Permanent Financial Management
Sutker Moran allows Owners/Management to be comfortable that the financial end of their business is being managed well. We possess the technical knowledge of an accountant, the financial acumen of a CFO, the diverse expertise of an outside consultant, and the results-oriented focus of a member of your management team.
Our model is simple – We act as a “nearby corporate office” streamlining accounting processes that reduce the cost of day-to-day accounting operations, allowing us to provide FULL-COVERAGE, HIGH-LEVEL CFO/Controller Management for substantially less cost than that of a W-2 employee.
By providing you with comprehensive CFO management services, we:
- Ensure accurate accounting and timely reporting
- Effectively manage your financial-related issues
- Modify and develop your accounting and operational systems
- Perform financial and operational profitability analyses
- Improve your liquidity/working capital
- Ensure optimal financing
- Reduce administrative expenses
- Develop operational business plans
…and in short, become your trusted, hands-on financial advisor.
Case Study: Inheriting a disorganized accounting department
$25 million Wholesale Eyewear company
Overview
The Chief Financial Officer of a $25 million Wholesale Eyewear company resigned right before the end of the year. The accounting staff and the president had limited knowledge of the innerworkings of this disorganized area of their business.
Solution
Sutker Moran was hired as the interim CFO and immediately began to finalize year-end financials where they found insufficient, inaccurate, as well as confusing financial information. Sutker painstakingly refined the closing process and continued to facilitate the annual CPA review. In previous years, this was a huge pain point for everyone involved. The CPA firm was thrilled with the new clarity of the financial information allowing them to work quicker and not push up against tax filing deadlines like they had in the past. Management was also thrilled because the CPA’s fees were significantly less than in prior years. Sutker then created robust financial projections to track the Company’s monthly financial performance, which has led to in-depth conversations with ownership on how to improve their results. Given the acquired knowledge of the business and proven quality, Sutker Moran was named to the permanent CFO position, which was not something ownership even considered when first engaged as the interim CFO.
Case Study: The Numbers Do Not Add Up
$65 Million Food & Beverage Distributor
Overview
A large middle-market Global Food & Beverage Distributor was reporting profits. However, it had no liquidity being tapped out on its line of credit facility and late on vendor payments. The accounts receivable and inventory balance grew significantly. Unhappy with their outsourced CFO, they terminated the firm.
Solution
Sutker Moran took over the outsourced CFO and Controller roles, diving into the financials and identifying gross mistakes and misrepresentations. As a result of providing the owners with a true, realistic financial picture that reflected significant operating losses, Sutker Moran collaborated with ownership and implemented a major restructuring based on their customer profitability analysis and their strategic zero-base analysis of expenses. With a return to strong, credible profitability, Sutker Moran succeeded in helping the Company obtain more conventional financing that provided sufficient working capital to fund the Company’s growth strategies. As the Company’s permanent outsourced CFO/Controller and management team member, Sutker Moran provides timely and accurate financial statements and analysis, manages cash, develops annual financial projections and interim financial forecasting, as well as recently assisted in the implementation of a new enterprise system.
Case Study: Keep the Plumbers Plumbing and the Accountants Accounting
$15 million Plumbing and HVAC subcontractor in the Construction Industry
Overview
A Father/Daughter Duo started and successfully grew their plumbing and HVAC business. While the cash was flowing in, the business was becoming more complex, the ability to understand performance was difficult and keeping track of the numbers was a burden.
Solution
Sutker Moran was hired and immediately created an accurate WIP schedule to provide meaningful job profitability results as well as created KPI and Operational Metrics to report revenues and gross profit by project team and customer. These analyses helped the team improve project management and identify poorly performing projects.
We then focused on creating a formal monthly closing process which provided a fully accurate picture of the company’s financial performance and, as a by-product, reduced their CPA’s year-end review cost since all the books and records were pristine.
With the processes in place, Sutker Moran has transitioned into the CFO/Controller role. With a high level of comfort that their financial department is being managed well, “the plumbers are now focused on the plumbing.”
Case Study: A Critical Fix Results in a CEO’s Confidence and a Permanent Solution
$20 Million Multi-Entity Healthcare-related business
Business Overview
The CEO of a $20 million multi-entity healthcare-related business terminated his less than competent CFO and needed interim help.
Solution
Sutker Moran quickly stepped in and immediately identified various issues including unreported financials for six months, significant IRS problems, a deteriorating banking relationship, as well as gross accounting department inefficiencies.
Sutker Moran painstakingly went through the process of remedying each of these issues culminating in preparing timely and accurate monthly financials, restoring the banking relationship, restructuring the accounting department personnel, and completing a successful CPA review of the year-end financial statements.
Having earned the CEO’s confidence, the Company hired Sutker Moran to be the permanent CFO and play an integral role as the Company seeks to execute its growth-oriented business plan.
Case Study: Start-up’s CFO Suddenly left
Overview
With the departure of their CFO without any notice, this tech start-up, capitalized with over $35 million dollars, needed to act swiftly to shore up its financial management as well as provide comfort to its outside investors.
Solution
With absolutely zero transition time, Sutker Moran stepped in right away into the CFO role. Since all Sutker Moran employees are trained to efficiently and effectively onboard financial management positions, Sutker Moran did not “miss a beat” by closing and reporting financial statements within the allowed timeframe in the first month of the engagement.
Once established, Sutker Moran brought the financials to GAAP standard and assisted with year-end forecasting including never-performed balance sheet and cash flow projections. As now their permanent outsourced CFO, Sutker Moran assists with audits, tax studies, and financial reporting, as well as manages the accounting department.
Case Study: “Seat of their Pants” No Longer Worked
Overview
A self-performing construction company, while established, always ran its company “by the seat of their pants”. Ownership, finance, and operations rarely communicated. Furthermore, with financials always late, the Company’s lender lost faith in the Company’s CPA firm and its controller.
Solution
Sutker Moran stepped in, first, to clean up the financial statements, ensure payroll taxes were brought into good standing, and, overall, provided a level of comfort to the Company’s lender regarding its financial position. Once stabilized, Sutker Moran established a consistent monthly close process, recommended a highly regarded CPA firm, developed budget-to-actual analysis and gave management the tools they needed to successfully operate their business. Sutker Moran continues to be the Company’s Controller/CFO at a significantly lower cost than the prior controller.
Case Study: The Controller’s resignation leads to the discovery of financial misstatements. Then, profit-enhancing actions.
Overview
When the Controller of a $11 million fabricator resigned, the Company’s lender referred Sutker Advisors to ownership/management. Once hired as the Company’s CFO/Controller, Sutker performed a high-level review of the financial statements where they recognized liquidity was very tight, profitability was minimal, and inventory continued to rise.
Solution
Sutker began its onboarding process of reconciling every balance sheet account. During this process, Sutker identified a significant overstatement in inventory. The restated financial statements revealed the Company was losing money.
Sutker and management conducted a thorough analysis of the business resulting in $600,000 of profit enhancements that included position eliminations, insurance cost reductions, and reductions in discretionary expenses. Sutker further helped enhance liquidity by facilitating the restructuring of the Company’s bank term loan, saving $50 thousand per month.
Case Study: First Skeptical. Now, a Promoter!
Overview
A $45 million General Contractor was interviewing candidates to fill its open Controller position. With the prolonged vacancy, the financial statements had not been closed for five months.
Solution
The Company Owner was told of Sutker Morans’ services by his lender. The owner was very skeptical of Sutker’s reported ability to provide full-coverage, high-level CFO/Controller services for significantly less cost of a W2 employee. He took our call as a courtesy to his lender. Intrigued, the owner and we had several follow-up conversations where he eventually hired Sutker over the leading W2 candidate.
Given we were hired during COVID, the entire onboarding process was done remotely. Sutker installed its standard monthly closing process, developed monthly financial analysis, developed monthly financial projections, and instituted a monthly senior management meeting to review financial results and discuss anticipated future operational needs.
The Company recommended us to a $100 million General Contractor they know. We are now also their CFO/Controller.
Case Study: A Revolving Door Leads to an Interim, then a Permanent Solution to Company’s Financial Management
$100 Million General Contractor
Overview
A $100 Million multi-entity Construction Company found themselves yet again in need of a Controller. Their current Controller, in the role for only four months, quit. This was their fourth head change in the seat in just two years. The financial statements were in disarray, complicated by a general ledger system upgrade that was in progress.
Solution
Referred in by a friendly competitor of the Company, Sutker Moran took over the CFO/Controller role providing full-coverage CFO/Controller services at significantly less cost than a W2 employee. Sutker simultaneously reconciled every balance sheet account while developing and implementing a formal monthly close process. Sutker then focused on the Company’s convoluted WIP projection process. Sutker Moran, first, gained a thorough understanding of the existing process. Then, teamed with the Senior Management Team to reimagine a new formal process tailor-made for the Company’s operations. Armed with meaningful information, Sutker Advisors, as the Company’s CFO/Controller, challenges project managers with cost issues and helps identify operational under-performance.
Case Study: Here Comes the Calvary!!
$100 million IT-based solutions provider
Overview
A highly successful $100 million IT-based solutions provider urgently needed an interim Controller after the permanent Controller and the Company suddenly parted ways. The Company was in the midst of discussions with various private equity groups regarding a partial sale, switching banks, an upcoming annual audit beginning, as well as an ERP conversion.
Solution
Referred by the Company’s lender, Sutker Moran was hired (or as the Company’s owner referred to Sutker as “The Calvary”) as the interim Controller to facilitate the audit as well as manage the accounting staff. Sutker, first, corrected the financial statements. Then, Sutker successfully managed the Company through the audit process. Impressed with Sutker’s responsiveness and quality of work, the Owner ended his search for a W2 employee and hired Sutker full-time. Sutker now provides full-coverage CFO/Controller services at significantly less cost than a W2 employee, that started with the bank transition, managing the ERP conversion, as well as performing all financial duties related to the partial sale.
Case Study: Without Accurate Financial Information, Losses Accumulated
$30 Million Self-Performing Construction Company
Overview
A $30 million self-performing construction company has always lacked the necessary financial information to run their business profitability, especially the status of jobs-in-progress. Without accurate financial information, project managers had difficulty managing their jobs. The Company kept on running through various ineffective Controllers.
Solution
The cost-conscious owner hired Sutker Moran as their permanent CFO/Controller as Sutker could provide full-coverage, high-level CFO/Controller acumen for significantly less cost than W2 employees. Sutker, immediately, focused on the monthly WIP report leveraging their experience to create an accurate, meaningful, but simple report that the project managers could understand and use to manage their projects. Most importantly, Sutker developed processes and painstakingly implemented procedures surrounding the accounting/managing of the projects as well as other operational areas, resulting in a positive cultural change within the organization.
Case Study: Two-Weeks turned into One-Week Notice
$30 million distributor to the Construction Industry
The Controller for a $30 million distributor gave her two-week notice. The following day the owner called his lender for advice. The Lender recommended Sutker Moran. That next day, he gave us a call to hear what we were all about. The following day, he called us back and asked if we can sit with the ongoing Controller to assess the position. We went there the next day, which was already Friday!
We are experts in financial management. So, we told the owner there was nothing out of the ordinary and quoted him a fee which was substantially less than the cost of his W2 employee.
Skeptical about our permanent outsourced model, he hired us as the temporary controller where we onboarded the position for the one week the outgoing Controller had remaining. Proving our model, we, now, are the permanent Controller providing timely and accurate financial statements, managing the staff, and addressing accounting issues as they arise.
Case Study: Hands-On Advice Coupled with Solid Financial Management
$10 million Designer/Distributor of Woman Apparel
A growing, but under-capitalized designer/distributor of women's apparel hired Sutker Moran to take responsibility for the financial end of its business. Sutker Moran reduced the Company’s financial department cost by 60% while taking on the CFO role through the accounts payable functions. Through collaboration with other members of the management team, the Company is poised to have its best year ever.
Case Study: A Bank Prospect: A Burgeoning Business with no Financial Plan
$120 Million Cell Phone Wholesaler and Distributor
A high-net-worth individual started a turnkey cell phone wholesale and distribution company with three interconnecting companies. He self-funded the rapidly growing company with $10 million as the Company reached $40 million in annual revenue.
Confident about the upward trajectory of his business, the owner reached out to a Chicago-based bank to provide a working capital loan to fund the growth. However, to this point, the accounting was done “out of a shoebox” and there was no financial information supporting his working capital line request.
With a complicated turnkey business model that has thin margins, the Bank needed to gain comfort with the business and what the true capital need was.
The lender referred us to their prospect. We assessed the business and developed a financing memorandum that thoroughly explained the model and provided financial projections that mapped out the initial working capital need.
With a satisfactory comfort level, the Bank approved a less than maximum working capital line with the understanding of a six-month revisit to determine if additional capital was needed.
Sutker, then, developed processes and procedures to provide timely and accurate financial information to the owner and lender which led to formally becoming the Company’s Outside CFO and key member of the management team.
Now, a year-and-a-half since the start of our engagement, the Company’s current run rate is $120 million with a projected $2 million in net income with additional working capital support from its Lender.
Case Study: “Team Approach” Allows Company to Continue on Profitable Path
$7 million Maker of Home Décor Products
The CFO of a home décor company left soon after the Company’s controller retired, leaving a large void in the financial/accounting department. Sutker Moran took on a leadership role, quickly assessing and understanding the Company’s financial systems and operations. As a result, the accounting department continued without disruption. Sutker Advisors generated timely and accurate financial statements and identified areas for profit enhancement. Showing its value, Sutker became the Company's permanent CFO/Controller.
Case Study: Analyzing the Facts and Making a Decision
$18 million Global Marketing Service Organization
A middle-market marketing organization began to service an overseas client and wanted to build an organizational presence there. Sutker, as the Company's CFO, gathered and analyzed the start-up and ongoing costs required to support this endeavor. Based upon an expected gross margin percentage, Sutker provided management with the revenue requirements in order to break even, expected payback period, as well as projected profitability at various revenue levels, all of which management used to make its decision.
Case Study: Lack of Information Made it Difficult to Run Business
$60 million Commodity Product Broker
Overview
A growing, profitable commodity-item broker never knew how its year would come out as it always had last-minute, year-end surprises on its financial statements. Furthermore, the paper trail of transactions, essential to a brokerage business, was in disarray.
Solution
Sutker reorganized administrative processes, allowing for a clear delineation of duties that resulted in the efficient and accurate processing of transactions. We also developed comprehensive monthly projections, complete with accruals that allowed ownership and management to understand and anticipate its financial circumstances; Standardized the closing process, improving the timeliness and accuracy of the financial statements; Developed a monthly gross margin analysis by customer, product line, and customer order to help understand profitability; Finally, Sutker provided a monthly detailed analysis of results, including the Company’s performance versus projections.
Case Study: One Giant Black Hole
$18 million Global Marketing Service Organization
Overview
A marketing services firm had a vast organization of talented individuals who priced potential opportunities based upon their own experiences, causing disparity amongst the quotes. Furthermore, these estimates were never compared to the actual cost incurred, resulting in uncertainty regarding job profitability and the validity of the estimates, themselves.
Solution
Through extensive interviews and analysis, Sutker developed a consensual, standard pricing template that was used for all estimates. With the estimates’ standardized, Sutker, working with the Company’s IT Department, developed a labor tracking system that mirrored the estimating template, allowing for relevant actual vs. estimate analysis. Proving its value, Sutker became the Company's outsourced CFO.
Case Study: Building Financial Acumen leads to Competitive Advantage
$80 million distributor to the Construction Industry
A middle-market construction-related company seeking to increase its competitive advantage eliminated its controller position and hired Sutker Moran at significantly less cost to prepare and analyze monthly financial statements, attend monthly management meetings, and provide guidance when financial issues arise from time to time.
Sutker Moran develops, in conjunction with other senior management, the company’s annual operating plan, provides monthly analysis on customer and product line profitability, as well as variances to budget. In addition, Sutker reviews administrative expenses, recently being instrumental in reducing the company’s corporate insurance by 40%.
Management Saw Roadblock Ahead and Changed Course
$18 million Global Marketing Service Organization
After a very successful year, a project-based international marketing firm invested in its infrastructure -- started a regional office, hired a senior sales executive, etc. After developing the monthly financial projections at the beginning of the new year, Sutker, as the Outsourced CFO, reforecasted the projections monthly incorporating updated potential projects and changes in the expense structure. Starting in July, Sutker/Management saw softening in the backlog for the 4th quarter and into the following year. This softness increased when Sutker reforecasted in August. Seeing the financial impact to the reduced business, both in profits and liquidity, Management took proactive steps to reduce its expense structure in anticipation of the lower 4th quarter revenue.
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