, improves efficiency, and ensures compliance across all client accounts. For clients, this means they receive reliable, accurate, and timely financial support. Because everyone follows the same proven processes, we can maintain high service quality, quickly identify and resolve issues, and provide accurate financial information that helps clients make informed business decisions.
3. What do you enjoy most about your work at CFS?
What I love most about being part of the CFS team is everyone’s dedication to doing the best we can. We have a great team, and we all work well together. Everyone is willing to jump in and help one another while providing the best services to our clients. Now, that’s teamwork!
CFS AP KPIs (Accounts Payable Key Performance Indicators)
At CFS we measure our performance using KPIs, so we can focus on ongoing improvement. These KPIs help us review CFS systems from an invoice entering the system at the store, all the way through the coding and approval process to payment.
Here are the stats for the five CFS clients we’ve had on board the entire January – April period (does not include two onboarding now):
- Total invoices processed: 15,167; 14,825 paid (97.7%)
- On-time rate: 71.1%
- Avg Receipt time (bill date to posting): 6.4 days
- Avg Cycle time (posting to payment): 11.6 days
- Avg Total time (bill date to payment): 13.8 days
We also measure total dollar amount paid and unpaid.
PILOT PROGRAM
CFS for Small Co-ops
Your complete finance department — without the overhead
Are you the GM of a small co-op looking for a better way to manage your finances? Have you wished for qualified and experienced staff and top-level operational reports to help you make good decisions?
- Designed for small co-op scale and structure
- Review of operational systems for better information flow
- A collaborative pilot—your feedback shapes the final model
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Outsourced finance department—Accounts Payable, Full Accounting, Fractional CFO
CFS and National Co-op Bank (NCB)
CFS and National Co-op Bank (NCB) have developed a win-win-win-win relationship for your co-op, CFS, National Cooperative Bank (NCB), and the larger co-op economy.
For CFS, building efficient banking systems and strong financial partnerships is essential to serving many National Co+op Grocers (NCG) members. We believe NCB is a strong fit for your co-op and many NCG members, and so we are committed to fully exploring the opportunity for our CFS clients to bank with NCB, another example of Principle Six – Cooperation Among Co-ops.
We have tested NCB’s 24/7 Treasury System using Columinate’s accounts, and the results show that their platform delivers the business services needed for the most efficient banking-to-accounting connections.
CFS exists to meet the financial management needs of food co-ops with excellent, efficient, and affordable service.
Contact us today to schedule a one-on-one walkthrough.
