CASE STUDIES

CLIENT VALUE

Tech platform company

A pre-revenue tech platform company had a bookkeeper but lacked a closing process that delivered accurate financial information monthly. This hampered the CEO’s capital raising efforts because without current financials, he couldn’t accurately budget their cash flow and capital needs.

We created closing workpapers for the bookkeeper to maintain and reviewed her monthly workpapers and financials. We created a sophisticated yet easy to understand P&L and cash flow model, which allowed the CEO to easily run what-if scenarios. We guided them through the issuance of incentive options and purchase of directors’ and officers’ insurance. We organized their data room and delivered requested information to investors. This gave prospective investors confidence in the company and contributed greatly to several rounds of capital raises.

eCommerce company

A $19M ecommerce retailer had an outside CPA doing their books but they were 4 months behind and never gave the CEO feedback about their numbers. When we took over, we cleaned up the balance sheet, simplified their P&L, created a monthly closing process and analyzed their financials.

For the first time ever, the company had perfect clarity about their liquidity, cash flow, profitability, and overhead. We changed their accounting system to be able to measure the total cost per product which led to clarity about their gross margin by product. We then showed them that they were selling thousands of products at too low a margin, causing their net losses.

The CEO discontinued unprofitable products, which immediately returned the company to profitability.

Tech company

An $8 million technology company purchased NetSuite but after one year, it’s controller still hasn’t implemented it. The cost of the software license and delayed implementation were costing the company dearly. To find the root cause of the delayed implementation, we evaluated their staff and accounting processes and concluded that the controller wasn’t going to finish the implementation because his regular duties took all his time. We hired a proven NetSuite consultant who completed the implementation in three months and on budget. Now the company is getting its money’s worth from reports and has clarity about its financial results.

Real estate developer

An office owner received a letter from its largest tenant (100,000 sf) stating they had audited their CAM passthrough calculation and were due $160,000. We pulled the lease file culled CAM passthrough language from the original lease and 20 years of renewals and addendums.

When we ran our numbers, we found that the tenant owed our client $100,000. The reason for the discrepancy was that the formula in the lease was vague and subject to interpretation. We created language in terms accountants would understand along with an accompanying example of how CAM passthroughs would be calculated in the future. Happily, our client brought the tenant to the table and negotiated a 10-year extension and expunged their respective claims for monies due.

Synagogue (non-profit org)

A synagogue was unhappy with the company to which it outsourced all of its accounting 7 years earlier and wanted to reconstitute an in-house accounting department. We created the job description for a finance director, ran ads, screened candidates and recommended the top 3 to leadership, one of which they hired.

We created the monthly closing process, revamped their P&L for easier understanding of results by operating unit (temple, preschool, religious school), used deep knowledge of ShulCloud and QuickBooks to make them compliant with GAAP fund accounting rules, created budget templates and budget-to-actual reports by operating unit and mapped their payroll to the right operating units. We review their monthly financials and keep their accounting operations well-oiled. One board member said, “We finally have a good feel for our financial position.”

A 1,900-unit multifamily operator was launching their first ever syndication fund to raise $150M. We helped write the offering memorandum, coordinated the work of outside accountants and lawyers, worked through the due diligence checklist and organized the data room for easy access to required documents. We made their books audit ready. Finally, we attended meetings with investors, answered questions and helped structure the final deal.