Finance systems and reporting-process improvements

We redesign the route a number takes from a sale or a payment to the board pack: the chart of accounts, the links between the storefront, dispatch, payment and ledger systems, the month-end close and the reporting layer.

The outcome is one version of the truth, produced on a fixed day, that holds up when a lender or a prospective investor asks questions.

• A current-state map of finance systems, data flows and manual steps, with the time each takes.
• A group chart of accounts and a data dictionary of definitions the board agrees.
• A target architecture showing which system holds which record, and the links between them.
• A redesigned close checklist with owners, deadlines and sign-off points.
• A selection paper comparing system options against the group's requirements.

• The month-end close takes fewer working days, measured month on month.
• Fewer manual steps stand between a transaction and the board pack.
• Operating systems and the ledger agree.
• Your board sees the share of entities on the common chart of accounts.
• The finance team spends fewer hours assembling reports each month.

Systems accumulate with each entity and each launch. Orders are re-keyed into the ledger, payment platforms are reconciled by hand, intercompany balances are tidied at year end and each report is rebuilt from scratch. The finance team spends the first half of every month on assembly. By the time the numbers are ready they are already history, and nobody fully trusts them.

• The month-end close takes longer than the month's board cycle allows.
• Revenue in the commerce platform and revenue in the ledger differ and need a manual bridge.
• Entities use different charts of accounts and the group view is built in a spreadsheet.
• Only one person knows how the monthly report is put together.
• A due-diligence request would take weeks to answer.

Chairmen and chief executives of groups with several entities on different ledgers or spreadsheets, and of fast-growing commerce businesses whose finance process was built for a company a tenth of their size.

Qasim Abbas brought more than 20 companies across several countries onto one set of numbers, where a mismatched chart of accounts costs days every month. We specify your finance systems to close that gap before it costs the group another day.

We work on whatever the group already runs, including Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho Books, NetSuite and Oracle, with the commerce, dispatch and payment tools around it. See how fees work.

Can this make the group ready for an investor's diligence?

Yes. The redesign answers the questions diligence raises on data quality and close discipline.

What is different once the close is redesigned?

One version of the truth on a fixed day, a close that takes fewer working days each month, and operating systems that agree with the ledger.

Time your last close and tell us the working days it took. We show where the time goes and what your board sees sooner, in a private briefing.