How Trustward Helped VAVRS extinguish a financial fire and build a long-term accounting solution.
The Challenge: Finance Department Staffing
Founded in 1935 as the Virginia Association of Rescue Squads, the Virginia Association Volunteer Rescue Squads (VAVRS) has a long and storied history of expanding emergency services across the state. Today, they represent over 300 agencies and 20,000 members, providing critical training and advocacy for EMS agencies. However, in recent years, VAVRS struggled to consistently staff its finance department, leading to accounting inaccuracies and financial uncertainties.
With their annual meeting approaching, the Executive Board recognized the urgent need for both immediate financial support and a long-term accounting solution. That’s when they turned to Trustward.
The Solution: Trustward Dove in and Got the Job Done
Trustward’s team quickly mobilized, bringing in multiple accountants and advisors to:
- Reconcile accounts for the previous year
- Resolve a complex credit card payment processing issue
- Prepare accurate financial statements for the annual meeting
Once the immediate issues were resolved, Trustward assigned a dedicated accountant to VAVRS, ensuring their financials remain timely, accurate, and audit-ready. Over time, the Trustward team continued to drive improvements, including:
- Streamlining VAVRS’s treasury management (bank accounts and investments)
- Modernizing their payroll and bill pay systems by moving everything into the cloud
The Results: No More Accounting Emergencies, VAVRS Can Focus on Their Mission Impact
Because there were no more accounting emergencies, the VAVRS team can focus on its core activities of training and preparing first responders across Virginia, literally doing life-saving work. As VAVRS Executive Director Bubby Bish puts it:
Working with the team at Trustward has been a truly rewarding experience. They are incredibly knowledgeable and quickly resolved issues, always explaining them in simple, easy-to-understand terms. In the past, I’ve worked with other accountants, but none have made the process feel as seamless and comfortable as working with the Trustward team.
Do you need help reliably staffing your finance team?
Let’s talk about how Trustward can help!