Finance Transformation
Solutionsthink helps clients improve performance by modernizing and automating record-to-report (R2R) finance processes and deploying intelligent ERP systems. We also help companies attain post-merger integration and financial reporting goals quickly, including adopting accounting standards (IFRS, US GAAP) and achieving operational and IT synergies.
Services
ACCOUNTING STANDARDS ADOPTION & FINANCIAL REPORTING
Monitoring and adopting changes in accounting standards (e.g., IFRS) and accounting for transformative business growth are often complex, requiring technical accounting expertise. With a strong IFRS adoption track record, Solutionsthink can provide program leadership, help navigate technical complexity, assess cross-functional impacts, and develop board-ready communications. In addition, we can set accounting structures and draft complete IFRS financial statements, including notes, to achieve audit readiness and financial reporting timelines. Clients also benefit from gaining sustainable capabilities, post-adoption processes, and technology.
POST-MERGER INTEGRATION
Combining two companies and unifying culture, structures, processes, and management can be complex. However, with a multi-focussed M&A integration experience, Solutionsthink can rapidly establish your Finance M&A integration program, identify change management impacts, navigate complexity, and drive results cross-functionally to achieve your target finance operating model. We provide overall program leadership (including Day 1 planning) to integrate accounting and financial reporting, align processes and technology, and set key metrics to help deliver your target operating model. We are obsessed with maximizing value, optimizing operational performance and achieving client satisfaction.
SYSTEM REMEDIATION
We help clients troubleshoot critical software and process challenges impacting finance, operations, and customer-facing systems. With 20+ years of multi-industry experience and 100+ successful projects, we can rapidly provide line of sight into root causes, develop pragmatic steps to solve, and help achieve client goals.
FINANCE DIGITIZATION & AUTOMATION
New complexities and reporting requirements are causing finance leaders to deliver with limited internal resources and expertise. Finance also continues to gather data from disparate legacy systems and navigate disaggregated, complex and non-standard processes — leading to busy work and less time for business partnering. By modernizing ERP platforms and taking advantage of new finance technologies, Solutionsthink resets this balance by giving people time to support strategic initiatives. We do this by standardizing and automating the record-to-report (R2R), finance operations (AP, AR, Treasury, Inter-Company, Payroll), financial planning and analysis (FP&A), and introducing intelligent ERP solutions that work.
FINANCE OPERATIONS & TREASURY MODERNIZATION
Flexing accounting and finance processes to align with new economic realities or to support strategic initiatives can be challenging. Solutionsthink can help financial leaders introduce best-in-class strategies and cost efficiencies and optimize finance operating models. We provide rapid benchmarking and re-engineering of shared financial services and help finance leaders implement leading practices and a metrics-based discipline for increasing transactional throughput while reducing operating costs — achieved without additional IT spending. We also help companies merge shared services following an M&A transaction.
INTERIM FINANCE AUGMENTATION
We provide high-calibre executive judgment and guidance at times of need. With 20+ years of wide-ranging experience, we can analyze, plan and fast-track a strong financial foundation for your business.
We know that trust is earned, not given
We are dedicated to providing Solutionsthink clients with the expertise they need — at every step of their journey. We like to think that’s why they tend to bring us back.
The new lease standards are here - are you ready?
The new lease accounting standard, IFRS 16, and its US equivalent, ASC 842, require recognition of most operating leases in the balance sheet. Complexities of implementation extend beyond finance and accounting and into day-to-day operations. With a strong IFRS 16 and ASC 842 implementation background, we can help avoid pitfalls and expedite your transition efforts.
Plan
Timely compliance depends on prioritizing mission-critical activities. Tap into our IFRS 16/ASC 842 technical and project delivery experience, and develop the best approach to introducing the new leasing standards rapidly.
Review Agreements
Gathering and analyzing all leases and agreements with embedded lease elements can be daunting. We help create processes for lease abstraction including identifying embedded leases, and help implement a Lease Database & Reporting Engine which covers all lease data points affected by the new lease standard.
Assess Impacts
With industry-specific insights, we can help select practical expedients in classifying and measuring leased assets/liabilities, apply available exemptions, calculate your incremental borrowing rate, and estimate impacts on your financial statementsp, processes, controls and systems.
Process, Systems
We can advise on how to capture opportunities IFRS 16 /ASC 842 creates to streamline staff effort across many workstreams (e.g. real estate administration, fleet and equipment leasing, legal, finance, accounting and reporting). We can also help assess data quality, upgrade your systems, and introduce our Excel-based Lease Accounting Engine, or third-party cloud lease solutions.
Communicate
As independent technical accounting advisors, we can help develop your policies, judgments, and required IFRS 16 / ASC 842 adjustments - and draft your financial statement presentation and disclosures. In addition, we can help analyze the impacts of the new leasing standard on budgets, KPIs, bonuses, debt covenants, capital implications and financing strategies.
Sustainability
With industry-specific insights, we can help select practical expedients in classifying and measuring leased assets/liabilities, apply available exemptions, calculate your incremental borrowing rate, and estimate impacts on your financial statements, processes, controls and systems.
Curious about what our clients have access to?
Take a look at our seasoned approach to adopting standards.
+ Assess Impacts
A successful IFRS project requires robust assessment of impacts, and time to prepare before the new rules become effective. Adopting IFRS will impact the balance sheet, income statement, and cashflow statement, which will, in turn, impact financial disclosures, bank covenants, taxes, key metrics, processes, and systems. With our thought leadership and in depth IFRS implementation track record, we can help achieve first-time adoption and compliance...and eliminate rework. The time to act is now.
+ Disclosure Compliance
Issuing financial statements under new accounting standards can be complex and deserve prompt attention. We develop accounting policies rapidly and establish processes and systems (or short-term workarounds) that support new presentation and disclosure requirements specific to your business and industry. We ensure compliance with your audit firm's disclosure checklist - while remaining independent throughout. We model financial implications of new IFRS promptly. We incorporate training in all what we do - and transition new IFRS processes seamlessly to your teams.
+ Tailor Approach
Adopting IFRS is a significant undertaking. Tailoring IFRS to your business requires considerable judgment and experience. Recent standards on revenue, financial instruments, leases, and insurance contracts are no exception. We reduce complexity and provide a proven methodology for adopting new accounting standards. As seasoned IFRS implementation experts, we can help:
Provide IFRS thought leadership, implementation and oversight,
Select practical expedients to ease burden of compliance,
Quantify and assess impact on earnings, operations, and long range plans,
Establish accounting policies, processes and controls,
Introduce data collection methods and technology,
Conduct what could go wrong assessments, and,
Eliminate surprises at audit time.
+ Change Systems & Processes
CFOs are grappling with new standards that their organizations need to adopt - time is running out, for example, implementing the new lease accounting standard and getting systems and processes ready. We are experts at automating various steps in the IFRS reporting cycle, including automating complex financial consolidations, and specific solutions for revenue, leases, capital assets, and financial instruments. We can help identify possible synergy from your non-IFRS projects and/or use existing technology and deliver your IFRS data requirements.
INSIGHTS
Rapid adoption of international financial reporting standards and integrating the accounting and financial close for newly acquired company.
POST-ACQUISITION ACCOUNTING & INTEGRATION FOR A LEADING CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS COMPANY
Transforming Finance
Finance transformation is a strategic initiative to re-envision the finance function to align with the company strategy. Such transformations are often multi-faceted and consist of restructuring and implementing many aspects of the finance function. These changes revolutionize how a company manages its financial function and the associated processes, gains insights, and effects good internal controls and financial reporting. Solutionsthink helps clients in these transformative activities:
OPERATING MODEL
Design the target finance operating model.
INTEGRATION
Rationalize finance and accounting operations following a post-acquisition integration.
MODERNIZE
Modernize finance and accounting systems and achieve superior outcomes and user experiences.
ACCELERATE
Accelerate the financial close, consolidation and reporting processes.
BUILD CAPACITY
Build capacity within finance and accounting teams to support rapid growth.
INSIGHTS
Rapid adoption of international financial reporting standards and integrating the accounting and financial close for newly acquired company.
POST-ACQUISITION ACCOUNTING & INTEGRATION FOR A LEADING CONSUMER PACKAGED GOODS COMPANY
Technology project executions rank high on CFOs’ most worrisome risks and enterprise resource planning system (ERP) projects are among them. Surveys regularly show that a significant number of strategic ERP projects fail to deliver expected outcomes, are delayed and exceed budgets by a long shot. Given a mature ERP solutions market place and mostly competent ERP installers, why do organizations frequently stumble?
BEATING THE ERP IMPLEMENTATION ODDS
What is making Intercompany more difficult today?
Multinational entities find intercompany accounting to be a significant and complicated undertaking. Management often describes these processes as opaque and complex, and they can become even more complex when companies integrate acquired entities and adjust for emerging tax regulations and accounting rules. Companies rarely have time to develop a unified vision and establish focus and ownership to deal with these challenges. The emergence of shared services and Centers of Excellence has helped but also created new challenges. Despite efforts, top-tier ERP systems still lack a holistic and transparent solution for tracking and solving cross functional intercompany issues. This leaves companies with conventional approaches, such as elaborate spreadsheets and shared folders, to fill gaps in their ERP system solutions to get the job done.
Solutionsthink’s strategic approach aims to help corporate leaders in financial, tax, and treasury by architecting a step-change in intercompany financial management that goes beyond balancing intercompany and benefits the bottom line.
60%
OF MULTI-NATIONAL SAY INTERCOMPANY IS 5X REVENUE
Source: DimensionalResearch.com
Information Technology
SPECIALITY SOFTWARE DEPLOYMENT
BlackLine, High Radius, OneStream, SAP Concur, ReconNET, Workiva, Optrack, Solium, Treasury Software, and more.
Solutionsthink implements rapid turn-key software solutions that standardize and streamline finance. Our successful implementations include systems for revenue accounting, leases, stock options, reconciling bulk transactions, record-to-report automation, travel expenses reimbursement, financial consolidations and dashboards, and financial planning and forecasting.
STRATEGIC & COMPOSABLE ERP IMPLEMENTATION
Oracle R12 EBS Suite, S/4HANA, Dynamics AX, Dynamics Business Central, D365, NetSuite, Workday (bespoke Integrations).
We are vendor neutral. We help implement critical ERP and integrate with fit for purpose software and tap software potential to the fullest, avoid customizations, and achieve your transformation goals. We are ensure capabilities we establish are long lasting.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
We manage software implementation projects strategically and ensure all stakeholders are aligned and work towards achieving your goals. Our hands on approach to managing change ensures go forward processes and controls are embedded, your teams are trained on best practices and changes are long-lasting after the launch.
SOFTWARE REMEDIATION
We are experts at correcting deep rooted implementation issues associated with prior (and legacy) ERP/software deployments. We set things right again without fanfare.
INSIGHTS
Technology project executions rank high on CFOs’ most worrisome risks and enterprise resource planning system (ERP) projects are among them. Surveys regularly show that a significant number of strategic ERP projects fail to deliver expected outcomes, are delayed and exceed budgets by a long shot. Given a mature ERP solutions market place and mostly competent ERP installers, why do organizations frequently stumble?
BEATING THE ERP IMPLEMENTATION ODDS
FORTHCOMING INSIGHTS
BlackLine Journals Automation & Integration with Workday (2023)
BlackLine Journals and Account Reconciliations Automation with SAP s4/HANA (2021)
BlackLine Reconciliations, Close Tasks, Journals, and Compliance Module Implementation & Integration with Dynamics Solomon (2020)
Leasing, A/R and Cash Collections System Remediation (2024)
Client Success Stories & Briefings
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Post-Acquisition Accounting & Integration for a Leading Consumer Packaged Goods Company
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Beating The ERP Implementation Odds
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Oracle E-Business Suite Migration in a Nutshell
Pradeep Shakespeare
Pradeep is the President of Solutionsthink Consultants Inc., a management consultancy, which he founded in 2003. He has more than 20 years of experience helping organizations achieve strategic, operational and regulatory mandates in Canadian and U.S. public and private companies. Pradeep has worked in a broad set of industries including automotive, financial services, telecommunications, cyber-security, home comfort, retail, forest products, aerospace, and mining.
Pradeep has significant experience in achieving transformational goals in diverse areas such as IFRS adoption, finance function effectiveness, introducing mission-critical ERP and specialty software, and operational process re-engineering. Pradeep helps management with business valuations and carve-out reporting, and post-merger integration services. Prior to forming Solutionsthink in 2003, he held senior management positions in Canadian retail public companies, where he led finance, corporate treasury, strategy formulation, high-profile technology projects, and supply chain initiatives.
Pradeep is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA), Chartered Management Accountant (ACMA), and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). Pradeep holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Alberta.
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