Accounting & Advisory Transformation for a U.S. Architecture & Design Firm

Client Story

The client is a U.S.-based architecture and design firm running several large projects at once across multiple departments, with annual revenue above USD $50 million. Project-based work means every engagement comes with its own team, costs and billing rhythm, so complexity rises with each new project the firm takes on. As revenue crossed $50M and the project list kept growing, finance needed to grow with it.

The Bottleneck

1. Decentralised, non-standardised project budgeting: Each project built its budget independently, making consolidation and firm-wide planning difficult.
2. Limited visibility into financial assumptions: Drivers such as attrition, salary escalations and consultant costs were not consistently captured, so plans reflected judgment rather than modelled assumptions.
3. Delayed daily accounting operations: Bank reconciliations, cash application and revenue recognition were running behind, while a vendor invoice pile-up was pushing payment timelines out.
4. Close and reporting cadence out of sync with the business: Monthly reporting was taking up to 45 days, and cash forecasting depended on CFO bandwidth — leaving leadership without a timely view of performance or liquidity.
5. Audit readiness and ERP adoption gaps: High external audit dependency with limited in-house readiness, and Deltek Vantagepoint ERP under-utilised relative to its capability.

The Solution

1. Centralised, driver-based budgeting framework: Built a single budgeting structure with financial modelling services covering attrition, salary hikes and consultant cost escalations, plus Base/Optimistic/Conservative scenario analysis.
2. Automated consolidation and management reporting: Enabled automated consolidation and built management dashboards and board-ready reports, giving leadership one consistent view of the business.
3. Daily accounting operations reset: Instituted daily bank reconciliation services and cash application and streamlined Accounts Payable (AP) with maker-reviewer controls and trackers to clear the vendor invoice backlog.
4. Accelerated close and weekly cash forecasting: Restructured month-end close with defined timelines and targeted automation and moved cash forecasting to a weekly cadence — removing CFO dependency for routine liquidity visibility.
5. FAR audit preparation and ERP enablement: Delivered FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) audit preparation and documentation, and drove full adoption of Deltek Vantagepoint ERP through training, SOPs and ongoing support.

The Impact

• Accelerated month-end close from 45 days to 20 — a 55% reduction — with materially faster reporting agility.
• Improved audit readiness by 30–40% and eliminated ~$10K of external audit dependency.
• Cleared 90–95% of the vendor invoice backlog and stabilised payment cycles.
• Established near real-time revenue recognition with daily reconciliations across ~500 transactions per month.
• Increased budgeting accuracy by 20–30% through a driver-based planning framework with Base/Optimistic/Conservative scenarios.
• Delivered a scalable financial framework with Deltek Vantagepoint ERP fully adopted through training, SOPs and ongoing support.

Closing Statement

When a project-based services firm scales, the budgeting model usually breaks before the team does. FinAdvantage’s approach — driver-based planning, a structured month-end close and full ERP adoption — is what lets finance keep pace as the firm scales.

If your firm has grown but finance is still running on decentralised processes and a slow month-end close, we can help. Facing a similar challenge? Book a free 30-minute consultation with FinAdvantage →