--- title: About Casey Schier, CPA | Site Growth Partners description: Casey Schier, CPA — built the finance function at a clinical research site network from nothing. Now building the same operating system for independent sites. --- [SITE GROWTHPARTNERS](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/?hsLang=en) [Home](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/?hsLang=en) [Score your site](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/scorecard?hsLang=en) # I’ve built this before, from the inside CASEY SCHIER, CPA · FOUNDER, SITE GROWTH PARTNERS What I actually did ## The finance function didn’t exist. I built it. I joined a clinical research site network early enough that there was nothing to inherit — no general ledger, no system, no reporting, no finance department. I built all of it: the chart of accounts, the ERP selection and implementation, study-level and site-level costing up and down the P&L, the founding financial model, the margin analysis process, the study contract value methodology, and the daily operations dashboard. Then I hired the team that ran it. Eighteen months in, the business was profitable on a $12 million run rate. Before that I built the financial models behind a portfolio of de novo surgery centers for a private-equity-backed platform, across orthopedics, spine, and cardiology, for practices ranging from a handful of physicians to several dozen. That is where reimbursement, coding, and capacity stopped being theory — and it has mattered more in clinical research than anyone expected. Before that, audit at KPMG. Today I lead research finance at a national subspecialty physician services organization, on a clinical research operation that has scaled into nine figures. At that size a point of margin is real money, and the reporting has to be right the first time. Casey Schier, CPA Founder, Site Growth Partners Clinical research Built the finance function at a site network from an empty ledger to a profitable $12M run rate Healthcare services The financial models behind a portfolio of de novo surgery centers for a private-equity-backed platform Public accounting Audit, KPMG Today Leads research finance at a national subspecialty physician services organization with a nine-figure research operation Public accounting ### Audit, KPMG Where the standard came from: numbers built to survive a lender, a buyer, or a sponsor’s finance team — not just to look right in a deck. Healthcare services ### Private-equity-backed surgical platform The financial models behind a portfolio of de novo surgery centers, where reimbursement, coding, and capacity stopped being theory and started driving margin. Clinical research ### Site network finance, built from nothing The ledger, the ERP, study-level costing, and the reporting the business ran on — profitable on a $12M run rate inside eighteen months, with the team in place to keep it there. Now ### Clinical research site financial advisor Site Growth Partners — the same operating system, built for independent site owners who don’t have a finance function of their own. What the P&L won’t tell you ## The cash conversion cycle runs backwards Research sites pay for the work long before anyone pays them for it. Payroll runs every two weeks. Investigator fees, referral and recruitment spend, and start-up cost all go out on their own clock. Sponsors and CROs settle at ninety days, sometimes a hundred and twenty, and it does not much matter what the CTA says about thirty-day terms or interest on late payment. Layer on the regulatory, recruitment, and start-up capacity that has to be standing before the awards arrive, and every new study consumes cash before it returns any. Grow faster and the gap gets wider, not narrower. That is not a growth problem and it is not a profitability problem. It is a cash conversion cycle running backwards, and a monthly P&L can show you a profitable business the entire way down. I have watched that math from the inside, on the way up and on the way down. Knowing which numbers were telling the truth the whole time is a different thing from having only ever seen something work. Why this firm exists ## The best clinical operator in the market, flying blind on the numbers Independent sites are the operational backbone of clinical research, and most of them can’t see the numbers that decide whether they’re worth anything. Not because the owners aren’t sharp — they’re usually the best clinical operators in their market — but because nobody ever built them a finance function, and the industry consolidated around organizations that did. A site with clean study-level margin, a real backlog rollforward, and a defensible forecast is worth materially more than the identical site without them. Same studies, same patients, same staff. The difference is whether anyone can see it. That gap is fixable in months, not years. That’s the whole business. ## How I work Three commitments, and they’re the ones that usually get hedged. 01 ### Fixed fees and a written scope You know what it costs before we start, and we both know what’s in it. Findings come with dollar amounts attached, because “improve visibility” isn’t a finding. 02 ### I’ll tell you when it isn’t worth it If you’re under $2 million in research revenue or running a handful of studies, a diagnostic probably won’t pay for itself. I’d rather hear from you in two years than take a fee that makes no sense. 03 ### No transaction fees When it’s time to sell, I work with your banker on the preparation and stay out of the deal economics. When I tell you the business isn’t ready, there’s nothing in it for me. ## Where to start The scorecard takes four minutes and gives you a number. If the number bothers you, we should talk. [Score your site](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/scorecard?hsLang=en) [Or book a 20-minute conversation →](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/meetings/casey-schier?hsLang=en) [Home](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/?hsLang=en)[Scorecard](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/scorecard?hsLang=en)[Book a call](https://www.sitegrowthpartners.com/meetings/casey-schier?hsLang=en) © 2026 Site Growth Partners, LLC · Texas