Family Office Tax Structuring and Compliance Services

Cendrowski Corporate Advisors engaged with a longstanding Family Office to assist with process redesign and accounting system improvement when the group purchased a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The family had contracted with a consulting firm for implementation, and Cendrowski Corporate Advisors was brought in to review the system and process design. We were to identify any internal control weaknesses and look for additional opportunities to improve internal controls.

During our assessment, we found many instances of misunderstanding between the Family Office, the software vendor, and the implementation consultant that could lead to control lapses. For example, the CFO believed that the system would identify and prevent any duplicate vendor payments. During our detailed control review, we found that the system only checked to see if a new invoice was a duplicate against the active invoice file, those invoices that were in the system but not yet paid. Once an invoice had been paid, it was excluded from the process, making it easy to create duplicate payments. Fortunately, this issue was discovered during the design phase, making the development and application of a workaround far more efficient than if it were found after implementation.