Providing Functional Leadership & Audit Sign Off During COVID-19
The Situation
One of the largest wholesale distributors of mechanical door hardware, electronic access controls, and security products primarily for repair & replacement applications in the commercial / institutional and residential end markets was recently acquired by a private equity firm. As part of the onboarding and professionalization of the Company, Accordion was engaged to perform an assessment of the finance function. Following the assessment, Accordion’s Financial Accounting & Advisory Service team was engaged to provide Audit Readiness support and Functional Leadership.
Services
Audit Readiness
Financial Statement Close Process
Financials Statement Preparation & Analysis
Cash & Treasury Management
The Execution
Audit Readiness:
- Acted as a liaison between the Company and the audit team to ensure that the audit is completed timely and efficiently.
- Reviewed and resolutions for outstanding purchase accounting items for 2 acquisitions and the PE transaction.
- Prepared technical accounting calculations and memos, as required.
- Reconciled balance sheets, as appropriate for each audit period.
- Completed PBC list including supporting policy & process documentation and schedules as appropriate.
Prepared financial statements, including footnotes, delivered to auditors for each audit period.
Functional Leadership:
- Partnered with the Company’s finance and accounting team to progress initiatives identified in the assessment, provide interim leadership, and support the professionalization of the accounting function.
- Played a key part of the operational accounting function and proactively planned/executeed necessary daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly accounting activities as required.
- Managed liquidity and cash – including, but not limited, to 13-week cash flow and daily cash flash.
- Implemented and recommended process improvement and control enhancements to establish a monthly/quarterly “hard” close and reduce manual work where possible.
- Reviewed current processes/ERP capabilities and established proposed future state (and timeline to implement) and formalized the review and approval process, leveraging automation.
The Results
In week 4 of the project, the team was quick to adapt from on-site to full remote work plans due to the spread of COVID-19 and stay-at-home mandates. Under these circumstances Accordion, the finance and accounting team, and audit teams successfully signed off on the audited financial statements on-time to be delivered to the private equity firm and lenders. Our Functional Leadership team continued to support accelerating the financial statement close process, the hire of a full-time controller, consolidation, and liquidity and cash management.