Management Reporter Consulting

I specialize in financial reporting with Management Reporter and have 17 years of consulting and reporting experience.

Need a Management Reporter consultant? I wrote the book!

Many companies certainly have the talent on board to work with this software, but they just don’t have the time to create the reports that will take full advantage of Management Reporter’s capabilities.

That’s where consulting comes in. I’ll help you dodge bullets and use this software to the fullest.

Typical Management Reporter consulting projects

Most of my engagements fall into one of four categories:

1. New implementations or new reports: It’s so important to get Management Reporter set up right the first time! If not, see “revamp” below.
2. Migration: You can migrate your FRx reports, but they’ll need attention. And in some cases, they should be redesigned in MR to take advantage of its capabilities.
3. Revamp existing reports: I do a lot of fixing existing reports, regardless of whether they came from FRx initially. Quite often I can reduce the number of reports by a better implementation of reporting trees. I always look for these opportunities; I get such a kick out of making your life easier by presenting you a smaller number of reports to maintain.
4. Management Reporter Training: I can train your users either after the fact or during new or revamp report development.

Quite often financials live in Excel, usually in a complicated model based on a trial balance, and need to be created in Management Reporter. I know Excel quite well and do lots of these. For more information, see the post Recreating Your Excel Financials. I originally wrote this about recreating excel financials in FRx, but the same principles hold true for Management Reporter.

Engagement Length
Most of my engagements run from two days to two to three weeks.

Where I Work
I do most training onsite, but most consulting engagements are remote. I have a blazing fast fiber optic internet connection and a quiet office. On occasion, if the reporting requirements are especially difficult, I’ll start an engagement onsite but finish remotely. I work all over the country including Alaska and Hawaii. Have also been to London for a financial reporting consulting engagement!

Who I usually work with

Client Profile
My Management Reporter clients run one of the 4 Dynamics ERP systems and most have revenues from about $30 million to $500 million, although I do see some smaller companies and some much larger publicly held companies.

I work directly with the accounting department—managers and analysts and controllers. Sometimes I’m hired by IT to work with the accountants. Sometimes I work with a hands-on CFO.

My experience as a Management Reporter consultant

I’ve been a CPA for 25 years—so I’m not exactly a spring chicken, but I do have the experience to work one on one with CFOs.

I’ve been working as a financial reporting consultant for 17 of those years. I’ve worked with FRx for over 17 years, and I’ve worked exclusively in financial reporting (with either FRx or Management Reporter) for the past 10 years.

I have tons of experience with unusual reporting requirements. Every industry is different. It’s my job to determine how to successfully present the stats and ratios you want, and I’ve done just that many times.

I can leverage an extensive library of report designs.

Over the years, I’ve developed my own Best Practices, consulting techniques that give consistent and successful results. The Best Practices page ostensibly relates to FRx, but many of these items apply to Management Reporter as well. I have a checklist and use these techniques on every engagement.

I give focused attention on every engagement. I work only on a handful of clients at a time, and you get me and not a junior.

I know a lot of tips and tricks that streamline engagements, and I know quite a few traps to avoid as well.

I believe in simple, practical, elegant designs: each report is as simple as possible within the constraints of the job it has to do. So your maintenance is simplified as much as possible.

Want to talk about hiring me?

If you want to talk about working together, please email me at jlh@jharrigan.com.

If you want a headstart, take a look at the Hire Me page. It contains most of the information I’ll need to ask you about.

You will normally hear back from me very quickly. If you don’t, a spam filter probably intercepted one of us, so please call 512-425-0600.

We’ll use email to set up a time to talk live about your project without any obligation whatsoever: your project needs, what can be accomplished and what can’t, timing, etc.

If you decide to proceed, I have a simple Letter Agreement that specifies the roles and responsibilities of both parties. Nice to have things spelled out in advance. My letter agreement has a confidentiality section, but I’m happy to execute any NDA agreement you may have. I maintain and use a commercial shredder. I’m serious about confidentiality. Enough said.

For a few short engagement case studies and client comments, see References.

My job is to make your life easier, and I look forward to hearing about your project.