Case Studies: What the Work Looks Like

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Fractional CFO engagement.

The situation: the books took about three weeks to close, standard costs were out of date, and with commodity prices moving constantly, a quote that made money one month could lose money the next.

What we did: redesigned the close and automated the payroll entry, rebuilt standard costing across 1,000+ SKUs from engineering time studies, built a mobile margin and quoting tool with commodity price sensitivity, built and trained the accounting team, and renegotiated the insurance renewal.

The result: monthly close cut from about 15 business days to 5, quotes priced against what commodities actually cost, and $500K saved on the insurance renewal.

From my career, as VP Finance.

The situation: two very different businesses under one roof, high-volume packaging and project-based machinery. The close took three weeks, machinery revenue didn't reflect how projects actually progressed, and a large share of cash was tied up with the primary plastics supplier.

What we did: renegotiated supplier terms, redesigned the close and reconciliations, moved machinery to percentage-of-completion revenue recognition with the auditor, put a standard-cost-setting process in place, and brought HR in-house.

The result: $1.5M of working capital released without borrowing a dollar, the close cut from three weeks to five days, and $100K a year saved on HR.

Fractional CFO engagements.

The situation: a defense contractor had won government work and needed books that could stand up to a DCAA review. A distributor borrowed against its inventory, and its lender needed the books to match what was actually on the shelves.

What we did: set up job costing by contract, documented the indirect rate structure, and put government-standard timekeeping in place before the auditors came. For the distributor, reconciled about $5M of inventory.

The result: DCAA-compliant books ready before anyone checked, and an accurate, supportable borrowing base report for the lender.

From my career, as CFO.

The situation: about nine locations, no functioning accounting team, no reliable multi-location reporting, and no way to see liquidity needs far enough ahead to plan for growth.

What we did: recruited a full accounting team and rebuilt the function, set up reporting by location, built a 13-week cash flow model, sourced and closed a term loan and line-of-credit package, and implemented the new lease accounting standard.

The result: from no finance team to monthly reporting by location, a forward view of cash, and the financing needed to grow, in about two months.

From my career, as Regional Controller.

The situation: after the company was acquired by a larger group, its US finance and shared services had to be folded into the new owner's, while closing the books and getting through two Big 4 audits of every US entity.

What we did: led the integration of US shared services, ran a competitive bid for tax compliance services, led both audits, and served as controller of the largest US plant.

The result: a 20% annual cost reduction, 30% lower tax-compliance fees, clean audit opinions, and a $2M underreported tax liability identified before it became a problem.