Post-M&A Tracking & Finance Integration

An acquisition has closed. The acquired business is still running on its own systems, its own chart of accounts, its own finance team. Integration is planned but won’t happen overnight — systems migration, team alignment, and process unification typically take six to twelve months.

In the meantime, the group has a problem. The acquired entity’s numbers don’t arrive in a format the group can consolidate cleanly. The run-rate the deal was underwritten on is hard to track because the reporting standards differ. The board wants to see the combined business; the data won’t let them.

And the integration itself carries risk. Migrating systems and processes without clear visibility on what the target’s true performance is means the management team can’t tell whether a dip is integration friction or underlying deterioration.

Two phases. Visibility first, integration second.

Phase one stands up a tracking layer over the acquired entity’s existing finance setup. We map the target’s chart of accounts to the group’s, build a translation that produces group-standard P&L and balance sheet output without disturbing the target’s local books, and establish a monthly cadence that lets the group consolidate cleanly. The CFO can see the combined business from month one. The run-rate is trackable. Deal-thesis KPIs are reported against, not lost.

Phase two is the integration itself. We migrate the target onto the group’s systems, chart of accounts, and reporting cadence — on a timeline that protects continuity of reporting throughout. Local statutory obligations continue to be met. The integration finishes with the target fully inside the group reporting framework, and with the team aligned around the new way of working.

Where the target has finance team strength, we integrate them properly. Where there are gaps, we flag them and propose how to close them.

True visibility on the acquired entity from month one of ownership — not from month nine when integration finishes. Deal-thesis tracking actually happens.

A clean integration. The migration completes without losing reporting continuity, without breaking statutory compliance, and without losing the team.

A combined business the board can see, manage, and report on as one entity at the end of the work.

A repeatable approach. The next acquisition is faster, because the framework for tracking and integrating is already built.