Finance Transformation: Cutting Costs While Increasing Efficiency

"Every month, 45 people in finance would disappear for three weeks. We called it the 'close cave' — and it was costing us millions." Jennifer Walsh, CFO of Apex Professional Services, a $2.8 billion global consulting and advisory firm, was at her breaking point. The finance function, meant to be a strategic partner to the business, had become a bottleneck. Month-end close took 21 painful days. Forecasts were outdated before they reached the board. And the cost of finance operations was growing faster than revenue.

Apex had grown through 14 acquisitions in seven years, becoming a powerhouse in management consulting, technology implementation, and risk advisory. But each acquisition brought new financial systems, processes, and data silos. The finance team was managing eight different ERP instances, three billing platforms, and countless spreadsheets that served as the "glue" holding everything together. The complexity was unsustainable.

The month-end close process was the most visible symptom of dysfunction. It required a small army of accountants working nights and weekends to manually reconcile intercompany transactions across 40+ global entities. Journal entries were prepared in Excel and uploaded individually. Account reconciliations were performed manually, with supporting documentation stored in shared drives and email attachments. Consolidation took five days alone, and the final P&L often contained errors that required restatements.

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) was equally challenged. The annual budgeting process consumed four months and involved hundreds of offline spreadsheets that were emailed back and forth. By the time the budget was approved, business conditions had already changed. Rolling forecasts were nearly impossible because actual data wasn't available until three weeks after month-end. Business leaders made multimillion-dollar decisions based on gut feel rather than timely financial insights.

Procure-to-pay was a manual nightmare. Over 12,000 invoices were processed monthly, many still arriving as paper documents. AP clerks manually keyed data into multiple systems, leading to errors and duplicate payments. Approvals were routed via email, creating delays and compliance risks. Vendors called constantly asking about payment status. The cost per invoice exceeded $22 — nearly triple the industry benchmark.

The finance dysfunction was pervasive:

• 21-day month-end close — slowest among industry peers (benchmark: 5-7 days).
• 45 finance staff across accounting, FP&A, AP, AR, and treasury.
• 8+ ERP instances from acquisitions with no consolidation.
• Manual intercompany reconciliations across 40+ global entities.
• Excel-based budgeting consuming 4 months and 500+ spreadsheets.
• 12,000 monthly invoices with 60% still paper-based.
• $22 cost per invoice processed vs. industry benchmark of $7-8.
• No real-time visibility into cash flow or profitability by project.
• Finance costs growing at 11% annually vs. 6% revenue growth.
• Audit findings related to financial controls and reconciliations.

The business impact was significant. Finance operations consumed 3.2% of revenue, compared to an industry benchmark of 1.5-2.0%. The slow close meant business leaders lacked timely data to make course corrections. Project profitability was a black box — partners couldn't tell which engagements were making money until weeks after completion. The private equity firm that had recently invested in Apex was pressuring leadership to improve margins and demonstrate scalable operations before a planned IPO.

The CFO knew that incremental improvements wouldn't suffice. Apex needed a complete finance transformation — new systems, automated processes, and a shift from transaction processing to strategic analysis. The goal was ambitious but clear: cut finance costs by 30%, close the books in under a week, and deliver real-time insights to the business. Tatras Data was engaged to lead this transformation.

"We weren't just looking to cut costs. We wanted to turn finance into a competitive weapon — a team that could help the business make faster, smarter decisions. Tatras Data made that vision a reality."

Tatras Data led a comprehensive finance transformation — modernizing the technology stack, automating manual processes, and redesigning workflows to create a lean, insight-driven finance function.

We consolidated eight ERP instances into a single cloud-native Workday Financial Management platform, standardizing chart of accounts and processes globally. BlackLine automated account reconciliations, journal entries, and intercompany eliminations — eliminating thousands of manual hours each month. Anaplan replaced Excel-based planning with connected, driver-based forecasting updated in real-time. RPA bots from UiPath automated invoice processing, expense report auditing, and cash application.

Key components:
• Cloud ERP Consolidation (Workday) — single source of truth for all financial data.
• Close Automation (BlackLine) — 90% of reconciliations automated, continuous close enabled.
• Connected Planning (Anaplan) — rolling forecasts updated weekly, not quarterly.
• RPA & AI Automation — 35+ bots handling AP, AR, and treasury tasks 24/7.
• Procure-to-Pay Modernization (Coupa) — touchless invoice processing and e-procurement.
• Finance Analytics (Tableau / Snowflake) — real-time dashboards for project profitability and cash flow.
• Organizational Redesign — finance team restructured into Centers of Excellence with new skills.
The transformation delivered immediate results: month-end close dropped from 21 days to 5 days, finance headcount reduced by 40% through natural attrition (no layoffs), and $4.2M in annual run-rate savings were achieved within 12 months.

The result: a finance function that costs less, delivers more, and drives strategic value every day.