REECE GRINDLE

Sectors/Support

Technology & SaaS. AI & Data. Venture-Backed Start-Ups.

Numbers, Tools and Everything In Between

No two weeks look quite the same, which is part of what I enjoy about the role. I’m usually working across several clients at once, getting under the skin of their numbers, solving problems as they come up, and making sure they’ve got a clear, accurate picture of their finances to make decisions from. Alongside the client work, I also spend time building tools that make the finance function itself smarter, like a finance assistant that lets clients get answers about their numbers instantly, instead of waiting on a report.

Building the Tools Behind the Advice

I combine traditional accounting and tax expertise with a strong technical and automation skillset. I build the tools and models that sit behind the advice, not just the advice itself, which means I can move faster and more accurately on things like financial modelling, reconciliations and reporting than a purely manual approach allows.

I always enjoyed maths at school and working with numbers, which led me to want to become an accountant. I then fell into a more hands-on financial operations role, which is how I ended up in FinOps.

The most satisfying aspect of working with clients for me is the variety it brings; I get exposed to the systems, requirements and needs of several companies rather than focusing on just one. What stands out most about being part of both my team and the wider AAB organisation is being able to access a vast pool of knowledge across the group.

Understanding the Goal, Not Just the Ask

The one thing I do to build a strong relationship with a new client is get to know them and understand their goals. The relationships that have worked best are the ones where I’ve taken the time early on to properly understand what a client is trying to achieve, not just what they’re asking for in the moment. That’s let me flag things before they become problems, rather than just reacting to requests. The main challenge is always earning enough trust that a client will bring you in on the bigger picture, not just the compliance tasks.

Automation With Guardrails

A recent example that stands out involved a client who wanted their bookkeeping to move from manual categorisation to something more automated, but with proper controls in place. I worked through a phased approach, starting with lower-risk read access before building up to write permissions, with every action requiring explicit confirmation, so they got the efficiency gain without giving up control over their own accounting data.

One Person, the Whole Picture

The biggest challenge in my specialist area is that finance data lives in too many disconnected systems, including accounting software, expense management, spreadsheets and bank feeds, so getting a single accurate picture takes real manual reconciliation. My approach has been to build integrations that pull from all of them into one place, so the numbers are trustworthy without someone having to stitch it together by hand every time. A common misconception about the profession is that accounting is just data entry or compliance, when a lot of the value is in building the systems and judgement calls around it.

My top strengths are being able to move comfortably across a wide range of work, including tax, payroll, equity administration, financial modelling and the technical and automation side, rather than being narrowly specialised. That breadth means clients get one person who can see the whole picture, instead of being passed between specialists for every different need. Looking ahead, I’m most eager to develop AI-powered finance tooling, particularly agentic assistants that can safely take actions, not just answer questions, inside financial systems, with the right guardrails and approval steps built in.