Chris started RidgeWood CPA in 2024 in Port Moody, Canada. Two years later, his team now serves more than 200 monthly clients across North America, including small retail shops, large enterprises, consulting firms, and more.
Chris has always been convinced that accounting software should live inside the bank account. “I spoke to a neo bank about five years ago and told them to build a native accounting software,” he says. “They thought I was crazy.” But his logic was simple: a bank is already the ultimate source of truth for every transaction, and holds the context needed to keep accurate books. Building an accounting layer on top of that data — rather than disconnected from it — has always felt obvious to him. So when Mercury started building Mercury Books — the very product he’d been hoping for — Chris signed RidgeWood up early as a beta partner, eager to help shape what it could become.
With Mercury Books, you can finally have your books and your banking in one place — it just makes sense.
Before Books, a RidgeWood client checking their bank account could see a cash balance, but it couldn’t really tell them anything about the health of their business. That gap is now closed. “Clients [using Mercury] can no longer just see how much cash they have. Mercury can also report on how they’re doing financially,” he says. “When banking and books are together, you get the full picture: cash, everything that’s come in, everything that's gone out.”
Half the time in manual processes equals twice the room for advisory work
Once a RidgeWood client is on Mercury Books, the difference shows up immediately in how Chris’s team spends their day. “We’ve cut the time spent per client on manual tasks at least in half,” he says, pointing to the live bank feed and auto-reconciliation as the biggest time savers. For him, automatic categorization of transactions and additional context like receipts and notes being just one click away accelerated that impact.
And the time savings aren’t just an efficiency story for Chris — they change how his team works day-to-day. “Because we no longer have to do a lot of the smaller bookkeeping admin tasks, we can mainly focus on financial advising and reporting, which is what clients actually want,” he says. “Most founders want someone to talk to about their financial questions. Mercury Books has given us more time to be that sounding board.”
Most founders want someone to talk to about their financial questions. Mercury Books has given us more time to be that sounding board.
Clients notice the difference too — highlighting to Chris and team their delight in how easy it is to get the reports they need. No more separate tools and logins — everything’s accurate and available right inside Mercury, whenever they need it.
When it comes to bookkeeping, Chris is adamant that it’s important to get ahead of it rather than treating it as a compliance afterthought. “If you’re not ahead of your books, you’re always thinking backwards,” he says. “It’s easier — and better for your financial future — to be proactive.” For Chris and RidgeWood CPA, Mercury Books has made that easier than ever. When accounting and banking live in the same place, staying ahead stops being extra work and just becomes how the business runs.
