What are some relevant case studies from the past year?

Case Study #1

THE CLIENT: A Seattle area educational institution and their management team was unable to make decisions surrounding strategic, tactical and operational moves because financial data was very basic and contained gross inaccuracies that didn't fairly reflect the true financial conditions of the firm. Above and beyond that,  transparency was lacking putting management at a distinct disadvantage in developing plans and initiatives to help.

THE CHALLENGE: To discern what was working well within the department and to identify the shortcomings in the relevance and quality of information that was being reported and to change the conversation about what w as required from finance to give management the data that they needed to develop the strategy.

THE SOLUTION: Starting with the management team, a full scale interview and assessment of what tools they needed to do their job and what visibility and transparancy they needed to be able to make educated decisions on how to run their individual units. We gained a full understanding of what "done" looked like to them and we assembled a matrix of data, decision making authority and a test for how the data they were now getting was relevant and useful to them in their pursuit of developing strategy and initiatives.

CFO SEATTLE'S ROLE: To gain a comprehensive understanding about what the management team needed to fulill their request for the tools that they need to make decisions and to develop them within the finaince group. To immediately begin auditing not only the the existing financial records, but to produce relevant information to department leads to help them not only define initiatives, but to constantly measure them. Finally, we used our broad expertise in financial analysis and KPI and metric planning to assist in the definition of what their initiatives should look like in an effort to meet and exceed their current mission.

Case Study #2

THE CLIENT: An Eastside manufacturing firm had shown some growth in sales and profitability, but was having difficulty in making the coorolation between profit and cash flow as they had drawn nearly $3 million dollars off their line of credit in an 18 month period. Now, with a different business climate on the horizon and a weakening sales pipeline, the fact that their resources had nearly come to an end threatened the viability of their company. Additionally, relationships with vendors and other partners was becoming strained due to neglegent cash flow planning and process.

THE CHALLENGE: Our immediate challenge where time was of the essence was to get a handle on cash flow management. This business had nearly come to the end of their 3rd party line of credit, had a questionable sales pipeline and needed up-front capital to be able to enter into the jobs that their sales team had sold or the company would turn away this business and made questionable their status as an ongoing concern.

THE SOLUTION: Immediately reviewing their cash planning process uncovered severe inefficiencies and planning, so the first part of the engagement was spent in developing yearly cash flow projection models that gave a clear view of what the future looked like based on potential earnings against what the liabilities of the company were. By being more intentional around the discipline of planning, vendor relationships improved and the need to continue going back to the line of credit was nearly eliminiated just through the careful management of inflows and outflows.

CFO SEATTLE'S ROLE: To drive the process in getting the finance team on board with a complete overhaul of their cash flow planning process. We created and developed the models that helped management get a clear view on where cash came into the company and when. It was particularly important as it related to their banking and vendor relationships. After just two months, they were able to begin paying down the line of credit that had been so mismanaged and gained themselves some resources and piece of mind that they would weather the downward pressure on their sales pipeline.

Case Study #3

THE CLIENT: Technology client in Redmond, Washington

THE CHALLENGE: To discern what was working well within the department and to identify the shortcomings in the relevance and quality of information that was being reported and to change the conversation about what was required from finance to give management the data that they needed to develop the strategy.

THE SOLUTION: Starting with the management team, a full scale interview and assessment of what tools they needed to do their job and what visibility and transparency they needed to be able to make educated decisions on how to run their individual units. We gained a full understanding of what "done" looked like to them and we assembled a matrix of data, decision making authority and a test for how the data they were now getting was relevant and useful to them in their pursuit of developing strategy and initiatives.

CFO SEATTLE'S ROLE: To gain a comprehensive understanding about what the management team needed to fulfill their request for the tools that they need to make decisions and to develop them within the finance group. To immediately begin auditing not only the existing financial records, but to produce relevant information to department leads to help them not only define initiatives, but to constantly measure them. Finally, we used our broad expertise in financial analysis and KPI and metric planning to assist in the definition of what their initiatives should look like in an effort to meet and exceed their current mission.