The deal closed. The financial case still needs an owner.
Integration milestones can turn green while staffing, project and overhead decisions move away from the case that justified the acquisition. Keep those decisions connected with the financial view your management team uses.
Keep the case in the operating conversation.
As an IT or professional-services firm changes, managers need to decide which work to keep, who will deliver it and what the company will carry between assignments. A separate integration programme can make the operating and financial conversations drift apart.
Profitdrive can support the operating plan for a firm around 25–150 people: pipeline, projects, dated people costs and overhead feed a forward company P&L. It is a planning and reporting tool, not a transaction or due-diligence system.
Connect staffing changes with the months ahead.
Review contracted work, extensions and pipeline alongside named people, open roles and available capacity. Make dated cost changes explicit, so a staffing decision has a place in the future financial view.
Keep SG&A as dated items by category and supplier. The planning discussion can then distinguish a change to current delivery from a cost the company continues to carry.
Give the operating units a shared reporting method.
Plans uses the work, people and costs behind the outlook. Publish a Budget or Forecast and compare performance through PL Detail, Clients and Business Units. Export the board pack to branded Excel or PDF.
Use that view to test the assumptions behind an integration decision. Record who maintains them and what evidence would justify changing the plan. A report alone does not prove that a synergy has been achieved.
Keep the scope of the financial model clear.
| Integration requirement | Decision to make first | Product boundary |
|---|---|---|
| One operating workspace | Choose the work and people represented in the plan. | Evaluate the supported project, staffing and company-finance workflows for that workspace. |
| Legal entities and accounts | Keep each entity’s book and reporting obligations under finance control. | An optional Xero connection is one organisation per workspace. Consolidating separate legal entities requires a separate accounting process. |
| BU reporting | Check how the units you want to report map to the supported structure. | Review Business Units alongside the firm view; do not treat a BU as a consolidated legal entity. |
| Synergy assumptions | Separate a proposed saving or revenue gain from evidence it occurred. | Model supported dated costs and operating changes, then compare the resulting financial view with your accepted actuals. |
One operating workspace
- Decision to make first
- Choose the work and people represented in the plan.
- Product boundary
- Evaluate the supported project, staffing and company-finance workflows for that workspace.
Legal entities and accounts
- Decision to make first
- Keep each entity’s book and reporting obligations under finance control.
- Product boundary
- An optional Xero connection is one organisation per workspace. Consolidating separate legal entities requires a separate accounting process.
BU reporting
- Decision to make first
- Check how the units you want to report map to the supported structure.
- Product boundary
- Review Business Units alongside the firm view; do not treat a BU as a consolidated legal entity.
Synergy assumptions
- Decision to make first
- Separate a proposed saving or revenue gain from evidence it occurred.
- Product boundary
- Model supported dated costs and operating changes, then compare the resulting financial view with your accepted actuals.
Test one integration decision, end to end.
Take an actual management question: a staffing transition, a project extension or a dated overhead change. Show the inputs in the plan, trace their effect on company Operating Income, then review the BU and board output.
If the immediate need is transaction management, acquisition accounting or statutory consolidation, address that with the appropriate process and systems. Evaluate Profitdrive for the connected operating decisions your integration team needs to keep in view.
Follow the question that matters next.
For CFOs, controllers and CEOs who need to explain the company result and the months ahead. Company forecasting and management reporting
For advisers who want client meetings to focus on decisions rather than assembling the next forecast. Accountants and fractional CFOs
See all starting pointsWhich integration decision is hardest to connect back to the financial case?
Request early access to examine a supported planning and reporting case, with the model’s scope made explicit.