Services · CFO & advisory
Operational analysis
How work actually moves through your business, where it slows down or leaks, and practical tools your team keeps using after we have finished.
Looking behind the results
Financial results show what happened. Operations explain why: how orders become cash, how purchases are approved, how the month is closed and how capacity is used. When a process waits, repeats work or depends on one person, the cost reaches the accounts long after the cause.
We map how your processes actually run, which is often not how they are written down, measure where time and money are lost, and compare performance with your own history and plans. Then we build the tools your team needs to keep improving: dashboards, trackers and decision models that stay with you.
What we examine
Finance and operations together, because many problems sit where one hands work to the other.
Process mapping
Order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, record-to-report, payroll and inventory, step by step: who does what, in which system, with which document, and where work passes between people.
Bottlenecks and rework
Where work waits for approval, is keyed twice, is corrected after the fact or depends on a single person, measured from system records and from samples traced end to end.
Control gaps
Missing approvals, incompatible duties held by one person, reconciliations not performed and manual overrides. Where a full risk and control matrix is needed, see internal controls.
KPI frameworks
A small set of linked measures: operational ones that move first, such as order backlog or days taken to close the month, and the financial results that follow. Each has a definition, a source, an owner and a target.
Profitability and capacity analysis
Utilisation of people and equipment, throughput, the headroom left before the next hire or machine, and where additional volume would earn the most (see cost analysis).
Benchmarking
Performance compared with your own history, your budget and plans, and between your own sites, branches or teams, so every comparison uses data you can verify.
Signs it is time to look
Operational problems usually appear first as delay, and only later as cost.
- The month-end close takes longer as the business grows
- Headcount has risen faster than output
- Branches or sites do the same work in different ways
- Key processes live in the heads of a few people
- A new system is planned, and processes should be fixed before they are automated (see digital transformation)
- An acquisition or restructuring has brought teams and systems together
Tools we hand over
Built for your team to run, documented, and handed over with training.
Dashboards
Operational and financial KPIs drawn from your own systems, in a fixed layout refreshed each period.
Trackers
Month-end close checklists, collection trackers, purchase approval logs and action registers that show what is done and what is overdue.
Decision models
Capacity, staffing, make-or-buy and branch profitability models, with assumptions in one place so managers can test options themselves.
Process documentation
Process maps and written procedures that a new joiner can follow, kept in a form your team can update.
How an engagement runs
A defined piece of work with a written scope, not an open-ended review.
Agree the question
We start from the problem you want solved and agree the processes, sites and period in scope.
Observe and measure
We interview your team, walk through each process, take system extracts and trace transactions from start to finish.
Analyse and recommend
Findings are ranked by their effect and the effort needed to fix them, and reviewed by a partner before they reach you.
Build and hand over
Tools are built, tested with your team and handed over with training, then reviewed once they are in use.
Questions
Do you compare us with other businesses in our industry?
Our benchmarking uses your own history, budgets and plans, and compares your own sites or teams with each other. Every figure is then defined the same way and can be traced to your records.
Will the tools work without you?
Yes. Each tool is documented, built in software you already use and handed over with training, so your team can run it. If you would rather we maintained it, that can be part of the scope.
How is this different from an accounting health check?
An accounting health check reviews the condition of your records and compliance. Operational analysis looks at how work flows through the business and what that does to cost, capacity and control.
Will you need access to our systems?
Usually read-only access to the accounting system and extracts from operational systems. Your files are open only to the partner and team assigned to you, and documents move through our encrypted client portal rather than email.
Speak with a partner
Every enquiry is read by a partner and answered within one business day. Meetings are held at our offices, at yours, or by video.