OCTOBER 2026

cfs special sauce seriesCFS Special Sauce Series Workshop

Welcome to the CFS Special Sauce Series — a set of workshops designed to help you get a deeper handle on your financials and use that data to make sharper decisions for your business.
At CFS, we’re not just about delivering great financial information — we want to help you actually use it to improve your business and operations. Each session pairs a short presentation with open discussion, because the real value happens when we start talking. We welcome all perspectives and scenarios — there’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. Between today’s tough retail environment and ongoing staffing challenges, we know there are as many solutions as there are co-ops facing them.
Every session kicks off with introductions so you know who’s in the room, plus a quick overview of CFS services. 

CFS Special Sauce Workshop #2

Margin: Peeking Behind the Numbers

Featuring special guest LeAnna Nieratko, General Manager & CEO, Erie Food Co-op

LeAnnaErieCo-opPA

“Working with CFS has given us the invaluable resource of experienced grocery enthusiasts who can help work through the metrics and data to find actionable solutions among aisles of competing priorities. And really, who else on earth would delight in chatting about which margin opportunity will have the biggest dollar payoff based on percent of sales?”

— LeAnna Nieratko, CEO/GM, Erie Food Co-op

Margin is one of the most important numbers in retail grocery. Understanding what drives it often decides whether a store thrives or just survives.

In this workshop, we’ll look closely at the margin performance of a co-op with $5 million in annual sales and peel back the layers behind this key performance indicator. We’ll use the P&L, along with relevant details from the balance sheet and statement of cash flows. Together we’ll explore what’s working, where there’s room to improve, and what makes up margin percentage.

We’re glad to be joined by LeAnna Nieratko, General Manager of Erie Food Co-op, who will share her perspective from the GM’s position. We’ll include an open discussion of practical, incremental steps that add up to stronger results, and close with a brief overview of CFS services.
Register for this FREE workshop Friday, October 30th at 12:00 pm ET: 

Register here

 

CFS KPIs (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.

Accounts Payable Summary: August on-time payment was 87.1% (88.7% in July), or 91.6% adjusted for external timing factors. Late payments were mostly invoices held for approval or funds (72.8%), with the rest arriving after their due date (27.2%). We’re monitoring both for opportunities to improve.

Month-End Close Summary: July and August were the portfolio’s strongest closes of the year, with every active client closing on time and no Memo/Extended closes in either month. We’re monitoring close timing month over month and working with clients on earlier submission of key data to steadily improve against our internal 20th-of-month target.

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?

CFS is forming a cohort of small co-ops to help us shape our model so that it fits your scale. In exchange for your input and participation, you’ll get great data—not just accounting. We’ll also look at your internal operating systems that run alongside our accounting systems, so your information flows efficiently.

Here are key elements of this pilot project:

  • 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
  • Outsourced finance department—Accounts Payable, Full Accounting, Fractional CFO

Request a Presentation

Or plan to drop into our FREE CFS Open House event:

Friday, September 18th, 12:00 ET.

CFS and National Co-op Bank (NCB)

ncb.coopCFS 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. 

 

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