Case Studies

CASE STUDY#1

THE CHALLENGE

Our client, a manufacturer of medical diagnostics equipment, wanted an automated cash flow report that would improve efficiency. They did not want to have to create the report in Excel. A previous consultant had partially written a new report but, because our client is a multi-national company with subsidiaries operating with foreign currencies, the report was not sufficient; it treated the currencies incorrectly.

THE SOLUTION

In combination with our client’s IT staff (who provided the technical report writer knowledge) and minimal involvement from the prior consultant, ETA completed the report design, supervised the report writing and tested the report.

THE BENEFIT

Our client was able to easily produce the automated cash flow statement by running only one report rather than spending hours generating an Excel report.

CASE STUDY #2​

THE CHALLENGE

Our client needed to provide general ledger accountants with up-to-the minute account balance data during the close process. The standard reports from our client’s accounting system were cumbersome, time-consuming to produce, often did not reflect current transactions and required a laborious conversion into Excel.

THE SOLUTION

ETA developed a series of SQL queries that were accessible from the accountants Excel worksheet.  With one click, these queries automatically transferred current general ledger balances into Excel.

THE BENEFIT

Time to close the books was reduced, and accuracy was improved. The controller stopped threatening to put a stop payment on the IT department’s paychecks.

CASE STUDY #3

THE CHALLENGE

Our client had four legal entities but had never produced consolidated financial statements. They had FRX (a report writer) but had never used it. In addition, they had several related but unresolved accounting issues.

THE SOLUTION

ETA wrote several FRX reports that produced consolidated financial statements. ETA also supervised the resolution of the accounting issues including purchase price allocations, valuation, goodwill intangibles, complicated issues with minority shareholdings, intercompany transactions, and foreign currencies.

THE BENEFIT

Our client was able to produce consolidated financial statements.  Their staff was also able to record transactions according to GAAP.

CASE STUDY #4

THE CHALLENGE

Our client’s UK subsidiary was set up with the British Pound as its functional currency. Due to changing business requirements, US GAAP required a change to the US Dollar as a functional currency. Since our client was preparing an IPO, this change needed to be made immediately.

THE SOLUTION

ETA worked with another consultant to define the data requirements to calculate the effect of the currency change. ETA wrote SQL queries and customized reports that gathered the required data. ETA set up the templates in Excel to calculate the effect. ETA set up the company’s ERP system to allow future USD functional transactions to happen automatically.

THE BENEFIT

The company was able to go public on time. Future transactions and reporting were accurate.

CASE STUDY #5

THE CHALLENGE

Our client had implemented a cloud-based accounting solution (Acumatica). Transactions and balances had not been transferred correctly. The company’s accounting staff did not know how to use the system and the Acumatica partner was unable to provide adequate support.

THE SOLUTION

ETA assumed responsibility for the company’s Acumatica help desk. The first task was to gather all the known issues into one document and prioritize the issues. Our staff then worked with the users to determine the cause of each problem.  Next, ETA worked with the Acumatica partner and the company’s IT staff to propose a solution. The solution was a mixture of user training, system set-up and accounting research.

THE BENEFIT

Within a three weeks the company’s accounting staff was trained and system set-ups were changed.  The company was able to successfully process transactions. Transactions and balances that had not been transferred to the new system correctly were identified and a plan put in place to correct them.

CASE STUDY #6

THE CHALLENGE

Our client used an accounting system that was technologically obsolete. As a result, the company couldn’t find anyone that could provide support for technical problems. In addition, the system had been modified over a period of years by different people who didn’t document their modifications. As a result, our client could not produce even the most basic financial information. The company could not afford to install a new system.

THE SOLUTION

ETA developed a series of SQL queries that allowed the company to extract a trial balance from the system, and from that produce an income statement and balance sheet in Excel. ETA also developed Excel-based templates that allowed the company to reconcile its bank accounts and determine its inventory balances.

THE BENEFIT

The company was able to produce basic financial information. And it avoided a major cash outflow.

CASE STUDY #7

THE CHALLENGE

Our client did a phased approach to its ERP implementation: General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable were installed first. The next phase was inventory management. For our client, the inventory management system was critical. The implemenation was also challenging because a key goal was the integration of a custom-developed warehouse management system. The company also was planning interfaces with some of its vendors’ systems.

THE SOLUTION

ETA helped design the implementation plan. This included timelines, goals, and most important: testing criteria. ETA provided the personnel that performed the testing. During the implementation, ETA provided key feedback to improve the system design.

THE BENEFIT

Our client successfully went live with its inventory management system.

CASE STUDY #8

THE CHALLENGE

Our client was formed from the merger of three different companies operating on three different account systems. Shortly after the merger, the company was raising capital and needed audited financial statements. The client did not have enough accounting staff to assemble consolidated financial statements from the three different systems. In addition, a significant number of inventory transactions had never been entered into our client’s accounting system.

THE SOLUTION

ETA determined what information was available from each of the different systems. ETA assembled the information necessary to produce the consolidated financial statements as required by GAAP. ETA also reconstructed substantially all the inventory transactions and determined what needed to be reported for inventory balances and cost of revenue.

THE BENEFIT

Our client was able to produce consolidated financial statements with supporting detail. This information was used by our client’s auditor to complete the audit report on time.

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