01Close & Consolidation
The close is a symptom. We work on the upstream causes — data quality, intercompany, reconciliations, the manual steps nobody has questioned in six years.
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Finance
Know the numbers before you are asked for them.
Close acceleration, reporting redesign and the operating discipline that turns a finance function from a reporting line into a decision input.
The practice
We work on the finance function as an operating system: how the close runs, where the numbers come from, what gets reported to whom, and how long it takes before anyone can act on any of it.
The common failure is not accuracy. It is latency. A month-end that lands on working day twelve is a month-end that informs nothing — the decisions were taken in week one. Shortening that gap is usually worth more than improving the reporting itself.
Start here
The finance problem is usually latency, not accuracy.
Almost every finance function we meet produces accurate numbers. Far fewer produce them while the decision they inform is still open.
A close landing on working day twelve is a close that informs nothing — the decisions were taken in week one, on someone's estimate. Closing the gap between the event and the number is generally worth more than any improvement to the reporting itself.
- Close acceleration
Core - Taking days out of the close by fixing what happens upstream, rather than adding reviewers at the end.
- Reporting redesign
Core - Management reporting built backwards from the decisions it is supposed to serve.
- Operating model
Core - Where the work sits, what is automated, and which roles the function actually needs.
- Systems enablement
Core - ERP and EPM change that finance owns rather than change that happens to finance.
- Bookkeeping
Not us - Outsourced accounting and transaction processing.
- Tax and audit
Not us - Both are restricted or specialist work. We work alongside your providers, not instead of them.
What we do
Four ways this practice is bought.
Most engagements start as one of these and grow into a second. None of them are productised — the shape is set in the first two weeks.
02Reporting & Analytics
Reporting designed around decisions rather than around what the system can produce.
03Finance Operating Model
Structure, location, automation and the roles the function needs for the business it now supports.
04Systems Enablement
ERP and EPM programmes where finance is the owner, not the recipient.
Our thinking
What we pride ourselves on.
Three of these are true of every Taidou engagement regardless of practice. They are also the three things we are most often told are unusual — which says more about the industry than about us.
The person who scopes it runs it.
There is no handoff between the team that wins the work and the team that does it. If you met someone in the first conversation, you will still be dealing with them in the last one. This is the single thing clients tell us they notice first.
We write down what we are not doing.
Every engagement starts with a scope that names the things we have deliberately excluded and why. It makes the first conversation harder and every conversation after it easier.
We stay past the point it is comfortable.
Most firms hand over when the design is agreed and the change has been announced — the moment of maximum fragility. We hand over to named owners after it is running, and we come back to check.
Where this lands
The industries we bring Finance to.
Related thinking
What we have published on this.
Research
Interoperability isn't a compliance deadline. It's a business model.
CMS-0057-F is being treated as a date to survive. The organizations treating it as an operating decision are the ones still compounding on it in three years.
ResearchWhy transformation programmes stall at month nine
WorkBack-office migration across three delivery centres
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