The Situation
A premium CPG brand had outgrown its informal monthly close. Multi-channel revenue (DTC, on-premise, distributor, tasting room), manufacturing costing layered into a consumer P&L, QuickBooks Desktop, and an ownership team that needed to spend its time on brand and sales — not on reconciliation.
Month-end close was running long and inconsistent. Strategic questions about channel mix, pricing, and capacity were getting answered late or not at all. Weekly leadership meetings carried overdue tasks across cycles.
What CEI did
Installed a structured month-end close with sequenced phases, named owners per task, and a daily progress monitor that flagged behind-schedule items before they became month-end fire drills.
Built the weekly accounting cadence to feed Monday morning leadership meetings with current numbers, an overdue task list, and a forward-looking action set.
Set up CFO-on-call coverage for ad-hoc strategic questions, pricing decisions, channel mix economics, capacity planning, handled inside the engagement rather than as separate work.
Cleared the recurring overdue backlog so the leadership team walked into each Monday morning with a closed prior week instead of a dragging list of unresolved items.
Predictable
Monthly Close on Autopilot
Weekly
Owner Cadence Live
Cleared
Backlog Reset Every Cycle
The ownership team got their week back. Financial visibility moved from “whenever the books are caught up” to a reliable Monday rhythm. Strategic questions that previously required pulling the books open started getting answered in the normal cadence of business.
In Their Words
“Before CEI, our finance function was something we had to think about. Now it’s something that just runs.”
— Co-Owner | Confidential Client