DSW Real Estate: Case Study
When a key accounting leader walks out the door, most companies panic. They post a job listing, cross their fingers, and hope the rest of the team can hold things together in the meantime. For DSW, a real estate company facing exactly that situation, the gap between needing someone and finding the right person could have been costly in more ways than one.
Instead, they called Stacc.
The Situation
DSW came to Stacc at a complicated moment. They were in the middle of searching for a new controller, a process that rarely moves quickly, especially when you are trying to find the right fit and not just a warm body. At the same time, they were paying their existing bookkeeping firm $18,000 per month for accounting support. And on top of all of that, they needed to migrate to a new ERP system.
Three major challenges, all at once. It is the kind of moment that can quietly derail a business if the right support is not in place.
What Stacc Did
Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all solution, Stacc built a team around what DSW actually needed.
First, Stacc placed two outsourced accountants to handle the day-to-day accounting work, keeping the books clean, reporting on schedule, and making sure nothing fell through the cracks during the transition.
Second, Stacc provided an interim fractional controller to step into the leadership gap. This was not a placeholder. It was an experienced professional who could make real decisions, oversee the accounting function, and keep DSW’s financial operations running with confidence while the permanent search continued.
Third, Stacc supported DSW through their ERP migration. System transitions are notoriously disruptive. Having knowledgeable accounting professionals involved from the start meant the migration happened without derailing the rest of the business.
The Results
The numbers speak for themselves.
DSW had been paying $18,000 per month to their previous bookkeeping firm. With Stacc, that dropped to $8,000 per month, a savings of $10,000 every single month and a 56% reduction in accounting costs.
But cost savings were only part of the story. DSW eventually found and hired a full-time internal controller, the right person and not just the first available one. The Stacc team helped make that transition smooth too, ensuring continuity and a clean handoff.
Why They’re Still a Customer
Here is what makes this case study worth paying attention to: DSW did not stop working with Stacc once they hired their controller.
Today, DSW has two full-time internal employees and a permanent controller in place. By most measures, the crisis is long over. And yet, Stacc remains part of their accounting infrastructure, because the relationship evolved to match what DSW needs now, not what they needed two years ago.
That is the difference between a vendor and a partner.
What This Means for Your Business
If your accounting costs feel out of proportion to the value you are getting, that is worth examining. If you are in the middle of a leadership transition, staring down a system migration, or simply paying too much for support that is not quite right, you do not have to figure it out alone.
Stacc can step in at any stage. Fractional. Interim. Long-term. We scale with you.
Ready to see what the right accounting support actually costs? Let’s talk.
