Manufacturing Finance & Cost Accounting Consultant

Summary

This Manufacturing Finance & Cost Accounting Consultant is a highly experienced finance and operations leader with deep roots in manufacturing, engineered products, and asset-intensive environments. He brings a rare combination of cost accounting rigor, operational understanding, and hands-on execution, developed across small and mid-sized organizations, many with limited staff and complex operational models. This Manufacturing Finance & Cost Accounting Consultant is known for stepping into imperfect situations—cleaning up financials, stabilizing reporting, implementing controls, and creating actionable insight that management can immediately use to improve margins and cash flow. 

Throughout his career, this Manufacturing Finance & Cost Accounting Consultant has worked closely with plant leadership, engineering, and operations to ensure that job costing, inventory valuation, transfer pricing, and margin analysis accurately reflect reality on the shop floor. He is equally comfortable operating at the CFO or Controller level and is particularly effective in interim or transitional roles where a company needs structure, discipline, and leadership without bureaucracy. This Manufacturing Finance & Cost Accounting Consultant leads by example, communicates clearly with non-financial leaders, and believes finance should enable better decisions—not just report results. 

Highlights

• Senior finance and controllership leadership 

• Strong manufacturing and engineered-to-order background 

• Deep cost accounting and inventory expertise

• Hands-on operator in lean, small-staff environments 

• ERP Implementation and financial cleanup specialist 

• Comfortable in interim, turnaround, and transition roles 

Relevant Accomplishments

• Built and led cost accounting frameworks across custom manufacturing and project-based environments, including cradle-to-grave project margin analysis, variance reporting, transfer pricing, and post-completion reviews that clearly explained results to operational leaders. Developed methodologies to evaluate internal asset utilization versus repair/replace decisions for heavy equipment and capital assets. 

• Stabilized and corrected financial operations for manufacturing and equipment businesses with audit deficiencies, inaccurate inventory, and weak controls. Reduced inventory write-downs from hundreds of thousands of dollars to immaterial levels through improved processes, cycle counts, and valuation discipline. Delivered clean audits following prior adverse findings. 

• Operated as a hands-on Controller / CFO in organizations with minimal staff, directly managing general ledger, AP, AR, payroll coordination, fixed assets, depreciation, prepaids, and cash
  • forecasting while also partnering with operations on pricing, margin thresholds, and bid review. 

   

  • Implemented and improved ERP and reporting systems (including Epicor, Dynamics, NetSuite, and custom solutions), reducing month-end close cycles from weeks to days while improving accuracy, visibility, and accountability. Frequently trained junior accounting teams and non-financial managers to improve adoption and effectiveness. 

   

  • Partnered with plant leadership and engineering to establish minimum margin standards, review customer and vendor contracts, and evaluate exceptions based on capacity utilization, strategic customers, or long-term growth opportunities—ensuring financial discipline without hindering operations. 

   

  • Led treasury, cash flow forecasting, and covenant reporting, providing management and lenders with clear visibility into liquidity, working capital, and compliance requirements during both stable operations and periods of volatility. 

   

  • Supported M&A, restructurings, and post-transaction integration, including conversion from cash to accrual accounting, purchase price allocation corrections, opening/closing balance sheet preparation, and board-level financial modeling for acquisition and investment decisions. 

   

Roles

• Interim / Contract Controller & CFO – Multiple Organizations  

• Vice President of Finance – Transportation & Asset-Intensive Services 

• Controller / Chief Financial Officer – Engineered Manufacturing & Oilfield Equipment  

• Controller – Custom Manufacturing & Pipeline Equipment  

• International Controller – Global Manufacturing & Energy Operations  

• Cost Accountant – Project-Based International Operations