Close Accurately. Report on Time. Support Decisions.
Most lower middle-market companies have never been sponsor-backed before acquisition. Finance teams are lean, processes undocumented, systems poorly integrated. Without stabilization: delayed closes, unreliable reporting, and decisions made without reliable data.
We assess and stabilize finance operations across people, process, and technology—ensuring your portfolio company can close the books accurately, report on time, and support the business from Day One.
Revenue recognition, billing, collections, cash application
Purchasing, vendor management, AP processing, expense management
Month-end close, reconciliations, consolidation, financial reporting
Budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, KPI development
The month-end close is where finance function weaknesses surface first. A company that takes fifteen-plus business days to close can't deliver the monthly reporting package on the sponsor's calendar, and every downstream decision runs on stale numbers. We rebuild the close process around four disciplines:
A documented, day-by-day close calendar with named owners for every task—so the close runs on a schedule, not on memory
AR, AP, inventory, and payroll sub-ledgers closed on time and reconciled to the general ledger, with aged reconciling items worked down—not carried forward
Consistent revenue and expense cutoff procedures and a standing accruals process, so results don't swing on timing noise
Month-over-month and budget-versus-actual variance review before the package goes out, so Finance explains the numbers rather than discovering them in the sponsor meeting
The target: a five to eight business day close producing a reporting package the sponsor trusts. Close mechanics differ by sector—job costing in home services, deferred revenue in SaaS, inventory in manufacturing—see the industries we serve for how stabilization work changes by vertical.
Every FFS engagement includes a targeted review to identify critical deficiencies—process gaps, control weaknesses, key-person dependencies, and system limitations—that could compromise the investment thesis if left unaddressed.
Finance function stabilization is the process of assessing and strengthening a company’s finance operations—people, process, and technology—so it can close the books accurately, report on time, and support decision-making. It matters most after a private equity acquisition, when a company faces sponsor-level reporting expectations for the first time.
Ideally at or before Day One. The first priority is stabilizing core operations and establishing a reporting cadence; by Day 100 the focus shifts to optimizing processes, implementing quick wins, and building a foundation for scale.
We cover the four core cycles: order-to-cash (revenue recognition, billing, collections, cash application), procure-to-pay (purchasing, vendor management, AP, expense management), record-to-report (month-end close, reconciliations, consolidation, financial reporting), and FP&A (budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, KPI development).
Every stabilization engagement includes a targeted review to surface critical deficiencies—process gaps, control weaknesses, key-person dependencies, and system limitations—that could compromise the investment thesis if left unaddressed.
A sponsor-backed company should target a five to eight business day close. Most lower middle-market companies start at fifteen or more. The gap is rarely about effort—it comes from missing close calendars, manual reconciliations, and unclear cutoff procedures, and it is usually fixable within one or two close cycles.
The usual suspects: no documented close calendar or checklist, sub-ledgers that don’t tie to the general ledger, heavy spreadsheet dependency outside the ERP, late AP and revenue cutoff, and key-person bottlenecks where only one person knows how a number gets produced.
Every portfolio company is different. Let's discuss your specific challenges.
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