ACC 660 Module 10 Final Project Example

Finance Function Roadmap, 2026 to 2027

[Student Name]

Southern New Hampshire University

ACC 660: Controllership

Final Project

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.

Finance Function Roadmap, 2026 to 2027

Purpose

The sponsor plans to sell the group in 2027. A buyer will commission its own quality of earnings review, test the reliability of monthly results and KPIs and examine controls, especially over acquisitions, drugs and revenue. Kaplan and Stromberg (2009) describe how private equity owners seek operating and governance improvements before exit; for the finance function, that means producing 18 months of clean, consistent history before diligence begins. This roadmap sets out how (Roehl-Anderson, 2013).

Current-State Assessment

Assessment of the finance function

Initiatives

Roadmap initiatives

Recurring annual cost is about $430,000, and with the quality of earnings review the 2027 cost is about $640,000. Against an enterprise value measured in hundreds of millions, the cost is small if it avoids a price reduction or a delayed sale.

Team Structure

The controller's team grows from nine to eleven: an FP&A manager, so forecasting no longer depends on the controller's own time, and a revenue accountant, so feeds and acquisition integration have an owner. Maas and Matejka (2009) found that controllers who balance support for local managers with independent reporting produce better information, and the FP&A manager will carry the business partner work with hospital directors while the controller focuses on reporting and controls.

Sequencing and Capacity

The first half of 2026 focuses on people and the close: hire the revenue accountant and FP&A manager, sustain the five-day close and roll out the dashboard. The second half adds the consolidation tool, timed after the year-end audit. 2027 focuses on documentation and the quality of earnings review. No quarter has more than two major changes, and the months of the annual audit and budget cycle carry none, because the team is fully occupied then.

Building on the Milestones

Each milestone produced something the roadmap depends on. The close redesign creates the record of timely, accurate monthly results that a buyer's diligence team will ask for first. The driver-based budget and rolling forecast give the company a history of forecasts that can be compared with results, which a buyer uses to judge management's credibility. The dashboard creates two years of operating KPIs by hospital before the sale, showing which hospitals improved and why. The cash forecast and covenant work, and the documentation of adjusted EBITDA, prepare the company for the quality of earnings review. The reporting package already presents information the way a buyer's board will want it.

What a Buyer Will Examine

A buyer's quality of earnings provider will rebuild EBITDA from the general ledger, question each adjustment, test revenue by hospital against practice system data and examine working capital trends. Its legal and operational teams will review controlled drug compliance and doctor contracts. The roadmap addresses each: automated revenue feeds make hospital revenue traceable, the adjusted EBITDA file documents every adjustment with support, monitoring reports show drug reconciliations performed every month and the consolidation tool produces hospital-level results without spreadsheet adjustments. The sell-side review in 2027 is a rehearsal that should find nothing a buyer would not already expect.

What Stays the Same

Not everything needs to change. The close team is experienced and stable, the hospital directors trust the controller, and the lenders have received every report on time. The roadmap protects these by adding capacity before adding work and by keeping the controller focused on reporting and control rather than spreading the role across every initiative.

Risks

Hiring is the biggest risk; FP&A managers with healthcare experience are scarce in Denver, so recruiting starts in January, with a contractor as a fallback. A second acquisition in 2026 would compete for the same team, so the integration playbook from Fort Collins will be documented first. A covenant breach would divert attention, which is another reason to keep headroom.

Governance of the Roadmap

The CFO will sponsor the roadmap and review progress with the controller monthly. Each quarter, the controller will present the eight measures and the status of each initiative to the sponsor's operating partner, with any slippage explained and a recovery plan. Initiatives that fall more than one quarter behind will be reconsidered rather than allowed to drift. The audit committee of the board will receive a summary twice a year, because several initiatives, especially monitoring and documentation, also reduce audit risk and fees.

Measures of Progress

Eight measures will be reported to the sponsor each quarter: days to close, post-close adjustments, forecast accuracy within 2 percent of EBITDA, dashboard use by directors, days to integrate an acquisition into the close, monitoring exceptions resolved within 30 days, audit adjustments and covenant headroom.

Conclusion

The roadmap turns the year's milestones into a sustained record that a buyer can rely on, adds two roles where the function is thin and paces change so the monthly close never suffers.

References

Kaplan, S. N., & Stromberg, P. (2009). Leveraged buyouts and private equity. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(1), 121-146. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.23.1.121

Maas, V. S., & Matejka, M. (2009). Balancing the dual responsibilities of business unit controllers: Field and survey evidence. The Accounting Review, 84(4), 1233-1253. https://doi.org/10.2308/accr.2009.84.4.1233

Roehl-Anderson, J. M. (2013). Controllership: The work of the managerial accountant (9th ed.). Wiley.