Urgent need for company-wide skills upgrade, process automation and procedural improvements.

The company lacked finance leadership.

The finance and accounting functions supporting 100+ separate subsidiaries, each with their own banking relationships, was entirely manual. Staff were preparing handwritten checks to support separate accounts receivable and accounts payable processes for each legal entity and sending communications via the mail.

The company had outgrown its finance and accounting software.

An institutional grade alternative was needed to automate the monthly end-to-end accounting process and enhance controls.

There was little to no process documentation – accounting policies and procedures, as well as executed contracts with mission critical vendors - were deficient, leaving the company vulnerable to key knowledge owners.

Vague staff roles and responsibilities made it difficult to implement segregation of duties and drive accountability across the organization. All staff were expected to perform all functions.

Stronger finance and accounting skills were needed – general administrative staff lacked the experience to perform key finance and accounting functions.

Lack of a critical management layer reporting directly to the CEO created a decision-making bottleneck at the CEO’s desk. The CEO lacked access to empowered business managers who were capable of independently running each of the company’s divisions. The resulting environment was highly reactive.

Multiple 3rd party service providers were engaged to complete similar / same tasks. External tax, accounting, legal, insurance advisory and property management vendors were often engaged without clear mandates or internal oversight. Management was not in the practice of auditing the effectiveness of all vendors to drive accountability relative to contract terms.

No process existed for accurately recouping monthly shared services expenditures accrued in support of all subsidiaries and their owners.

Our renovation work included talent upgrades, redefining organization-wide roles and responsibilities, defining and installing new financial accounting systems, and implementing policy-driven guidance systems and controls to drive operations.

We installed a structured execution framework to socialize priorities and accountabilities.

We introduced and led divisional and functional leadership meetings to enhance company-wide understanding of the renovation agenda.

We re-engineered all aspects of the finance and accounting functions including procedures and systems, and segregated roles and responsibilities.

We eliminated one of the company’s three accounting and tax advisory firms and brought select property management functions in house.