The audit: we learn how the work actually moves
4 weeks on site with the finance team. Process owners get shadowed rather than surveyed, because the shadow spreadsheet and the approval that happens in a hallway never come up on a call.
A process and time map, a controls register, the exception taxonomy in your team's own wording, a volume baseline pulled from the systems rather than estimated, and a build plan signed by the people who run the work. $15–25k, credited in full against a build signed within 90 days.
14 sessions with 11 people. Every session transcribed and tagged against the workflow it describes.
| Role | Sessions | Minutes each | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| AP analysts | 4 | 90 | Invoice intake, coding decisions, and which screen they open first |
| Controller | 3 | 60 | Close sequence, approval thresholds, intercompany tie-out |
| AR and collections | 3 | 60 | Dunning cadence, dispute handling, cash application |
| Procurement | 2 | 45 | PO creation, receipt discipline, vendor master hygiene |
| CFO | 2 | 45 | Reporting cadence, cash position, what gets escalated |
38 sources ingested, indexed and made queryable. The working spreadsheets matter most, because they are where the real process lives when the SOP has drifted.
9 systems mapped, including the ones nobody lists on an architecture diagram.
- NetSuite · ERP
- Ramp · Spend
- Concur · Expense
- Bill.com · AP
- Bank portals · Treasury
- Outlook · Correspondence
- SharePoint · Documents
- Excel · Working files
- Snowflake · Reporting
In-scope process work, not total department labour
| Driver | Volume | Hours/yr |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier invoice intake and coding | 42,000 invoices at 7 min | 4,900 |
| Invoice exceptions | 7,560 at 22 min, 18% of volume | 2,772 |
| Month-end close | 12 closes × 5 people × 6 days | 3,240 |
| Account reconciliation | 140 accounts monthly at 35 min | 980 |
| Vendor statements and correspondence | Statement chases and query handling | 2,100 |
| AR and collections | Dunning, disputes, cash application | 3,900 |
| Expense report review | 6,200 reports at 9 min | 930 |
| Total in scope | 18,800 |
- Carried by agents12,784 hrs68%
- Stays with people6,016 hrs32%
6,016 hours a year remain manual, and should: judgement calls, genuine exceptions, and the relationships that need a person on the other end. The two shares are complements of one another, so they sum to 100 by construction.
Invoice intake and coding
Highest volume and the most repetitive. Ships first because it also proves the connector work.
Invoice exceptions
Roughly seven in ten exceptions fall into twelve recurring types the audit names.
Month-end close
Task tracking, evidence collection and the intercompany tie-out across four entities.
Account reconciliation
Bank, lockbox and clearing accounts, with only genuine variances surfaced.
Vendor statements and correspondence
Lowest value of the five and the most relationship-sensitive, so it ships last.
The five sum to $706k, the same modelled annual value shown in chapter 01. Bars are each workflow's value against the largest of the five.
- Audit · 4 weeks
- P1 Invoice intake and coding
- P2 Invoice exceptions
- P3 Month-end close
- P4 Account reconciliation
- P5 Vendor statements and correspondence
- Operate · ongoing
Audit 4 weeks, build 12–14 weeks, then continuous operation. Workflows overlap because the connector work for one is usually most of the connector work for the next.
Session counts, document counts and hours are modelled against the basis company, not recorded from an engagement. The method is real; the volumes are what a 24-person finance function at that size would produce.