CPA depth and judgment for growing companies, lean teams, and complex transitions.
Dave takes responsibility for the accounting function when it needs an owner: the controller seat, the close, cash and lender reporting, post-acquisition integration, and ERP cleanup, with applied AI kept inside the controls. For teams that are stretched, scaling, or under pressure.
The work
Finance Operations
Senior accounting ownership when the function cannot wait: the controller seat, the close, and the numbers a lender or sponsor is relying on.
- The controller seat, filled: the close run on a calendar, reconciliations current, and the ledger ready for whoever is asking, while the search for a permanent hire runs.
- Reporting and process improvement: close cycle time, reconciliation backlogs, handoffs, and the checklists that keep each month running clean with less rework.
- Cash and lender reporting under pressure: the weekly cash forecast, the borrowing base, and the reporting package a lender, sponsor, or turnaround advisor needs on time.
- Sell-side readiness: preparation that holds up when a buyer's diligence team starts asking questions.
- Counsel on the decisions that shape the business: a budget and forecast the business can trust, and a straight read on what the numbers will and will not support.
Systems and Integration
Finance-side ownership of the systems the business runs on, from conversion through the first close after a deal.
- Post-acquisition integration: the acquired books mapped to the platform's chart of accounts, consolidated, and closed on one calendar.
- Post-go-live cleanup: the close that stopped working after a conversion, the balances nobody trusts, and the reports that no longer tie, worked back to a ledger the team can rely on.
- ERP conversions from the finance side: requirements, testing, cutover, and the stabilization that follows.
- Converted balances reconciled record by record before anyone relies on them.
- The controls that hold up afterward: access, IT general controls, and the audit trail a sponsor's auditor will test.
Applied AI
AI inside the finance function, with the controls and oversight to keep it auditable.
- A clear starting point, including where AI is not worth turning on.
- AI output is checked back to the ledger before anyone relies on it.
- A written line between what AI does and what a person signs off on.
- A review of the AI already running inside the finance function, with the controls it is missing named.
- Evidence an auditor can follow: what the AI did, what was checked, and who approved it.
- Tools and habits that keep working after the engagement ends.
Who this is for
Dave works with founder-led, family-owned, and sponsor-backed companies.
These are the situations that usually start the work.
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A key person just left
The controller or accounting lead is gone, and the close cannot wait for a search to finish.
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The close has slipped
Month-end lands later each cycle, reconciliations are stacking up, and leadership sees the numbers late.
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A turnaround is under way, and the accounting function needs an owner
A turnaround advisor is working the business, the lender wants weekly numbers, and someone has to take the close, the cash reporting, and the ledger in the meantime.
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The deal just closed
New ownership needs sponsor reporting, a predictable close, and a finance function ready for institutional scrutiny.
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The acquisition runs on a different ERP
Two charts of accounts, two close calendars, and a sponsor expecting one set of numbers by month-end.
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The ERP went live, and the close has not worked since
The integrator has moved on, the balances do not tie to the old system, and month-end takes twice as long as it did before the conversion.
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Systems are changing
An ERP or reporting conversion is coming, and the finance side needs an owner for requirements, testing, and post-go-live cleanup.
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The auditors are coming, and the systems have never been tested
A first audit under institutional ownership, and nobody has documented who can post, who can approve, or what the system does on its own.
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AI is in use, and nobody owns the controls
The tools are already running inside the finance function, and no one has defined what gets reviewed, what gets checked back to source, and who signs off.
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A sale or review is ahead
The company is heading into a sale, recapitalization, audit, or lender review, and the books need to hold up under diligence.
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A big decision is on the table
The owner wants an independent read on what the numbers support before committing.
About
Dave Russ, CPA, MBA
Chicago, Illinois
Dave has run finance, accounting, and IT for a division as its senior director, owning the close, the systems underneath it, and the budget. As an external auditor, he saw what has to hold up when someone outside the company starts asking questions.
Fortune 500 and sponsor-backed companies have brought him in when the finance function had a problem it couldn't staff for, from an empty controller seat to an ERP conversion on SAP S/4HANA or Workday. He has put AI to work inside the close and reconciliations, for those clients and in his own practice, and holds ISACA's Advanced in AI Audit credential. The companies he works with now, between $10 million and $100 million in revenue, face the same problems with a smaller team to absorb them.
A graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Dave combines accounting discipline with a strategy-focused approach to finance operations. Finance should make the business easier to run. That means reliable reporting, repeatable processes, and the right amount of structure for the company's size and stage. The work is done alongside the people who already know the business.
Contact
If any of these situations sounds familiar, let's have a conversation.
Dave Russ
Russ Advisory
hello@russadvisory.com