Sample Projects

6 months to 6 weeks (and falling)

The challenge: Our client was a large non-profit that was chronically late filing their mandatory state reporting. This delayed reimbursement and cost the agency thousands in penalties and hundreds of thousands in missed revenue. The problems continued even after the agency had purchased and implemented an expensive new accounting system.

The solution: We showed them how they could use their existing software to deliver the reports they needed to get all that reporting done in a push of a button. Now, they have saved months off the process, saved thousands in penalties, and hope to shorten the process even further next year. Back to the top.

Something old, something new, everything now

The challenge: Our long time client was acquired by an international hedge fund. The company, with nine legal entities, was combined with four other entities and divided into two operating groups which then rolled up to one major holding company. All of this crossing multiple currencies and countries and literally dozens of intercompany combinations. The acquisition happened mid month. They needed to create statements (in entirely new formats) for the old companies, the new companies and the combination while ensuring that the operating people had valid year-to-year comparatives. Also, the new management wanted to entirely change how they looked at the business.

The solution: Using our deep knowledge of their system and their needs, we restructured their data so they would have old, new and combined reports. We automated the data entry of all the closing and entering journal entries for the old and new companies. We did all this in 3 weeks while still allowing the client to maintain a five day month end close cycle. We are now deploying the software worldwide. Back to the top.

When third parties just don't cooperate

The challenge: Our client was a major wholesaler of DVDs. They often never received invoices from their creative vendors in a timely fashion – making it difficult to accrue expenses properly when new titles streeted. As a 50 million dollar business, this one task of accruing expenses took a full week every month end.

The solution: We suggested a small modification to their purchase order system which would allow open purchase order balances to accrue automatically at each month end. We thereby reduced a five day job to a one day job. Even better, as revenue grew to over $400 million, the job never took more then two days even as vendor invoice submission never improved. Back to the top.

Two hours to save ten days

The challenge: Our client had recently acquired a mid-sized wholesale distributor. Financial statements were routinely not issued until the twentieth business day of the month. They blamed their software.

The solution: We met with the controller for about two hours. We discovered that he didn't start closing until about the tenth business dating as he waited for some final invoices to come in. We suggested some small changes in process – including calls to various freight forwarders and downloads from American Express – which allowed him to start closing immediately, saving ten days from the close process with no change in staff or software. Back to the top.