Services
The Controller Seat, Filled Part-Time
Every engagement is one role: your controller. It covers three areas of responsibility, scoped to what your organization needs and quoted after an assessment, before any work begins.
01 · Close and Reporting
A Month That Actually Closes
Financial statements are only worth something if someone has reconciled, reviewed and signed off on what is behind them. Miriam owns the close: a set schedule, every account tied out, and a reporting package that tells leadership where the organization stands and what needs a decision.
What a Month Looks Like
- Bookkeeping, overseen. Your bookkeeper or staff keep recording the day to day. Miriam reviews their work, corrects it, and sets the standard. If you have no one, routine entries can be folded into the engagement.
- The close. Bank, credit card and balance sheet accounts reconciled, accruals booked, and the month reviewed and locked on schedule.
- The reporting package. Balance sheet, income statement and cash position, with a short written summary of what changed and why.
- Board and finance committee packets, prepared and presented in person or on the call.
- Your CPA, handed clean books. Tax returns stay with your tax preparer. Miriam makes sure they receive books that are reconciled, documented and ready to file.
Best fit: Owners and executive directors who need numbers they can stand behind and a finance lead to call.
02 · Audit and Compliance
Ready Before the Auditors Ask
An audit goes well months before fieldwork starts. Miriam has led annual audit preparation and fieldwork for a large multi-program nonprofit, and she runs your year the same way: schedules kept current, documentation organized, and restricted funds tracked correctly from the start.
How Audit Prep Works
- Audit-ready schedules maintained through the year, not assembled in a panic at year end.
- Fieldwork support. Miriam prepares the requests, answers the auditors' questions and works through any adjustments with them.
- Grant and funder compliance: grant budgets, budget-to-actual reporting and restricted net assets handled under nonprofit GAAP.
- Form 990 support, working with your preparer so the return matches the audited numbers.
- IRS and state inquiries, with the documentation gathered and organized before anyone has to ask twice.
Best fit: Nonprofits facing a first audit, a funder review, or an audit that went badly last year.
03 · Budgets, Cash and Controls
Know Where the Money Is Going Before It Goes
Reporting tells you what happened. Planning and controls decide what happens next. Miriam builds the budget with leadership, forecasts cash so shortfalls show up months ahead, and puts controls in place so the organization is protected even when nobody is watching.
What Is Included
- The annual budget, built with leadership and tracked against actuals every month.
- Cash flow forecasting, so payroll, debt and big purchases are planned rather than discovered.
- Internal controls: who approves, who pays, who reconciles, and who checks, designed to prevent fraud and error.
- Payroll oversight, making sure wages, taxes and liabilities tie back to the books.
- Systems: chart of accounts, approval flows and tools set up so the numbers come out right by design.
Best fit: Growing organizations where money moves faster than anyone can track it.
The First 90 Days
Every Engagement Starts From a Reliable Baseline
A controller cannot report on numbers she does not trust. If the books are behind or misstated, the first stretch of the engagement brings them current: every account reconciled back through the periods that need it, errors corrected, and each adjusting entry logged with the reason for it. Then the close goes on a schedule and the first reporting package goes out.
Sample entries from a baseline log, fictional organization:
| Account | Found | Resolved |
|---|---|---|
| Operating checking | Fourteen deposits recorded twice between March and June | Duplicates removed and documented for the CPA |
| Undeposited funds | Six months of payments never moved to the bank account | Each matched to its deposit and the balance cleared |
| Grant revenue | A restricted grant booked as unrestricted income | Reclassified to restricted net assets and flagged for the auditors |
Before You Decide
What You Are Right to Ask
Why Not Hire a Full-Time Controller?
Most small businesses and nonprofits need controller-level work a few days a month: the close, the reporting package, the board meeting and the audit. A full-time controller is a full-time salary for part-time work. A fractional controller gives you the same seat, scaled to the organization you are today.
What Does This Cost?
It depends on the size of the organization, the state of the books and how much of the seat you need. Quoting before anyone has looked would be a guess. The assessment is complimentary, and it ends with a clear scope and a price.
Do You Prepare Tax Returns?
Not as part of these engagements. Your CPA keeps the return. Miriam makes sure the books they receive are reconciled, documented and ready, which usually makes tax season shorter and cheaper.
Will You Work With Our Systems and Our Staff?
Yes. Miriam works in QuickBooks Online and Desktop, Sage Intacct, Xero, Bill.com, ADP and Gusto, and she works alongside your existing bookkeeper or office staff rather than replacing them.