The Challenge

Catapult helped a privately held US construction company fulfill its financial reporting obligations within a tight timeline.

The Situation

The Company had been experiencing significant employee turnover in the accounting department for both junior and senior roles
The Company required annual audited financial statements under US GAAP as part of their debt covenants with the bank
The accounting department did not have formalized month end procedures and had not been providing monthly financial statements to management
No reconciliations of general ledger accounts had been done for the year and there had been minimal working papers available

The Company’s management wanted to allocate overhead by implementing activity-based costing to better understand the profitability of each operational department and as such required professionals with expertise in the construction industry
The Company needed experienced professionals with the expertise to build out a financial reporting process and ensure the Company was complying with US GAAP

The How

Catapult was engaged to provide interim controller services and take over all of the financial reporting, account reconciliations, and actively manage the progress of the Company’s annual audit

Catapult performed an assessment of appropriate cut-off dates for month end based on input from management and the Company’s accounting department and proposed an appropriate month-end schedule

The Catapult team leveraged its extensive industry knowledge and worked with the Company’s management to understand the intricacies of their operations to advise on appropriate accounting treatment and develop accounting policies the Company can refer to

Catapult reviewed and analyzed the Company’s internally generated system reports and proposed custom reporting that helped streamline the reconciliation process

Catapult assessed the value that each support department provided and through discussions with management, proposed cost drivers to allocate support department overhead to operational departments

Catapult recognized the need for simplifying the Company’s percent of completion process and worked with the Company’s IT department to develop a custom report that is easily understood by the operational and accounting departments

The Company was able to provide audited financial statements to the bank within the specified timeframe per their debt covenants.
The Company’s shareholders are provided with monthly financial statements consistently month-over-month, which allows for meaningful shareholder meetings and timely decision making.
The Company now has working papers for all material general ledger accounts that their accounting team can use as reference for future reconciliations.
The Company’s shareholders are provided with financial statements that has overhead allocated using activity-based costing which allows for greater insight into departmental profitability.
The Company continues to engage Catapult as it looks to simplify its accounting process and implement managerial cost reports.

Catapult in Action

Read how Catapult helped a privately held US construction company fulfil its financial reporting obligations with a tight timeline

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Read how Catapult helped a relatively inactive company grew into a $250m+ market cap company with operations spanning multiple continents within a short period of time.

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