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Situation
Beginning in 2012, cHb Advisors was engaged by a steel supply and fabrication company serving commercial and industrial construction projects, along with its subsidiary providing structural steel erection services. The business had grown beyond what its accounting systems and internal processes could support, leaving leadership without the visibility, coordination, and control needed to manage an increasingly complex operation.
QuickBooks utilization was constrained by file size and performance issues that limited effective job costing, payroll, and inventory management. Accounts receivable had aged significantly, and monthly financial statements and job cost reports were not timely or accurate enough to guide management decisions with confidence.
Manual processes, duplicated effort, and limited communication between bidding, production, and accounting reduced accountability across departments, while the subsidiary’s chart of accounts and intercompany tracking needed to be reorganized to support consolidated reporting between the parent and subsidiary companies.
Challenges – What We Did
Challenges
- QuickBooks limitations: File size and utilization issues had become major constraints, limiting effective job costing, payroll, and inventory management.
- Aging accounts receivable: Receivables had aged significantly, and leadership lacked clear visibility into cash balances, payments, and deposits.
- Unreliable financial reporting: Monthly financial statements and job cost reports were not timely or accurate enough to support management decisions.
- Cross-departmental disconnects: Manual processes and limited communication between bidding, production, and accounting reduced accountability across departments.
- Subsidiary consolidation gaps: The subsidiary’s chart of accounts and intercompany tracking needed to be reorganized to support consolidated reporting.
Our Solutions
- Monthly reporting overhaul: Developed timely monthly financial statements and job cost reports to support management review.
- Performance & control reporting: Created reports to improve revenue recognition, expense recognition, and job-by-job work-in-progress accuracy.
- Accounts receivable process improvement: Improved accounts receivable payment and deposit procedures, increasing visibility into daily cash balances.
- Parent-subsidiary consolidation: Modified procedures and established monthly consolidation processes between the parent and subsidiary, with intercompany activity tracked to speed reporting.
- Manual process elimination: Eliminated manual accounting processes, creating time and labor savings while improving accuracy.
- Cross-team communication: Improved communication between bid, production, and accounting teams to reduce duplication and strengthen accountability.
- Leadership & controls: Supported leadership in identifying and appointing a new controller, and strengthened internal controls, checks and balances, and process reliability across departments.
- Proactive tax planning: Provided ongoing tax planning to help the client anticipate liabilities and make informed decisions throughout the year, and identified additional tax value through R&D credit opportunities.
Results
- Reporting overhauled: Timely, accurate monthly financial statements and job cost reports gave leadership real visibility into performance for the first time.
- Cash visibility improved: Stronger accounts receivable processes gave leadership clear insight into daily cash balances, payments, and deposits.
- Consolidated reporting achieved: Monthly consolidation between parent and subsidiary, supported by intercompany tracking, streamlined financial reporting.
- Manual processes reduced: Saving time and labor while strengthening control reliability across departments.
- Stronger financial leadership: A newly appointed controller strengthened financial oversight and internal accountability.
- Additional tax value captured: Through identified R&D credit opportunities.
Why This Engagement Matters
This engagement reflects our ability to connect financial systems to the operational realities of a growing business. Rather than treating reporting delays as a standalone issue, we looked at the full picture, systems, processes, and cross-departmental coordination, and rebuilt each to work together.
For contractors and fabricators working on tight margins, accurate job costing and timely reporting are what separate profitable projects from costly surprises. This is the model of support we provide: practical, hands-on improvements paired with the systems and controls a growing business needs to scale with confidence.
The reporting structure, controls, and consolidation processes established during this engagement continue to support the client’s operations today.
