Specialized Accounting is a 15-person firm serving hotels and restaurants across the United States. Clients rely on the firm for deep hospitality insights, trusting it to help manage the financial “baby” they’ve built. To deliver that level of care across 50+ clients, the team at Specialized Accounting needed banking workflows that were consistent, simple, and easy to support. Relay became the system that made that possible.
"Relay made it easy for my team to take work off my plate and manage our clients’ banking transactions.”
— Tyler Otto, President, Specialized Accounting
Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply.
Firm Outcomes
$50,000 in additional revenue capacity
2 to 3 hours saved per week through standardized workflows
$1,000 per month in software and banking costs eliminated
Before Relay: Banking bottlenecks, manual workflows, and operational drag
Specialized Accounting’s hospitality niche helped the firm grow quickly—but behind the scenes, the team was juggling dozens of different client setups, tools, and banking workflows. Every new hotel or restaurant required the firm to rebuild processes from scratch.
This created friction across the board:
Constant troubleshooting across different banking tools
Clients using different bill pay systems
Time-consuming account setups
No consistent way to implement Profit First
Limited visibility into what clients actually had available to spend
For hospitality owners, many of whom were designing their first hotel or stepping into entrepreneurship after corporate careers, these inconsistent workflows made it even harder to understand their cash position.
And for Tyler’s team, it meant less time advising clients and more time “fighting with varying integrations and tools.”
“A lot of these business owners put more time and attention into their business than their actual children. This is their baby. And they want to know you’re going to take care of it and trust it,” Tyler says.
The Solution: Standardized banking and Profit First workflows built on Relay
Relay gave Specialized Accounting exactly what the firm’s business model needed: one consistent place to open accounts, structure cash, and support Profit First workflows without the delays, tools, and manual effort that slowed down the team.
Faster account setup that eliminates onboarding delays
Traditional banking meant sitting in a branch office for an hour just to open a single account. Relay made that friction disappear. Specialized Accounting’s new clients can now be instantly set up with the exact online banking structure the firm relies on.
This lets the team create the same foundation for every hospitality engagement instead of rebuilding workflows from scratch.
Profit First made simple, visual, and enforceable
Clients often struggle to see what’s truly available to spend. Relay’s multi-account1 system solves that by giving each dollar a home: taxes, income, OpEx, or reserves.
Tyler describes the system as giving clients “labeled envelopes, no touching.”That clarity helps clients understand:
What’s spendable
What must be held back
What the month actually looks like
It’s a simple structure, but it gives clients confidence in their numbers and takes pressure off the firm.
One workflow that frees up the team to focus on advisory
By moving clients onto Relay, the team at Specialized Accounting now spends less time fighting with tools and more time answering questions that matter.
Instead of troubleshooting different banking systems, they’re focused on:
Spotting opportunities
Clarifying cash concerns
Supporting clients through fast-changing hospitality environments
The firm leverages Relay to turn its hospitality expertise into a repeatable system, not just a set of manual processes held together by team effort.
1Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply.
The Impact: Scalable accounting operations, cleaner data, and stronger client outcomes
More revenue without adding headcount
With fewer systems to manage and faster onboarding, Specialized Accounting increased its capacity for more clients, enabling an estimated $50,000 in additional revenue.
Time back every week
The team saves two to three hours per week with Relay due to:
Faster bill paying
No bank-feed drama
Fewer errors and cleaner data
A repeatable playbook for every client
Lower operational costs
Between eliminating redundant tools and ditching traditional banking fees, Specialized Accounting saves roughly $1,000 a month.
Better conversations, fewer surprises
With Relay, clients have a clearer understanding of what’s available to spend, what needs to be set aside, and how money moves through their business. This has reduced confusion, strengthened advisory conversations, and made cash flow discussions far calmer and more productive.
Relay: The system that gives accounting firms clarity, consistency, and the capacity to grow
For Specialized Accounting, Relay provides consistency, clean data, and scalable workflows to every hospitality client they serve. With standardized setups, automated allocations, and a system the whole team can rely on, the firm can deliver high-level advisory services without getting bogged down in operational noise.
1Relay is a financial technology company and is not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank. Certain conditions must be satisfied for pass-through deposit insurance coverage to apply.
