All too often I am encountering business owners who have called me in to give them “an accounting health check” only after they are in a serious financial crisis or have failed an ATO audit, rather than earlier when symptoms first appeared. 
They have had suspicion or knowledge of the bookkeeping nightmare they are in, yet they felt they did not have the time to deal with it.  “I was too busy earning money and I assumed my bookkeeper was taking care of all that”, is a common statement.
It is not until the supplier and customer complaints have escalated and the bank balance doesn’t look too healthy that they finally take action and send out a cry for help.

The woes commonly expressed may be some, if not all, of the following:

The profit and loss report “looks wrong” – from what I have encountered a business owner often has a “sense of the likely profitability” of the business, even when they have not acquired the knowledge to interpret Financial Reports or their accuracy.
The Profit and Loss Report shows a “profit” yet there is no money in the bank – this requires a discussion/tutorial to help them understand the difference between the reported “accounting profit” for tax liability purposes and the harsh reality of “cash flow and actual funds available”.
The business owner was notified by a supplier that an invoice had been paid twice and wonders how many times this might have happened with other suppliers – this is alarmingly all too common, but not all suppliers will let you know.
Customers have made a remittance of payment for a Sales Invoice that “did not show in the accounting reports as having been an outstanding debtor” – the owner is concerned how many more customers owe the business money who are not identified in the Debtors Reports.
Suppliers phoning frequently about unpaid invoices – this, of course, seriously damages the business’ reputation. Although there may have been sufficient funds, the excuse for tardiness is often that “the accounting program” did not report the amount owing so the bookkeeper did not know the amount was due. [I often find they have no organized system to handle paper flow, have their desk in absolute chaos with literally piles of un-entered invoices scattered around the office, and no meaningful filing system.]
Sales invoices going out to customers who then phone in to say they had already paid – once again, this seriously damages the business reputation. The receipts, payments and bank account are often not reconciled in a timely manner.

Gone are the times when the business owner could pick up a manual set of books and flip through the pages to gauge the degree of accuracy, and randomly look at Creditors and Debtors, and thus assess how much money was available before spending.
The purpose of this assessment is to check key accounting & reporting areas and give recommendations, from a CFO’s perspective to strengthen your Finance & Accounting Function. Our CFO’s use proprietary comprehensive checklist and undertake detailed interaction with you, your accounting team, your auditors, your tax consultants and based on all of that we provide you with an Executive Summary of findings and areas to strengthen to take your company to the next level. Post Health-check, based on specific requirements, we even assist companies with drawing up of various policies & implementation of various suggestions