PMI Finance
Project or retainer · 3 to 12 months per acquisition
- The situation
- The deal is signed, and now the new company has to be brought into the consolidated financial statements. Different charts of accounts, different systems, different ideas of what a monthly close is.
- What I deliver
- I lead the finance integration: mapping the charts of accounts, aligning the closing process, connecting to group reporting, handing over to the line organization. For buy-and-build, as a repeatable approach rather than a one-off.
- How you measure success
- Time to the first reliable group view, time until parallel operation is retired, closing time at the target company.
The deal is done. Now the real work starts.
I have been accountable as project lead for more than 20 M&A integrations. At Eurofins, I cut the average duration of an integration from nine months to two. Not by working harder, but through an approach that can be repeated.
Why methodology matters in buy-and-build
A single integration can be handled with good project management. The third one, running in parallel with the second, cannot. At that point, every workstream needs to run on the same track:
- Assessment of the target company’s systems, charts of accounts, and processes
- Data migration from the legacy system into the group’s target system
- Harmonization of finance processes, from the chart of accounts to the closing calendar
- Interfaces and connection to group reporting
- Stabilization after go-live and handover to the line organization
Each phase has defined inputs, outputs, and timelines. With every integration the approach gets sharper, and the next one runs faster.
The part everyone underestimates
The people in the target company’s accounting team. They know the legacy data, the special cases, and the customers who always pay late. Treat them as suppliers to the migration instead of as participants, and you lose exactly that knowledge.
Who it is for
For private equity firms and family offices with a buy-and-build strategy, and for corporate groups that acquire regularly. If the first integration is still ahead of you, a Clarity Check beforehand is often the more cost-effective entry point.