CASE STUDY: Fahrenheit Addresses Financial Staffing Needs for Dodson Property Management

Dodson Property Management was founded in 2007 by President Duke Dodson. “In the beginning, we managed strictly single-family residential rental properties, but we have since grown to multi-family and commercial,” currently managing over 2,500 units and operate in the Greater Richmond area, Fredericksburg, Williamsburg, and Newport News.

“Before being introduced to Fahrenheit and learning about the services offered, I didn’t know fractional controllers even existed.  Fahrenheit introduced me to this concept and made me aware that there was a different way to approach this solution. It was a time when we couldn’t afford a full-time controller, but we needed one. I got to know all of the people on the team at Fahrenheit, liked them very much and had a lot of trust from the start of the relationship,” said Duke.

Fahrenheit Finance Engagement

Fahrenheit was first engaged for an 8-week period to assess the accounting, finance, and HR departments. After being involved with the business during the first few weeks and making some initial discoveries about their processes and procedures, we discovered there was a need for a controller-level leader.

“At the time, we had a two-person team that had been there less than three years. Since the time we opened our doors, we had doubled in size and our needs expanded rapidly,” explained Duke. “What Fahrenheit helped us to do was establish our accounting systems and processes. They helped us identify the key metrics we needed to gauge profitability for each of our divisions; we really hadn’t done that before.  And we were able to address some tax issues and improve on other processes and procedures across the board.”

“Because of our rapid expansion and addition of multi-family management, our clients were getting more sophisticated and, therefore, our reporting had to increase quickly and needed to become more sophisticated as well. Fahrenheit helped us with that,” said Duke.
Dodson subsequently hired a full-time controller and Fahrenheit was there while they trained that person in the role and completed the transition.

“I recommend Fahrenheit all of the time and they would be my first call if we have a similar need again. I believe in efficiency. Businesses don’t grow in stair steps, they grow in a line. At the time when you first need a controller [or similar position], you can’t afford them. The fractional role allows you to have someone in that role performing that function at a price you can afford until your business reaches a level that you can afford someone on a full-time basis. It just really makes a lot of sense to me,” Duke stated.