Joe Walsh, Founder and Managing Partner at Mural, shares their experience with Balanced:

The biggest thing Balanced gave us was clarity. We didn't really understand our margins by business line until they got involved, and now it's changed how we make decisions. They're in our Slack, they flag things before we even notice, and it feels like they're part of the team.

Overview

The Mural Group is a modern recruiting firm that operates like an in-house talent partner for growing organizations. They specialize in two main verticals — venture-backed tech and industrial trades (warehouse, manufacturing, and skilled trades) — while offering both traditional direct placement recruiting (commission-based) and Employer of Record (EOR) services for ongoing monthly relationships.

The Challenge

As The Mural Group expanded its service lines, financial visibility became increasingly complex. They needed to understand performance across very different revenue models but lacked proper segmentation:

• Separate tracking required for traditional recruiting (one-time placements) versus recurring EOR services.

• Further breakdowns needed between tech recruiting and industrial recruiting.

• Revenue recognition challenges, especially with EOR billing in two-week increments that often spanned months.

• No clear per-client profitability views for their monthly recurring EOR relationships.

• Overall expense tracking, bill pay, and reporting were messy and manual.

Balanced’s Solution

We stepped in to build a segmented financial system that reflects the true economics of their hybrid recruiting + EOR business. The goal was to deliver deep, actionable insights while automating the heavy lifting.

What We Put in Place:

• Multi-Segment P&Ls — Created separate Profit & Loss statements for recruiting (direct placement) and EOR services, with further breakdowns by vertical (Tech vs. Industrial) — including dedicated revenue, cost of goods, and expense tracking for each.

• Revenue Recognition Automation — Implemented proper processes to accurately recognize revenue for EOR services that cross month boundaries.

• Client-Level P&Ls — Built monthly client-specific P&Ls for EOR relationships so they can see exact margins per client.

• Ramp & Bill.com Implementation — Got them on Ramp for streamlined credit card and bill payments, plus Bill.com for cleaner invoicing and expense management.

• Automated Detailed Reporting — Delivered highly granular automated reports covering all segment and client views.

The Results

The Mural Group now has crystal-clear visibility into every part of their business. They can instantly see how their Tech recruiting, Industrial recruiting, direct placements, and EOR services are truly performing — down to individual client margins.

Revenue recognition is accurate and automated, even with complex billing cycles. What used to be messy, manual financials is now a clean, segmented system that supports confident decision-making. Leadership spends far less time wrestling with numbers and more time focused on growing their recruiting and EOR offerings.