Results

Building an Accounting Department

A restaurant company wanted to grow their business by adding a catering division to their portfolio. As the catering division grew, the accounting work became too burdensome for the restaurant accounting team to handle. This situation caused revenues to be recorded incorrectly or not at all, incomplete bank reconciliations, uncollected accounts receivable, and inaccurate late financial reporting. If a team was not established quickly, the catering division would have no way of knowing their profitability.  I created a strong accounting team consisting of a Controller and four staff accounts. Within a few months, the team was able to correct all of the back log of mistakes, as well as keep the day-to-day work going in a timely manner. This hard work created more accurate financials, which assisted operations in running their units more efficiently. It also created a positive synergy between accounting and operations with fewer miscommunications.

Surviving a Bankruptcy Restructuring

A restaurant company was in financial disarray and needed to sell the business by declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the time of hire, the Accounting Department was new and inexperienced after going through three CFOs. The company was in serious default. With outstanding vendor debt, they were struggling to make payroll on a continuous basis. If cash flow was not controlled more diligently, the company would have to close all operations because of non-delivery of products and the departure of disgruntled employees. In a one-year period of time, we were able to keep the restaurant company operating on a shoe string cash flow and not have to close all operations.  This was a remarkable feat, considering that we had no cash infusion from the prospective buyer and that catering sales were decreasing rapidly during the bankruptcy restructuring process. The outsourcing of the accounting functions not only netted a savings of $125k, but also gave me the ability to manage the day-to-day accounting with far better controls. This also allowed the buyers to incorporate their accounting team seamlessly.