At a glance
- Client: City of Bowie, TX (population ~5,500)
- Engagement: Outsourced/Interim Finance Director, ongoing since May 2026
- Budget managed: $24 million annually
- Key outcomes: Stabilized finance department, streamlined month-end close, audit-ready reporting, cost savings that funded a new hire
The Challenge
Bowie needed an experienced finance director, but finding one wasn’t simple. The city sits about an hour outside the DFW metroplex, and with a tight municipal budget, the candidates who could do the job well were priced out of reach, while the ones who fit the budget didn’t have the governmental accounting experience the role demanded. Rural Texas cities run into this constantly: qualified finance leadership is hard to attract and even harder to afford.
Why Advisent
Advisent stepped in with Austin Henderson, a CPA with 10 years of audit and consulting experience, including work with more than 70 Texas cities. Bowie got a finance director with deep governmental accounting expertise, at a cost well under the market rate for a full-time hire, and without the overhead of benefits or employment taxes. The savings gave the city room to also hire an assistant finance director to manage day-to-day operations, while Austin handled month-end, year-end, and audit-level accounting work.
The Approach
Austin’s engagement moved through three phases:
- Assessment and stabilization – Reviewed financial systems and controls, evaluated staff and org structure, assessed cash position, reserves, and debt.
- Core finance director duties – Took on financial reporting and audit management (ACFR, single audit, GASB compliance), treasury and cash management, debt and bond communication, internal controls and policy development, staff development, and council and community engagement.
- Systems and process improvements – Established and updated key finance policies, delivered new monthly financials to Council and the Economic Development Corporation on time for the first time, and built out standard operating procedures for the department.
Along the way, the team hit a real snag: data loss affecting some internal systems and tracking spreadsheets. Advisent and the city’s finance staff rebuilt what was lost together, with minimal disruption to ongoing work.
The Impact
Since May 2026, Bowie’s finance department has gone from an open leadership gap to a stable, functioning team with clear roles, a repeatable month-end close, and an audit already scheduled with plenty of lead time for the upcoming fiscal year-end. Council and the EDC now get financials on a reliable monthly cadence, something that hadn’t been happening consistently before.
In their words
“I just want to say ‘thank you,’ because I kind of gave him a tough time when we were interviewing him…”
— Gaylyn Burris, City Mayor
“Austin has been a huge help getting me acclimated, especially with governmental accounting. I had the accounting background, but not the governmental accounting, which Austin has been a huge help with.”
— Robert Johnston, Assistant Finance Director
Facing a finance leadership gap?
Advisent provides outsourced Finance Director and CFO services to small and mid-sized municipalities across Texas. Contact Austin Henderson to talk about what this could look like for your city.