Close
Let's Talk
Close

Let's Talk.

Looking for our offices? View locations.

Case Study

Ensuring Audit Readiness for an Insurance Software Company

Team Size
1 Managing Director, 1 Senior Director, 2 Vice Presidents, 2 Associates
Project Duration
11 months

The Situation

The acquisition of a $500 million revenue software technology company by a dual sponsor led to the Company transiting office locations, accounting teams, and ERP systems. After the departure of the Company’s CFO, they chose Accordion as their partner to initially assist with completing bank reconciliations. Accordion worked with the sponsor and management team to report on the remediation and validation of all current year balance sheet reconciliations, stabilize the order-to-cash, record-to-report, and procure-to-pay processes, and enhance the month-end close process. In addition to managing and improving the accounting function, a key deliverable was a plan for the upcoming annual audit and project management to completion prior to the deadline for lender reporting. As part of the engagement, Accordion was to support the remediation of significant deficiencies and audit readiness through issuance.

Services

Finance Function Assessment & Design

Technical Accounting

Process & Controls Implementation

The Execution

Supported the stand-up & led the overhaul of the accounting function, with a focus on remediating the significant deficiencies as identified in the 2017 audit report:

  • Validated and reconciled all 2018 balance sheet accounts.
  • Evaluated and revised technical accounting memos, including debt modification vs extinguishment and accounting for hedging the floating rate debt.
  • Assessed and improved the cash application and reconciliation process, including sourcing and implementing a cash reconciliation automation tool.

Acted as interim controller per the Company’s request:

  • Completed and reduced the monthly close process from over 20 days to a 5-day close with recommendations on best practices and training staff on proper reconciliation of G/L accounts.
  • Worked with the Management Team to develop a proper timeline of deliverables to facilitate the completion of audit in a timely manner.
  • Interviewed candidates and made recommendations for incoming controller and other staff accounting positions.
  • Drafted the financial statements for the audit report.

The Results

Accordion drove accounting procedure improvements to remediate significant deficiencies. Our team played a key role in implementing the proper processes and validation of accounts to get all year-end accounts reconciled and prepared with documentation for the audit, facilitating a successful audit with analysis, review, and approval of all requests, and recommendations to improve the cash reporting and reconciliation. As a result of the engagement, all four significant deficiencies identified in the 2017 audit were remediated, producing a clean audit report for 2018; the unmatched cash and credit card receipts between the banks and G/L accounts were identified and recommendations for a cash automation tool to cut down on discrepancies significantly were made; technical accounting policies and historical financials in accordance with GAAP were created and updated; process improvements to ensure accurate and efficient recording and reporting were implemented; and reconciliation time was significantly reduced – driving the first fully reconciled month.