The Situation
A growing B2B services provider had outgrown its informal monthly close. Job-level economics were unclear at month-end. Action items from owner meetings weren’t closing in a structured way. The team was reactive to whatever issue showed up loudest each week.
The owner wanted visibility, not a backlog of unresolved questions and last month’s data.
What CEI did
Rebuilt the month-end close on a phased schedule with named owners and a daily progress monitor that surfaced behind-schedule items before they became month-end fire drills.
Installed a structured meeting cadence with auto-captured action items and a closed-loop on every single item — no more “we’ll get back to you on that next month.”
Set up the operating-system-to-accounting handoff so job-level revenue, costs, and timing all rolled cleanly into the books rather than getting reconstructed at month-end.
Converted the recurring touchbase from a status report into a decision meeting tied to live numbers and an open-items log that actually closed.
Structured
Close Calendar Live
Closed-Loop
Action Items End-to-End
Predictable
Owner Rhythm Restored
The owner gets a current month-end on a predictable date. Action items from the weekly touchbase don’t roll forward. The finance function shifted from “catch-up” to “current,” and operational decisions are made with this month’s economics, not last month’s memory of them.
In Their Words
“We stopped trying to remember what we decided last week. CEI made sure it was written down, owned, and closed out before the next meeting.”
— Owner | Confidential Client