Some years ago, while I served as CFO of a mid sized health insurer, we spent several thousand dollars to air ship in a computer from Texas. Why would anybody do such a thing? Here is the context: We had grown so fast that our data processing systems could not keep up. Not the software,…

One of my clients is a job order manufacturer for the auto industry. A few months ago they were having difficulty meeting delivery deadlines. As they tried to meet deadlines quality began to slip, more deadlines missed… You know how it goes. They needed a way to fix the shop scheduling problem, to meet ever…

Most of these writings of mine have some kind of theme or particular point. This one does not. It is just two stories about one of my long ago clients. The client was a trucking company. They were a very large long haul trucker. Given their size, they were self insured for property damage claims…

3 true stories. Story one. Many years ago, when savings and loans still existed, I audited several. One of my clients was a small rural savings and loan that only lent money for residential homes in their and surrounding counties. One year I began the audit as I always did, and asked to see the…

Years ago one acquisitive entrepreneur I worked for (he purchased many, many companies and is now on the Forbes 500 list) refused to consolidate the operations once acquired. That is generally opposite of what most buyers do. Usually they try to combine and consolidate computer systems, staff functions (think personnel, legal, accounting, etc) and generally…

A bit of background first: In my early career, fresh out of the University of Notre Dame, I worked in public accounting for 7 years. The first 3 years with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell (one of the “Big 8” at the time) and 4 years with my father in his accounting firm. We were the largest…

That is a quote from one of my clients. He and a partner own a very successful manufacturer. As you might imagine, there are many issues: sales and marketing, finance, employee relations, engineering, OSHA and EPA compliance, etc. All are important, and if not done right, can cause immense problems in any business. But he…

In my newsletters, I typically write relevant stories of actual events that have happened to me. Stories that give lessons that my clients can use. Stories about what has happened on audits, and with working with my clients to solve their financial problems, dealings with banks, regulators, botched accounting systems…And I get positive feedback from…

As I was reviewing the monthly financial results with one of my clients, we spent a great deal of time analyzing the gross margin. She asked me to do a training session with her and her key managers so they could better understand how to improve it. What follows is a brief, and hopefully simple,…

My clients are all privately owned, mid- size ($1 million to $20 million in revenue) companies. Each client has from 1 to 3 short metrics that the owners monitor every month, sometimes every week or every day. They are not complicated financial ratios or formulas, but simple and quick data that tell the owner how…