We are a third-generation family business transitioning from the 2nd to 3rd generation. Our CFO and office manager passed away unexpectedly, leaving no backup and limited training for me. He managed the business’s non-sales and technical aspects for over 40 years, including accounting, payroll, taxes, and vendor relations. Our systems are outdated, manual, and paper-heavy. Despite bringing in temporary help, I’m still the key point of contact trying to explain the complex processes. I need a consultant to analyze our procedures and recommend modern software and efficient practices. What type of professional could help with this?
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A Swiss army knife consultant is what you need someone who has seen it all and can sort through the spaghetti. or perhaps just get your old CFO’s spirit to communicate through a psychic.
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In the office, we have a dark joke where we shake his urn like a magic eight ball to get answers. How was the depreciation on office computers calculated? Shake, shake, shake four years in a straight line. Many thanks.
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Alternatively, you may allow me to correct it as, when I did, the line wasn’t quite straight. 
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I have exceptional psychic abilities and work well with spirits, whether they be CFOs or not.
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Could you elaborate on this? In these words, I’m not sure I understand completely.
As a result, all I have to do is serve as the intermediary between all the pieces in order to try and, as best I can, explain what the method entails and why it is done, as well as to recreate it temporarily.
attempting to determine what the fractionals’ problem was. Was it that they were just entering, understanding the procedures, and then replicating them without making any changes? Or is there another possibility?
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Thanks for your question. The fractional accountants couldn’t work with our outdated accounting system, which doesn’t allow remote access. They didn’t have the time to learn the system from scratch, so I had to guide them step-by-step through screenshares. Many processes are also done in Excel, with hundreds of ledgers that take hours to sort through. With only 10-20 hours a month, a fractional accountant couldn’t handle it all. I’m working to get our trial balances accurate enough to move to QuickBooks, but many office procedures remain deeply tied to the old system, awaiting a suitable CRM and POS solution.
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I understand the issue now. Instead of sorting through all the Excel ledgers to finalize an updated trial balance (TB) in the old system, do you have a reliable TB or set of financials from a recent point in time? From my experience, moving off old ERPs is often easier by finding a trusted date, journaling it as a single entry in the new platform, and rebuilding from there. With your Excel ledgers, AR, AP, and cash subtotals can be ported over, and QBO or Bill.com can handle invoicing and AP short-term. Prioritizing the new system may help stabilize things faster.
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A fifteen-year veteran in payments, right here.
Numerous industry-specific ERPs that I have seen ought to address this.
It’s likely that the kind of person you’re looking for needs to have industry-specific experience. Could you tell us whatever industry you are in without going into details about your product?
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Our last user is laundry and dry cleaning. We manufacture our goods on contract and sell straight to them. In actuality, we are merely a distributor who solely offers our own goods; all procurement of raw materials, manufacturing, and storage are handled by our manufacturer under contract. All we do is instruct them on where to ship it.