Virtas Partners was engaged by a private equity firm to assist with the stand-up of the finance organization for a platform acquisition that had been a corporate carve-out.
Client Background
The acquired business was a more than 100-year-old division of a linen products distributor and manufacturer. As is typical in corporate carve-outs, the acquired business came with limited finance function infrastructure and support through transition service agreements (TSAs) that our private equity firm client wanted replaced with stand-alone operations as soon as possible. On day 1, there were no functional business processes in place to handle monthly reporting, debt reporting and the budgeting and forecasting reporting requirements. In addition, the systems in place to support reporting functions were outdated and only available during the duration of the TSAs.
Scope of Services
- Finance Function Stand-Up Planning – First 100 Day Plan
- Transition PMO
- Transaction Accounting
- Purchase Price Adjustment Support
- Budget and Forecasting Process Design & Implementation
- Bank Reporting Process Design & Implementation
- Board Reporting Support
- Stub Period Audit Support
- Close Process Support
- ERP Selection & Implementation
- KPI Creation
- KPI Implementation to PowerBI
- Ad-Hoc Accounting & Finance Support
Challenges
- Archaic ERP system without documented processes
- Limited finance resources with institutional knowledge
- Competing priorities for management resulting in delays
- Hiring delays and finance team turnover
- Complete business disruption from COVID-19
- Project disruption from COVID-19 in the middle of ERP implementation
Significant Milestones
- Purchase price allocation and audit review completed on target
- Monthly reporting process implemented
- 2020 Financial Plan (Budget) completed
- Finance TSAs successfully migrated
- ERP selection completed
- ERP implementation managed and Go-Live date accomplished despite the disruption from COVID-19
Value to Client
- Finance organization successfully “stood up” within the committed timeline
- Transaction accounting and corresponding review with the Audit firm completed
- Strategic advisor “on the ground” for the first 120 days of ownership
- Access to resources to handle surges required to complete critical finance transition tasks
- ERP go-live date hit despite significant and unforeseen challenges