PRIVATE EQUITY · PORTFOLIO COMPANIES
When growth, acquisitions or leadership gaps put finance under pressure, Ellevate brings senior leadership and hands-on execution. Align people, processes, data and systems—and apply automation and AI where they create practical value.
For private equity operating partners, portfolio company CFOs, CAOs and controllers responsible for dependable reporting, stronger finance operations and delivery of the value creation plan.
A strong fit for platform companies and growing businesses navigating acquisitions, inconsistent processes, ERP challenges, limited finance capacity or a temporary leadership gap.
WHERE WE HELP
Align responsibilities, capacity, decision rights and handoffs with the business’s growth plans. Define accountability across corporate and operating teams and identify work that can be simplified, standardized or automated.
Build a dependable close cadence, common reporting definitions and clear ownership of reconciliations and exceptions. Improve visibility into profitability, cash and working capital so leaders can act on a consistent view of performance.
Map the differences across acquired businesses, prioritize integration needs and sequence changes to processes, reporting and systems. Establish owners and milestones while keeping critical finance work moving.
Align finance requirements, decisions, testing and adoption with the implementation team. Assess a troubled initiative and define a practical recovery plan with clear governance and delivery priorities.
Identify high-friction finance workflows, assess data readiness and prioritize suitable automation and AI use cases. Pilot with human review and controls, then measure the evidence before scaling.
Bridge a vacancy, extended leave or period of elevated demand with temporary senior accounting and finance operations leadership. Agree on responsibilities, immediate priorities and a documented handoff.
Start with a workflow that consumes time or creates recurring exceptions. Build the business case and controls before expanding the scope.
Assess repetitive preparation, document review, reconciliations and reporting support against effort, business value and feasibility.
Clarify data ownership, access, process consistency and review requirements before introducing new tools.
Assign an owner, define human review and test a focused use case with the people who will use it.
Compare effort, accuracy, exception volume and adoption against the baseline to make an informed scale-or-stop decision.
1. Understand the priorities. Align with the sponsor and company leaders on the business plan, finance constraints and immediate risks.
2. Design the roadmap. Establish a baseline and sequence improvements with owners, decision rights and measures of success.
3. Deliver together. Lead agreed workstreams with practical governance, visible milestones and timely escalation.
4. Equip the team. Document routines, build adoption and transfer responsibility to the people running the business.
5. Measure and sustain. Track operational progress and support finance in validating the business impact.
SENIOR LEADERSHIP. HANDS-ON EXECUTION.
Translate finance gaps into a sequenced roadmap aligned with the value creation plan and the team’s capacity to execute.
Connect operating model design, process improvement, data, ERP and AI enablement with clear ownership and measures.
Maintain direction and accountability through a leadership gap or demanding change period, with a useful handoff at the end.
ENGAGEMENT OUTCOMES
Agree on the outcomes upfront, then measure progress against the company’s starting point.
Measures selected to fit the scope: reporting timeliness, close cycle time, manual effort, aged exceptions, milestone completion and adoption.
Bring the finance constraint that is slowing the plan. Let’s discuss a practical starting point.
ENGAGEMENT EXAMPLES
Illustrative examples of potential engagement scope and target outcomes.
Situation: New entities bring inconsistent processes, reporting definitions and system handoffs.
Our focus: Map differences, prioritize dependencies and establish a finance integration roadmap.
Target outcome: Clear owners, common reporting priorities and a sequenced path to integration.
Situation: Finance spends the close assembling spreadsheets instead of explaining performance.
Our focus: Redesign the close, standardize inputs and pilot suitable automation.
Target outcome: A more repeatable reporting cadence and clearer visibility into exceptions and effort.
Situation: A departure leaves deadlines and critical decisions without an accountable owner.
Our focus: Provide scoped interim leadership, triage priorities and maintain the operating cadence.
Target outcome: Continuity through the transition and an organized handoff to the permanent leader.
We can work with both. We agree on sponsorship, company ownership, decision rights and reporting expectations so the engagement stays connected to the business priorities.
Yes. A targeted assessment, close improvement, integration workstream or interim leadership need can be a practical starting point.
We can scope finance operating model, process, reporting and systems integration work around the acquisition priorities, dependencies and resources available.
Yes. We define responsibilities and work alongside company leaders, accounting teams, technology partners and other advisers involved in the agreed scope.
We agree on the baseline and measures at the start. Operational improvements are tracked against those measures, with finance validating any financial impact rather than assuming every improvement translates directly into EBITDA.
Yes, where the scope and availability support it. We distinguish essential coverage from improvement priorities and agree on responsibilities and capacity upfront.
