Overview

To enhance the efficiency of a private equity firm’s quarterly close process, CrossCountry Consulting’s accounting and technology experts implemented FloQast and designed supporting close-ready procedures. By establishing clear responsibilities, centralizing close management, and ensuring successful FloQast adoption beyond go-live, the team generated immediate, sustainable time savings within the firm’s finance organization.

Expertise delivered

  • FloQast implementation
  • Accounting workflow automation
  • Knowledge transfer and staff upskilling
  • Real-time close progress visibility
  • Close checklist and calendar
  • Close workflow and policy documentation

Challenge 

A private equity investment firm with more than $100 billion in assets under management (AUM) encountered a number of persistent obstacles in the close process. Up-, down-, and cross-stream dependencies weren’t well-documented and existing workflows weren’t scalable to the evolving business. 

While still relying on Excel, email, and other outdated systems for tracking the close, there was limited visibility into status updates and no possibility for predictive insights to support staff and leadership decisions. As a result, the quarterly close process took around 75 days to complete. 

How We Helped 

The close optimization experts at CrossCountry Consulting embedded numerous team members into the firm’s finance organization to learn how the close was historically working, where there were blockers, and where efficiencies could be gained. 

During this process, it became clear that a new technology solution was needed to enhance employee experience and optimize the full close lifecycle. With deep experience implementing and operationalizing FloQast for companies in similar situations, the team partnered with multiple internal groups to deploy FloQast. The firm’s management group opted for FloQast based on CrossCountry’s recommendation and demonstration of the tool’s capabilities. 

A FloQast implementation would enable greater cross-functional close visibility, help establish clear roles and responsibilities, rationalize process dependencies, and drive accountability moving forward. The work didn’t stop with implementation, however. The CrossCountry team also upskilled finance staff and trained all user types on FloQast to ensure full adoption, reinforce change management, and educate stakeholders on FloQast best practices to maintain and elevate the tool’s value to the growing business. 

Results 

With a redesigned and rebuilt close process architecture and a powerful new software solution, all finance stakeholders and leaders, including the CFO and CAO, achieved access to real-time close progress within FloQast. Bottlenecks that previously made close a painful, labor-intensive process were removed and FloQast users were easily able to proactively identify and remediate future bottlenecks that may arise, immediately leading to 10 days saved every quarter.

Additionally, the company benefitted from: 

  • A cohesive close checklist and calendar. 
  • Clearly defined close workflows and policies. 
  • A centralized close platform for decentralized teams. 
  • Cross-functional communication to expedite information-gathering. 
  • Automated outreach for routine data. 

The FloQast implementation was completed between quarterly closes, taking the pressure off accounting staff during an already intense period and positioning the firm to quickly adopt FloQast-enabled processes during the next cycle.  

CrossCountry’s ongoing commitment to and support of the firm’s evolving accounting, operational, and technology needs is a testament to a best-in-class service experience. In the future, additional labor and cost savings are expected to be realized.