Life at Near: Cess’ Role in Financial Management and Agency Growth

Behind every growing creative agency is a system that keeps the numbers healthy, the processes clear, and the decisions grounded in reality. At Near Creative, Finance Manager Cess Santos helps build the financial systems that support the agency’s growth.

As Finance Manager, Cess oversees the company’s financial health: from assets, revenues, and expenses to compliance and reporting. Her work ensures that while campaigns move fast and ideas move freely, the business remains sustainable and strategically sound.

Cess first joined Near in February 2023 as a consultant before officially becoming part of the team full-time in June 2025. Since then, she has played a key role in strengthening the agency’s financial systems, modernizing processes, and helping leadership make smarter business decisions through data.

This is her Life at Near.

From Traditional Finance to Modern Financial Systems

Before joining Near, Cess came from a more traditional finance environment where many processes were still manual. Tools like Asana for project management, Canva for design collaboration, and Toggl for time tracking were unfamiliar territory at first.

In fact, she laughs about one small detail: she genuinely struggles to work without a mouse.

But what she lacked in digital familiarity, she more than made up for in her love for numbers.

Excel remains her comfort zone. Formulas, pivot tables, reconciliations—those are the tools she knows best. And through her time at Near, she’s learned how to blend that traditional finance discipline with modern tools and automation. The result? A more tech-enabled approach to financial management that supports a fast-growing creative agency.

As the sole member of the finance team, Cess plays a unique role in helping the organization understand its numbers. While she enjoys working with financial reports and data, what she finds most fulfilling is teaching others how those numbers translate into business insights.

She enjoys explaining financial concepts—whether it’s tax implications, budgeting logic, or cost structures until the team fully understands them. Because for Cess:

Finance is about turning targets into financial clarity that helps leadership make better decisions.

Building Stronger Financial Foundations

One of Cess’ biggest early challenges at Near was organizing financial documentation and strengthening compliance systems. 

When she first started, documents were scattered across multiple places. Some suppliers did not issue proper BIR receipts, which created compliance risks. Pricing structures also didn’t always factor in tax implications, which sometimes led to confusion between gross and net amounts. In some cases, the company even ended up absorbing taxes that weren’t originally budgeted. For a finance professional, this makes accurate reporting difficult. Reliable financial reports depend on clean, consistent data.

But instead of resisting change, the founders and team were open to improving the system. Over time, processes became clearer. 

Today:

• Taxes are now considered during pricing discussions

• The team understands the difference between gross vs. net impact

• Receipt compliance has improved to around 90% completion

These improvements have made the agency’s financial reporting significantly more reliable.

Financial discipline also affects how clients experience the agency. With clearer financial systems in place, the team can price projects more accurately and avoid unexpected costs during project actualization.

That means:

• No surprise losses due to missed tax considerations

• More strategic pricing structures

• Greater confidence when discussing financial details with KOLs and partners

For clients, this translates into smoother collaborations and more predictable project outcomes.

Finance Principles That Guide Her Work

Cess approaches finance with a few guiding principles:

• Communicate early and clearly. Finance problems should be solved before they become company losses.

• Revenue is only the starting point. Monitoring costs and operational expenses is just as critical.

• Finance connects with every department. Coordination with leads, accounts, and operations is essential.

• Finance can be kind, but it must also be disciplined. Processes exist for a reason.

• Data first, emotions later. The best decisions are grounded in numbers.

Working at Near has also reshaped how Cess views finance itself. She learned that digital tools and subscriptions, often seen purely as operational expenses, can actually be investments in productivity and sustainability.

Processes can be automated. Systems can be improved. And a company can maintain both strong financial discipline and a people-centered culture at the same time. It also reinforced an important mindset shift: finance is a driver of business sustainability and not just a support function.

A Culture That Makes Work Lighter

For Cess, what makes Near especially meaningful is the team itself. She describes the people as smart, respectful, and genuinely kind. Boundaries are honored, time is respected, and everyone supports one another’s work. That kind of culture, she says, makes even the busiest days feel lighter.

When asked what advice she’d give someone looking for a job, Cess keeps it simple:

Don’t look for an easy job, because no job is easy. Instead, look for kind people.

Work becomes much more manageable when you’re surrounded by good humans who respect your time, your work, and your growth.

Cess describes her journey at Near in one phrase: modernizing finance with heart.

Where she once relied heavily on paper documents and manual approvals, many of the company’s financial processes are now digital, while still maintaining strong compliance and discipline.

For her, “a step nearer” means steady progress.

Closer to better systems.
Closer to clearer processes.
Closer to stronger margins and a healthier company.

Closer to building a financial foundation that supports Near Creative’s long-term growth.

Not through perfection overnight, but through continuous improvement, together. Looking for a workplace where strong systems & strong people grow together? Take the next step with Near: https://nearcreative.co/careers