My name is Mike Payne, and I'd like to introduce you to Guide Accounting.

Most people in my profession have spent their careers advising businesses. Along with a team of dedicated professionals, I helped build one, run it, and sell it.

I started my career in public accounting at Coopers & Lybrand, one of the original Big 8 firms — and I've been a CPA since 1993 (though I’m no longer in public practice). From there, I moved through finance and CFO roles at some of Birmingham's oldest companies: Vice President of Accounting and Administration at Brownell Travel, one of America's oldest travel agencies; Assistant Vice President at AmSouth Bank (now Regions), working on financial statement forecasts; and CFO at Red Diamond Coffee and Tea.

In 2000, I joined a multi-site consumer lending business operating across Alabama and spent the next 23 years there. Several days a month my duties included those of a CEO, most days I worked as its CFO, and some days I would serve as the janitor. That’s my way of saying I did whatever the business needed. I was responsible for the accounting and finance function, for risk management and compliance in a heavily regulated industry, and for guiding the company through eight competitor acquisitions and more than 20 financial statement audits — every one of them clean and on time. In 2023, we sold the company at the highest acquisition multiple our buyer had ever paid.

That sale left me at a crossroads. I was too young to retire and had no interest in a cubicle at a large company, so I started Guide Accounting instead. This is my way of putting 30+ years of financial leadership to work for businesses and nonprofits that need the judgment of someone who has actually run a company, not just accounted for one.

Today I work with a select group of clients. These businesses may have outgrown their bookkeeper, or they may be a nonprofit that needs rigorous financial oversight, or they may be a company navigating a transaction or crisis.

I'm also on the board of Tech Birmingham and the University of Montevallo's Stephens College of Business Advisory Board, which keeps me connected to the region's business and startup community.

If you need someone who's already been where you are, let's talk.

Every business needs a guide. Let Guide Accounting be yours.

— Mike Payne, President