After various key players were absent due to illness in the finance department of an multinational manufacturing enterprise, the decision-makers were faced with the task of finding an experienced and independent accountant at short notice who could ensure the annual financial statements were properly prepared despite a very short training period and an unfamiliar ERP system.
When selecting the candidate, it was important to the management for the candidate to be technically skilled in preparing annual financial statements, able to quickly familiarise themself with an unfamiliar ERP system, have an excellent grasp of accounting processes and be willing to make sub-entries in the ledgers if so required. It was furthermore important to all stakeholders involved for the candidate to be very practical and proactive and inclined to question processes in day-to-day business while actively making suggestions for improvement.
In addition to producing a surprisingly prompt annual financial statement, which the company had not expected, and providing professional support for the annual audit, the interim manager also left behind a list of suggestions for improvement. These were meant to boost transparency in accounting while reducing the workload.