Welding & Gas CFO Club Recap April 2025

We had another great turnout – 15 attendees for the 16th CFO Club. Thank you to all that attended! A special thank you to Chris for being vulnerable and willing to share details from their recent event. We all appreciate you, Chris!

Note Summary

Nitrogen Slow Pay

• Nitrogen customer was slow paying and not paying. Threatened to cut off supply and the customer called saying “you have to deliver, our facility could explode if you don’t”
• Tricky scenario – consult your legal counsel. Read your contract or PO that you have with that customer
• Consider (to the extent allowable by law) putting a clause in your PO/customer contract for shutting off deliveries for non-payment and if this occurs all liabilities reverting back to your customer

Payroll (believe it or not, worse than insurance – Tony & Will high five!)

• Certain platforms with all the bells and whistles don’t always have the core business licked
• Paycom and Paylocity are offering some of the HR and other benefits rolled in – ADP was going to charge more for those
• Paycom had some customer service issues – transferred consultants on multiple occasions and still our needs were not being met
• A nod for Paychex – converted to them with multiple companies I’ve been at
• Pressure whoever you go with to price lock you for 5 years. You might get some kickback but say you’ll go somewhere else and usually they’ll call you back shortly and lock you in

Fire Protection & Business Continuity

• Losses in property, specialty equipment, sales revenue/profit and an inordinate amount of the management team and employee’s time
• Business continuity coverage for insurance is critical – forensic accountants working to keep the business whole
• Take your insurance coverage seriously and make sure you understand it and that the limits/coverages are adequate for your business
  • Different buckets for different things
• Fire alarm, heat sensor and sprinkler testing must be completed at least annually by an expert systems contractor per NFPA guidelines
• Notify the fire department, dispatch center and your insurance broker if fire protection systems are impaired in any way. Additionally, consider fire watch when fire protection systems are in an impaired state
• Do you have a business continuity plan?
• Alarm and sprinkler contractor contracts regularly push all the liability onto the building occupant/owner – leaving no recourse due to their negligence

Future topics of interest:

• HR, PTO, policies and procedures
• Customer signatures and sign off on risk/safety
• Hosted phone services – who is everyone using and why?
• Company credit cards for employee expenses
• Tariffs – evolution of what everyone is seeing and how you’re handling it

Keep sending additional topics our way. Even if it was something that has already been covered but you want to hash out again.

Upcoming Dates

• GAWDA SMC 5/4 – 5/6
• CFO Club 6/18 – 11 EST/8 PT
• CFO Club 8/20 – 11 EST/8 PT