Back-Office Investment Enables Profitable Growth for 4J Energy

Entrepreneurs can balk at structure and control — the very issues that often lead them to start their own initiatives. “Yet growing companies reach a point where not having consistency no longer makes sense, and they must apply some structure,” explains Gonzalez. “You just can’t have 50 subprocesses and expect something not to break.”

The key is finding similarities among the various opportunities, products and markets, and leveraging those parallels to define standard workflows that enable scaling without limiting creativity. The structure (and rationale behind it) must be clearly communicated to leadership with an emphasis on how it supports growth goals.

“Structure can help you get to yes on as many projects as possible while keeping you on the path of making informed decisions and prioritizing return on capital,” continues Gonzalez. “Come to me about refined products. Come to me about propane. Talk to me about vessels and barges and rail cars and trucks. It’s all available to you, but there’s a middle space where there’s enough structure that we can do this the right way.”

Not every deal is destined to be profitable. While experienced dealmakers often rely on intuition, timely and accurate financial reporting is essential to validating those instincts and helping business leaders and their financial partners make the right decisions.

By prioritizing investments in its finance function, 4J Energy built an accounting structure and team that scaled alongside the business. Gonzalez’s own role evolved from the director of accounting to vice president of finance and, eventually, chief financial officer. The accounting team evolved beyond a traditional bookkeeping role into a strategic partner, delivering trusted, deal-level metrics at a consistent cadence. Cost isolation by transaction, limited prior-period adjustments and disciplined close timelines helped establish confidence that the numbers were both accurate and actionable. Just as important, Gonzalez and his team paired the data with insight—providing context and commentary on what the numbers meant for deal health, margins and risk.

As the company expanded into new products and geographies, including Canada and Mexico, this foundation became even more critical. Solid financial reporting provided the foundation on which additional complexity—such as tax, regulatory and compliance requirements—could be effectively managed. It also strengthened relationships with financing partners. Lenders and capital providers could clearly see the company’s ability to capitalize on its vision and generate returns. Besides evaluating opportunities based solely on ideas, these partners were now also considering them based on a clear financial rationale supported by metrics they could trust.

For any company that purchases inventory before selling it, access to capital is critical. As a result, the credit line often becomes the headline of a banking relationship. Gonzalez cautions, however, that credit capacity should not be the sole consideration; a banking partner’s willingness to actively support growth matters nearly as much.

Like many middle market companies, 4J Energy initially partnered with a local bank, starting with an asset-backed credit line of approximately $6 million. As the business grew beyond that level, the company transitioned to a regional bank capable of providing a $20 million credit facility. Before long, however, 4J Energy once again found itself constrained by the limits of its financing.

“It felt like my relationship with my first two banking partners was entirely about, ‘Show me your financial statements. Show me your debt covenant calculations. OK, you’re fine—go about your business,’” Gonzalez explains. “It felt very much like being policed, to an extent.”

In 2023, the company began working with Wells Fargo, doubling its credit line to $40 million. “When we made the transition to Wells Fargo, we found the runway to grow—and a willing partner to help make that happen.”

Access to credit is only part of the equation; companies must also manage that credit effectively. Negotiating favorable terms with vendors is critical, as is the ability to collect against those terms quickly and consistently.

“A cash conversion cycle drives every single thing that we do,” says Gonzalez. “My job—beyond just raising capital—is to manage our credit line really, really efficiently. I have to be able to support our marketers and say, ‘Yes, you can take on those oil wells. Yes, you can take on that producer—because we can pay them.’”

With the full support of its banking partner, 4J Energy has invested in a set of automation tools designed to shorten the cash conversion cycle and enable faster, more confident scaling, including:

– A branded payment portal integrated with the accounting system, reducing reliance on checks and enabling automated customer account drafts.

– A deal capture system that improves the timeliness of invoicing and automates the recording of bills of lading (BOLs) and product movements.

– An enterprise-grade ERP (Microsoft Dynamics) to automate labor-intensive accounts payable processes.

– A project management platform (Asana) that provides real-time visibility into the status of multiple back-office workflows across the organization.

As 4J Energy continues to implement and refine these tools, the company views automation not as a one-time initiative, but as an ongoing journey. Gonzalez encourages team members to explore each platform’s capabilities beyond their initial use cases, continuously identifying opportunities to streamline workflows, improve processes and support the company’s next phase of growth.

Scaling profitably in a low-margin environment requires more than capital and systems—it takes healthy curiosity. Gonzalez approaches relationships with financial partners as ongoing learning opportunities. He actively seeks insight into what peers are doing, where others are finding incremental gains and how partners can help uncover new paths to growth.

That mindset comes with higher expectations. Gonzalez expects partners to bring more than products or capital to the table, and he looks for them to contribute perspective, expertise and proactive ideas. As a Wells Fargo client, Gonzalez takes full advantage of the bank’s economic forums and oil and gas events, using those venues to deepen his understanding of market dynamics and build relationships with industry leaders.

Those conversations have sparked new areas of exploration, most recently around foreign exchange strategy. As 4J Energy expands its footprint in Canada, the company is working with its bank to evaluate whether invoicing exclusively in U.S. dollars may be leaving margin on the table, and whether shifting some transactions to Canadian dollars could unlock incremental gains—gains that can make a big difference in an industry defined by thin margins. 

“If I’m making $0.50 per barrel, that’s a triumph,” Gonzalez adds. “If I can move the peg up just a little bit—everywhere through the value chain, even on the treasury and finance side—in aggregate, I’m going to have a really successful company.”