Meet James Beaman, One of Our DLC Finance and Accounting Consultants!
Meet our Finance and Accounting Consultant, James Beaman! James has been a valuable part of DLC for 2 years! Get to know him better below!
Hometown: Lake Villa, IL
Alma Mater: Undergrad: Carthage College; MBA: University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Favorite things to do outside of the office: I enjoy running and family time. On the weekends you can find me at my three kids’ sporting events or – less frequently – on the golf course.
How has your background impacted your experience as a consultant? I have had the opportunity to work in a number of strategy and finance roles in companies of various sizes ($80M to $130B) and industries (Retail, Global Manufacturing, Pharmacy) prior to joining DLC. I believe that this experience has allowed me to feel comfortable getting started in new organizations and working on new projects.
What’s a typical workday like for you? My first couple of engagements with DLC have been remote – which has been totally new to me! I like to get a cup of coffee and start the day pretty early to tackle my inbox and make sure I am prepped for that day’s meetings.
As part of a team that works 100% virtually, what technology or collaboration tools do you use to make your work life easier? Even though I am remote, I try to work as though I am in the office with a team. Teams and SharePoint have advanced to the point that it is easy to set up a call and collaborate in real time – it’s almost as good as being in the office.
What motivates you to wake up and go to work every day? I really love problem solving and helping the team I am working with achieve their goals.
What kind of work have you been doing? The client I am working with is private equity backed. They are simultaneously growing rapidly through M&A and preparing themselves for sale. There are many strategic initiatives being deployed across the organization and my role is to quantify and build a budget for the synergy opportunities in the current business, apply these synergy opportunities to potential acquisitions, and – ultimately – capture the value achieved as the initiatives are deployed.
Where do you see the benefits? Much of what I am doing is helping the organization in their decision making and stressing the need to prioritize investments that will drive the most value in the organization. It is a shift in mindset that is imperative for organizations as they grow.
Linking data to finance and accounting, explain environments that have had lack of reporting infrastructure/inefficiencies and how have you brought organization and solutions-implementation:
I’ve seen several organizations that had relaxed accounting close processes that were causing delays to close and/or causing the financial statements to be inaccurate. A recent client was several months behind in month end close. I walked through their existing close process with them and I was able to pin-point their top 3 issues that delayed close. We then tackled these issues step by step and eventually set up and executed a monthly seven-day close.
One challenge was a timely approval and reconciliation of AP (which also caused credit holds, prepayment, and late fees). To improve the situation, I provided guidance on processes that had worked for me in the past and together we developed a new process for the receipt and approval of invoices (invoices to be approved within x days of receipt) that improved month end close timing, resulted in improved vendor relationships, and eliminated late fees from the P&L.
