A client called me up a few months ago and asked if I could be there interim FD while they got to the bottom of their business complexity and decided on their actual requirements. We found agreement in the scope, the requirement on my time and the fee.
Initially I was shocked by the mess of transactions in the account. Inconsistent treatment of transactions, lack of order and organization. I got to work cleaning up the account, and trying to bring the reports into order.
As I went through this process, I was learning more and more about the issues faced by financial users of Netsuite. While the account was being cleaned up, we also slimmed down on excessive business processes and improved operational user ability to ‘help themselves’.
The engagement has had its issues, we’ve faced user resistance and user disspare along the way which has been difficult to manage but the learnings and insight have been tremendously rewarding.
From this engagement I’ve drafted a handbook for effective financial administration best practices. It’s a cheat sheet of suggestions to deal with the platforms idiosyncratics in recording financial transactions, and in particular those which cause the greatest user stress.
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