| Organization: Private equity-backed company completing frequent, repeatable acquisitions. | Need: Better post-close visibility with a lean team managing growing deal volume. | Outcome: Earlier insight after close; 400-hour savings across FP&A and integration teams. |
Understanding the situation
A portfolio company within a private equity-backed organization was completing a high volume of sub-$5M EBITDA acquisitions each year. Its strategy depended on fast, repeatable deal execution and visibility into performance across newly acquired businesses.
As activity increased, leadership began feeling strain beyond transaction execution. Post close, newly acquired companies often operated on a cash basis, lacked consistent reporting, and were not yet integrated into the parent ERP. From close through integration, leaders described a lack of visibility where they couldn’t reliably assess performance or earnings across the portfolio.
Internal integration and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams were lean and stretched thin. While they understood the required steps — opening balance sheets, accrual adjustments, and systems integration — the volume and timing of acquisitions made it difficult to keep pace. Leadership sought support to scale across the full arc from diligence through post-merger integration.
Exploring the challenge
CLA initially supported quality of earnings work tailored to sub-$5M EBITDA transactions, scaling scope to focus on material risks. As acquisition volume increased, the engagement expanded to support multiple concurrent deals, often four at a time, while also stepping into post-close activities.
Post close, CLA worked with integration and FP&A teams to bridge the gap between close and ERP integration. This included rolling forward quality of earnings analyses, preparing accrual-based adjustments, and producing interim financial insights so leadership could assess performance during integration.
The engagement extended beyond the deal team to include integration, FP&A, and other stakeholders. CLA established a weekly cadence with standing meetings and written updates, improving visibility across overlapping deals and integrations. Over time, the client began involving CLA in planning discussions, treating the firm as an extension of the internal team.
Between close and getting a new acquisition onto our ERP, we had a visibility ‘black hole’ and couldn’t see how the business was performing. CLA bridged that gap with steady progress and insight so we weren’t waiting weeks to understand results.
— Vice President, portfolio company
Achieving results
Leadership identified several clear outcomes from the engagement. Most notably, the organization gained earlier insight into financial performance during post close integration — bridging the gap between transaction close and full systems conversion. This reduced uncertainty during a previously opaque period and gave decision makers more timely information to work with.
The organization also realized significant time savings — more than 400 hours — for its integration and FP&A teams. By relying on CLA to handle interim financial analysis, accrual adjustments, and repeatable post-close activities, internal teams were able to redirect attention toward higher-priority integration work.
On the deal side, the ability to support several transactions simultaneously helped the organization maintain acquisition momentum without overloading internal resources. CLA’s capacity to flex alongside deal volume reduced friction as activity increased and made it easier for the client to sustain its growth strategy.
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