Case Studies

Consult Your CFO was engaged to handle the acquisition and transition of an existing company by a new management team. We worked with the new executive management to:

• create the new company structures,
• create chart of accounts,
• create and record acquisition,
• create budget,
• institute new company benefits,
• select a risk management firm and institute new corporate insurance policies,
• create board committees,
• hire audit and tax firm, and
• select a new banking relationship and treasury structure.

Once the basic structure was created, we selected and upgraded to a new accounting system and payroll product. In addition, we managed financial personnel and instituted internal control procedures, while preparing the necessary monthly financials and Board of Directors package. Consult Your CFO worked with the auditors to complete the audit and documented the new company's policies and procedures, taking into consideration existing policies and agreements. Also, we selected and engaged a valuation firm in order to comply with FAS141 and FAS142. We presented the financial information at the monthly Board of Director meetings and worked closely with the Audit Committee members. As the months progressed and the transition and audit was complete, we assisted in the interview process to hire a replacement. Once the replacement started, we transitioned our duties and remained in an advisory role.

Consult Your CFO was referred by a CPA firm to assist one of its clients. Its client wanted an independent evaluation of its internal financial controls and policies. Typically, small internal accounting department structures are lax when it comes to segregation of duties, procedures, and policies related to financial management. These issues can foster the potential for misuse of funds by the people the business owners thought they could trust. We reviewed this client's internal control procedures and documented in a report for executive management what issues were discovered and the corrective action required to minimize their risk of internal fraud.

The client was a start-up company needing financial support to get their financials in compliance with the accrual accounting method in order to obtain Regulation D financing to grow their company. The company had an office manager with some basic accounting knowledge. We were engaged to train the office manager and make the financials compliant with accrual-accounting methodology. In addition, we established internal controls, policies, and procedures, and selected a corporate tax firm. As the engagement progressed, they became unhappy with their current banking relationship, so we created a request for proposal (RFP) and distributed to carefully-selected prospective banks. The executive management team interviewed the recommended banks and selected their new banking relationship.

An audit report recommended that a financial manager be hired to oversee on-going financial matters and eliminate the need for the audit firm to reconcile the company's accounts at year end, prior to conducting their audit.

The executive management team engaged Consult Your CFO as a financial management advisor to review its monthly financial statements in order to reduce the one-time accrual adjustments at year-end. This service allowed the audit company to perform its work without first having to remedy multiple errors in the books, thereby vastly reducing the audit fees paid by the client. As the months progressed, our scope increased and we were engaged to evaluate and recommend billing- and accounting-process improvements to stream-line the invoicing process and improve the accuracy and integrity of the monthly financial information. After management approved all the recommendations, the client has been implementing these recommendations based on a timetable. Consult Your CFO acts as an advisor to management to make sure the implementation of the timetable is achieved and that barriers to their implementation are resolved quickly. In addition, Consult Your CFO continues to train the Finance team and has instituted proper internal controls, whereby the future audit preparation costs should be dramatically reduced.