Finance Function Transformation
Close, controls, and processes redesigned; fractional CFO leadership; finance operations run as a managed service.
A finance function that closes in time for management to act on the numbers.
Most growing companies never designed their finance function. It accumulated, one hire and one workaround at a time, until the close took weeks, cash leaked through gaps nobody owned, and management was deciding on numbers it did not fully trust.
We redesign the function from the process up: mapping how work actually moves, resequencing the close, building controls that site teams can run without an IT project, and putting in the reporting management needs. For companies not ready for a full-time CFO we provide that leadership part-time, and for groups that would rather buy finance operations as a service, we run them end to end.
How we help clients
Close acceleration
A close calendar that maps dependencies, a tiered approach to reconciliations, a written materiality policy for accruals, and a defect log that traces errors back to where they began.
- Close calendar
- Reconciliations
Process and control design
Standard operating procedures, delegation of authority, and preventive controls designed for the people who will run them, including sites with few systems and a great deal of cash.
- SOPs
- Delegation of authority
- Cash controls
Fractional CFO leadership
Senior finance leadership a few days a month: board reporting, lender relationships, budgeting, and the finance agenda for companies moving from founder-led to institutional.
- Virtual CFO
- Board reporting
Managed finance operations
Bookkeeping, payables, receivables, payroll coordination, and statutory compliance, run to a documented calendar across a group of growing entities.
- Outsourced finance
- Compliance calendar
Systems selection and implementation
ERP and accounting system selection, chart-of-accounts design, and oversight of the implementation, once the process itself has been fixed.
- ERP
- Chart of accounts
Working capital and cash
Receivables discipline, a payables policy, and inventory controls, with a thirteen-week cash forecast treasury decisions can rely on.
- Working capital
- Cash forecasting
From 14 working days to 6
An illustrative close for a mid-market group, redesigned one change at a time. Scroll to see each change take effect.
14working days after month end to close the books
Working days from month end
Illustrative. Durations and dependencies vary from group to group; the pattern reflects close redesigns in mid-market companies. Source: SA&A analysis
When clients call us
The close takes more than ten working days
Management sees last month’s numbers when this month is already half over.
Cash does not reconcile
Physical cash and recorded sales disagree every day, and the differences get explained away instead of removed.
The founder is still the finance function
Approvals, banking, and reporting all run through one person who no longer has the time.
Investors now expect monthly reporting
A new board or lender wants a monthly pack that the current process cannot produce on time.
A new ERP is about to be bought
The vendor says the system will fix the process. On its own, it will not.
Several entities, no single view
Each group company has its own books, calendar, and advisers, and nobody sees the consolidated picture.
Our approach
Fix the process, then automate it
We resequence and simplify first. Automation is applied at the end, to a process that already works.
Designed with the people who run it
Controls are tested with the staff who will operate them, in the conditions they actually work in.
Measured in operating results
Days to close, post-close adjustments, and leakage are measured before and after. We keep iterating until they move.
Handover is part of the job
Documentation and training are deliverables in their own right.
Examples of our work
Removing recurring cash shortages across a highway fuel retail network
Designing a clean-slate structure for a new agri-tourism group with four distinct business lines
Turning chronic audit delays into on-time delivery for a seven-entity manufacturing group
Related
Technology & AI
Bank, intercompany, and vendor reconciliations matched automatically, with machine learning handling the near-matches that fixed rules miss, and invoices captured from documents rather than typed in. Routine volume leaves the close, and the team spends its time on exceptions.
Audit-readiness diagnostic
Fifteen statements, about four minutes, and a scored view of where your audit exposure is concentrated.
The Brief
Our fortnightly read on reporting, tax, and structure for CFOs, controllers, and founders.
Aditya Soni
Founding Partner, Pune
Leads the firm’s work in finance transformation. Advises companies and families on financial reporting, audit readiness, group structure, and tax. Previously in the Assurance practice of Ernst & Young in Pune.
Talk to our Finance Transformation practice
Tell us what you are working on. A first conversation carries no obligation, and confidentiality applies from the first email.