Key Takeaways
6 months additional runway
Real-time cost visibility let Godwit adjust spending on the fly instead of discovering problems two months later.
Compliance and reporting
Quarterly NSF reporting became straightforward. No more double-checking numbers before submission.
Budget-first transparency
Forge starts from what the business needs, not what accountants need. Every transaction ladders up to a budget line item.
Leni Griffin
Head of Operations, Godwit
“I checked in with the team and the feedback on Forge has been overwhelmingly positive. Before, the manual accounting process in QBO was opaque and hid a lot of mistakes. Now we actually have clarity.”
Leni Griffin
Head of Operations, Godwit
About Godwit
Climate tech selling to enterprises
Godwit builds technology that helps enterprises measure and improve their biodiversity impact. The company secured NSF SBIR funding to develop the data infrastructure that powers their platform. They are now scaling into production and selling to enterprise customers.
The Challenge
Opaque manual process that was months behind and error-ridden
Before Forge, Godwit worked with a traditional SBIR accounting firm that applied a standard template to their processes. The manual process in QuickBooks Online was opaque and hid a lot of mistakes.
The bigger problem was that their books were two months behind. This meant they could not see their spending in real time. By the time they saw the numbers, it was too late to change course or adjust costs to extend runway.
One example: their budget included a computer services line item because Godwit's work involves pre-loading software. Traditional SBIR accountants start with the chart of accounts, not the budget, so they did not catch this. They treated all software and services as indirect costs by default, which skewed Godwit's indirect vs. direct cost allocation significantly.
How Forge Helped
Starting from what the business needs, not what accountants need
The core difference with Forge is transparency. We start with the budget and connect it to the chart of accounts, instead of the other way around. Every transaction can be drilled down into, and every transaction ladders up to a budget line item.
Real-time cost visibility. Instead of waiting two months to see where they stood, Godwit can now check budget vs. actuals any time. This gave them the ability to adjust costs on the fly and extend their runway by six months.
Timesheets the team actually enjoys. The Forge Slack bot sends daily reminders for time entries. One time, the whole team was in a 5pm meeting and the bot pinged everyone at once. They all thought it was pretty funny, and it became a team moment rather than a chore.
Quarterly NSF reporting without double-checking. NSF quarterly reports used to require verifying every number before submission. Now, the data flows directly from Forge with receipts and time entries linked to budget lines. The team submits with confidence.
Why It Matters
Six more months to build the business
For an early-stage climate tech company, runway is everything. The transparency Forge provided helped Godwit find and fix allocation issues that were eating into their budget. Six additional months of operations means more time to close enterprise deals, scale the platform, and prove out the model.
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