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For every finance team
Finance function assessment
A structured read on how finance actually runs, what the record can and cannot support, and what to fix in which order. Delivered as a plan your team can execute, with or without us.
Who this is for. A new CFO in the first ninety days, a CEO who suspects finance is fragile, or an investor who has just closed and wants to know what they bought.
The problem today
Leadership knows finance is slow or fragile, but not where to start. The close takes too long, the reports arrive late, and the team is busy, so every candidate explanation sounds plausible.
Without a diagnosis, the money goes to whatever is loudest. A new system gets bought to fix a process problem, or a hire is made to absorb work that should not exist.
- Scope agreed with your CFOYou choose the entities, systems and people involved
- Read access to each systemAgents can look, and they change nothing
- Close checklist on the tablePlus your control documents, if they exist
- Time with the people who closeA few hours each, planned around month end
- Transaction history in reachClose data agents can measure, with each query logged
- One person for judgment callsFindings that need a decision go to your CFO
What changes
Everyone in the building has a theory about why finance is slow.
You get one ranked list of what is wrong, with an owner on each item.
A new system looks like the answer, and nobody has checked the process.
You know whether it is the system or the process before you spend.
The board asks how fragile finance is and nobody can say.
One page covers what we found and what leadership needs to decide.
What we deliver
A review of how the close actually runs
We walk the close with the people who do it, task by task, and record where time goes, what blocks what, and which steps exist only because of a system limitation that no longer applies.
Controls and segregation reviewed in practice
What the control documentation says, what happens in reality, and where the gap between the two would matter to an auditor or a buyer.
Systems and data flows mapped
Every system that holds financial data, every hand-off between them, and every point where a spreadsheet is load-bearing.
Team, roles and single points of failure
Who knows what, which knowledge exists in exactly one head, and where capacity actually constrains the function.
Agent readiness of the record
Whether your record can support agents today. Specifically: are transactions complete, are definitions stable, is there an audit trail, and can an action be attributed to a person. We tell you plainly if the answer is no.
One prioritized roadmap with owners
Every recommendation in one ranked list, sorted by people, process and technology, with an owner, the effort and the expected benefit against each item. The quick wins are named, along with what belongs in the first thirty days, the first quarter and the first year.
The top close and control risks
The handful of risks most likely to hurt a close or fail a control, stated plainly and ranked, with what each one would take to fix.
A one-page decision summary for leadership
What we found, what we recommend and which decisions leadership needs to make, on one page you can take straight to the board.
Running the roadmap afterwards
A roadmap only helps if someone runs it. Your own team can, and the plan is written so they are able to. If you want help keeping priorities, owners and decisions moving each week, that is the next piece of work.
What agents handle, and where your team steps in
What agents handle
Agents analyze your transaction history and close data to measure what is actually happening, and every query they run is logged. They read your data and change nothing in your systems.
Where your team steps in
You decide what is in scope and who we talk to. Findings that need a judgment call come to your CFO, and you decide what happens next, including whether we are involved.
Systems we work with
- Any ERPERP
- NetSuiteERP
- QuickBooksAccounting
- Dynamics GPERP
- SAPERP
- ExcelSpreadsheets
From past work
Finance operations reviews that sometimes end with keeping the current system and fixing the process around it.
Questions we get
How long does the assessment take?
Two to four weeks for most finance functions. The variable is how many entities and systems are in scope and how available your team is for interviews.
What do you need from our team?
A few hours each from the people who run the close, read access to the systems, and your existing close checklist and control documentation if they exist. We work around month-end rather than through it.
Do you implement the plan too?
We can, and we are explicit that the assessment is useful whether or not you hire us for it. The roadmap is written so your own team or another provider can execute it. If we quote for the work, we tell you which parts you could do yourselves more cheaply.
What if the answer is that we are not ready for agents?
Then that is what the report says, along with what would have to change first. Putting agents on a record that cannot support them produces confident wrong answers, which is worse than the manual process you have now.
Related
- Finance transformation and governanceOne prioritized plan for every systems, close and control request, with owners and a weekly rhythm.
- Close accelerationA faster, cleaner close across every entity, with blockers and root causes on the record.
- Due diligence readinessYour books are ready before the buyer starts asking questions.
- All cross-industry workSeven pieces of work apply whatever your business does.