The client:
The college had recently appointed a new CEO and their work was starting to have an impact as student numbers were on the increase again. Profitability was also seemingly increasing, although the accounting department was a mess; suppliers and employees were not being paid on time, being paid too much or not at all. The CEO was receiving many of these complaints directly and was sick and tired of the issues.
The need:
RTO Accountants was asked to sort out the college finance department’s systems, processes and checks to make sure stakeholders were being looked after and were therefore happy; happy stakeholders make for a better business.
We were also asked to review the business financials and provide feedback to the college CEO about what was really going on. Was the college profitable or not?
Our solution:
We reviewed the operational model of the finance department and moved the part-time secretary away from the bookkeeping role which she did not have time to focus on consistently. We brought in our combination of bookkeepers, technology, outsourcing and accountants to provide a cost effective and comprehensive finance solution through which suppliers and staff are paid on time. Staff can even log into a finance department app to see the status of their payroll.
We also set up an ongoing process to prepare monthly (initially) and quarterly management reports. We scheduled meetings with the CEO to discuss these reports with a view to firstly understanding the finances and then targeting problem areas. Relatively quickly, we were able to target revenue and expense leakages, increase profit and, through forecasting, identify upcoming financial and cashflow problems.