Accounting & Financial Reporting Consultant: What They Do & How They Help

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Maintaining a reliable and efficient system for accounting and financial reporting is challenging for any business. For best results, it’s often more beneficial in terms of time and cost to turn to a trusted partner for growth.

As experts in helping businesses improve their accounting and financial reporting capabilities, we’ve outlined everything you need to know about accounting and financial reporting consultants.

Things to know about Accounting and Financial Reporting consultants:

  1. What is Accounting and Financial Reporting?
  2. What does an Accounting and Financial Reporting consultant do?
  3. What are the benefits of hiring an Accounting and Financial Reporting consultant?
  4. When should you hire an Accounting and Financial Reporting consultant?

What is Accounting and Financial Reporting?

Accounting and financial reporting involves preparing accurate financial statements (re: summaries of financial activities over a set period of time, including balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements and more) for investor, lender, auditor or other stakeholder review.

What does an Accounting and Financial Reporting consultant do?

Accounting and financial reporting consultants maintain an accurate, timely and effective system of financial reporting and internal controls. They work closely with your employees and high-level executives to meet key project deadlines, improve processes and ensure resources are allocated to where they’re most needed in order to develop an effective and scalable finance and accounting function.

Skills and duties of Accounting and Financial Reporting consultants:

  • General Ledger and Consolidation Accounting
  • SEC-related reporting requirements: Forms 10-K, 10-Q, S-1, S-3, S-4
  • Re-engineering of company-wide reporting processes
  • FASB Pronouncement analysis and implementation
  • Technical accounting, including technical memo and accounting policy creation and implementation of new accounting pronouncements
  • Post-merger accounting integration
  • Reporting package development
  • Financial audit planning and coordination
  • Consolidated financial statement preparation
  • Streamlining of monthly closing processes
  • Creation, review and documentation of internal control policy and procedures
  • Conducting risk assessments and internal audits
  • Ensuring SOX compliance
  • Acquisition and divestiture analysis
  • Preparation of Annual Operating and 5-Year Plans
  • Capital Expenditure analysis and planning

What are the benefits of hiring an Accounting and Financial Reporting consultant?

  • Access to unparalleled industry expertise
  • Accurate, reliable and timely accounting and financial reporting
  • Time and money saved through strategic planning and quality deliverables to meet key project deadlines
  • Seamless communication with investors, lenders, auditors and other stakeholders
  • Compliance with laws, regulations, standards and best practices

When should you hire an Accounting and Financial Reporting consultant?

In order to drive growth in an ever-changing landscape, every company needs to have solid processes for accounting and financial reporting.

As such, it’s often more beneficial to turn to outside expertise rather than adding to your current team’s roles or responsibilities.

Whatever your business needs may look like, hiring an accounting and financial reporting consultant from the get-go is essential for obtaining the necessary guidance and expertise you need to improve your financial reporting processes, achieve objectives and drive growth.

Signs it’s time to hire an Accounting and Financial Reporting consultant:

  • You don’t have anyone on your current team who understands what is needed to develop accurate and reliable accounting and financial reports
  • You’re experiencing difficulty navigating complex finance and accounting reporting requirements
  • You’ve already developed financial reports but have identified errors or inaccuracies
  • You’re facing stringent deadlines and having difficulty navigating auditor, lendor or other stakeholder requests

Looking for a Trusted Partner?

DLC is a professional services firm helping companies drive transformation and growth, one project at a time. Our team provides flexible, efficient, on-demand execution of your financial projects.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help or explore our services below.