How Signal Ventures manages 20+ entities with one accountant

Signal Ventures is a private equity real estate development company based in Bend, Oregon. Founded by Jason Adams, with 25 years in the industry and $120M in developed and exited real estate, Signal operates a complex portfolio of funds and properties spanning self-storage, light industrial, distribution centers, and land plays. The business is structured around a corporate LLC that manages overhead, with individual Delaware funds raised for each project, and separate LLCs holding each property underneath them. Currently: roughly 10 funds, 15 properties, and a plan to scale to 50–60 entities within the next two to three years.

Running that structure on the wrong accounting system doesn't just slow you down. It makes the whole thing unmanageable.

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The Problem

Four accounting systems in 25 years, and still no solution

Jason has lived every era of business accounting software. QuickBooks first, then Sage, then Microsoft Dynamics Nav, which eventually became Business Central. Each system carried the same original sin: built around a partner model that made simple customizations expensive, slow, and dependent on outside help.

"With previous partners, it wasn't uncommon to wait two or three months to get a feature added. We wanted an accounting system we could update any given day, ourselves. That's not the simplest thing to find."

When Business Central stopped working for Signal's increasingly complex structure, Jason made a move to NetSuite, by his own admission partly a popularity chase. It didn't hold up.

"Our last accounting system was horrible. It was so heavy, not to mention expensive. And we had no support. Nobody would get back to us."

Beyond the vendor frustrations, the operational reality was worse. Signal was closing its books once a year. Not once a month, not once a quarter. The software gave Jason's team so little confidence in the data that they'd stopped trying to use it in real time. Detailed reporting required maintaining parallel Google Sheets alongside the system. Team meetings were spent debating whether the numbers were right, not acting on them. And with 20 entities to manage, and more coming, the need for a self-serve, multi-entity system had become urgent.

The Solution

DualEntry was built for exactly this kind of complexity

Signal Ventures went live on DualEntry in six weeks. All 20 entities. Migrated and operational, faster than any prior implementation Jason had ever done, and for the first time, done entirely by his own team without a partner.

"In our four previous accounting implementations, either a partner or the company themselves did it for us. With DualEntry, we did it ourselves. And if we were to do it again, we'd probably do it in two days."

The features that moved the needle:

Multi-entity management: Spin up a new LLC in minutes. All companies consolidated in one system, one chart of accounts, one workflow. No more isolated operators and no more cross-entity reporting in spreadsheets.

Classifications: Signal can now define exactly how it wants to segment its GL, set it up in a minute or two, and trust that the data is captured right the first time. Previously, this required workarounds and manual reconciliation that took days.

Approval workflows: A layered approval process now routes transactions from AP through CFO before they reach Jason. Bulk approvals mean he can get through a full queue at once. "That saved me days I could never get through in the previous system."

Purchase order management: Signal uses POs as its primary cash flow signal. Committing to a contract, not receiving an invoice, is when the clock starts. DualEntry makes managing and approving POs fast enough to give Jason a 4–6 month lead on cash planning, and more certainty for investors.

API access: DualEntry's open API let Signal build custom audit workflows tailored to how they actually operate, with AI starting to replace manual auditing processes that previously had to be done by hand.

Speed: Between windows, DualEntry runs 5–10 times faster than the previous system. In a job where an accountant moves through hundreds of screens a day, that compounds quickly.

The Results

Meetings used to start with "is this data right?" Now they don't.

The most immediate change Jason noticed wasn't a feature. It was the quality of the conversations in his business.

"Previously our meetings felt like we were debating the data. Now we walk into our meetings, we trust it. We use it. We spend our time making decisions."

That shift is measurable. After fully onboarding to DualEntry with the same workload and same number of entities, Signal's accountant told Jason that 80% of his day was now free. One fifth the time to do the same work.

Signal went from closing the books once a year to closing monthly, with enough confidence to share those financials with lenders and equity partners on request, not just at year end. In a business built on capital relationships, that matters.

"If we can produce consolidated financials quarterly, or monthly, or upon request, that creates a lot of trust with our capital. It allows us to strengthen relationships sooner."

Jason also tracks a metric most businesses don't: the percentage of the workday his finance team spends actually making decisions versus waiting on systems or hunting for clarity.

"By using DualEntry, we've increased the percentage of the workday that our accounting team is doing real work. We've cut out that indecisive, circular, doubting time. Most businesses need to sit down and really contemplate that."

For a 25-year operator who has run accounting software he merely tolerated for most of his career, the conclusion is simple.

"DualEntry to us feels like a friend that wants to work with us, not a foe we're always battling against."