maebhcollins.com / Finance Transformation

Finance Transformation & Systems

The finance function most businesses have is not the one they need.

Manual processes dressed up as procedures. Spreadsheets doing the job that systems should. Reconciliations that take days. Month-end that grinds everything to a halt. Good people spending their time on low-value work because nobody has ever stopped to redesign the thing from the ground up.

Finance transformation is not about buying software. It is about understanding what is broken, why it is broken, and building something that actually works: for the team using it and the business depending on it.

I have done this across commercial businesses, international operations, and public sector environments. The contexts differ. The discipline is the same.

What I Do

Process Automation & Redesign

I diagnose where finance processes fail: at the system level, the process level, and the behavioural level: and design solutions that address all three. Reconciliations, approvals, month-end workflows, purchase order processes, expense management. Built properly, automated where it makes sense, with controls that hold.

ERP Implementation & Optimisation

Selection, implementation, and bedding-in of ERP and accounting systems. I have implemented NetSuite and Sage in founder-led businesses, built integrations between disconnected platforms, and designed the finance architecture that growing businesses need before they need it.

Controls & Compliance Frameworks

Designing and embedding financial controls that are audit-ready without being operationally obstructive. Fixed asset management, payment approvals, reconciliation sign-off, statutory compliance. Frameworks that junior staff can operate and senior management can rely on.

Finance Team Development

Building finance functions from scratch, restructuring existing teams, designing roles and responsibilities, and developing the people inside them. Finance transformation fails if the team cannot sustain it.

Systems Integration

Where off-the-shelf solutions do not exist, I have built them. Bespoke API integrations connecting CRM, inventory, ecommerce, and accounting systems. Automated data flows that eliminate manual double-entry and reduce error rates. Built to be maintained by the team that inherits them.

Outcomes

80+ hours per month eliminated across four finance teams through credit card, debit card, and payroll reconciliation automation. Process built from nothing, including the digital tools, the procedures, and the behavioural change programme to make it stick.

ERP implementation across two international businesses: NetSuite and Sage, from selection through to staff training and full adoption. Order processing time reduced by 60%. Stock errors down 30%.

15-step finance modernisation roadmap developed for a government finance function processing 59,000+ payment entries annually. Projected annual saving of €356,000 through voucher system innovation and API-based process redesign.

Statutory compliance and audit readiness embedded from scratch in businesses that had neither, including fixed asset frameworks, purchase order controls, and month-end close procedures.

Decision framework for complex classification: designed and rolled out across a finance team to standardise treatment of 59,000+ payment entries under a new accounting standard. Eliminated inconsistency, reduced classification queries, and created an audit trail.

How I Work

I start with diagnosis, not prescription. Every finance function has its own failure modes, and the solution has to fit the organisation, not a template.

I work alongside finance teams, not above them. The transformation only holds if the people running it understand it, trust it, and own it.

I combine technical finance depth: I am FCA qualified with Big 4 training: with hands-on systems capability. I have written the Excel automation tools, built the API integrations, and sat with the team until the process works.

Let's Talk

If your finance function is not working as hard as your business needs it to, or if you are planning a systems change and want someone who has delivered it before: get in touch.

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