THE CHALLENGE
In February 2012 Mr Grant Burley joined the board of Pacific Automotive Holdings (PAH), a franchisee of the highly successful Thrifty Car Rentals, bringing over 25 years of business and entrepreneurial experience. Grant quickly identified the need for change in PAH’s operational, financial and reporting processes. The Board engaged InConsult to provide them and senior management with a range of risk management and assurance support.
THE SOLUTION
Working with staff, InConsult reviewed the existing financial risks, internal controls and vital business processes to help identify and prioritise a number of specific areas for quick and lasting improvement. InConsult began by reviewing the daily cash flow management framework and swiftly introduced improvements to cash flow preparation, monitoring and reporting processes which resulted in immediate improvements to cash flow management.
InConsult then drilled down to specific areas of the cash flow cycle such as revenue, expenses, debtors and creditors. Improved debtor management processes were introduced and strategies developed to prioritise and collect older debts. In addition, a range of KPI’s were developed to ensure effective monitoring and reporting of debtors.
Improved workflow and authorisation processes were introduced to creditors to improve invoice control, validation and approval.
Lease liabilities represented a major expense for the business. InConsult introduced a centralised record keeping system and a lease database to enable improved visibility of monthly lease payments and simplify tracking and reporting of future lease liabilities.
To ensure the new improved internal control systems could be maintained, InConsult reviewed Thrifty’s resourcing requirement and helped realign the finance departments structure to the organisations needs and provided key staff with mentoring and training.
THE RESULT
“The InConsult Team were integral in making lasting and significant improvements to Thrifty’s internal controls and business processes” – Grant Burley, Managing Director.
Thrifty has honoured InConsult’s contribution with an award for “service excellence” to recognise the hard work and professionalism InConsult showed in assisting Thrifty with its risk management and assurance needs.
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