One of the most common questions finance directors ask before booking a consultation is: what exactly happens during it? The answer depends on the firm, but there are core areas any serious consultant should address.
Typical consultation components
Process audit
The consultant maps your existing financial workflows, including accounts payable, reconciliation, reporting cycles, and approval chains. The goal is identifying where manual steps create delays, errors, or duplicate effort.
Tool landscape review
Rather than pushing a specific platform, a good consultant assesses what your business already uses, such as your ERP, accounting software, and payroll system, and identifies integration gaps. A company running QuickBooks with manual CSV exports every month has very different needs than one on SAP with legacy customizations.
Prioritization of digitization opportunities
Not everything needs to be automated at once. Consultants typically rank opportunities by effort versus impact. Automating invoice matching often delivers faster ROI than digitizing complex budget approval workflows, so it usually comes first.
Vendor shortlist and roadmap
You should leave with a shortlist of two to four tools suited to your size and sector, plus a phased implementation plan with realistic timelines. Six months is a common horizon for phase one.
A consultation is not a sales pitch. If it feels like one, that is a signal to keep looking.