Managed Accounting
Finance Transition in Complex, Hypergrowth Environment

Background

Hypergrowth, nimble and technical leader in the development, ownership & operation of solar, natural gas, wind, and energy storage projects, with a global footprint.

Problems

The company was reliant on an accounting department run entirely by a Controller with the support of an entry-level staff accountant. This Controller provided only bare minimum reporting on often extremely delayed time schedules and with a notable lack of team collaboration. After a delayed and turbulent audit, AG was brought in after the Controller departed, jumping headfirst into audit season while taking the helm of all accounting/finance operations. This was all transpiring as the company was poised for exponential growth.

COGS tracking and reporting were very difficult to calculate for a variety of factors (system constraints, account setups, complex sales channels, etc.).

AG’s Approach & results

AG’s tasks included the following:

• Successfully executed a full external financial audit within the first 4 months of engagement, with the audit report issued on time, and over 3 months earlier than the prior year’s audit.
• Created financial infrastructure for the finance/accounting operations and worked directly with COO and CEO to ensure the structure of operations aligned smoothly with the rapidly growing business (revenue grew ~60% in the first year of engagement).
• Took on a comprehensive finance role including ownership/execution of all day-to-day accounting operations, including monthly financial statement preparation, analysis and formal review with COO and CEO.
• Coordinated all ad hoc finance/accounting requests with various project development leads regarding capital costs, cash flow analysis, etc.
• Assisted with and led finance portions of due diligence for a potential strategic investor