You are adding entities
Multi-entity groups need consistent chart of accounts, intercompany discipline and a consolidation process designed rather than assembled monthly in Excel.
FINANCE FUNCTION SETUP
Build the finance function once, properly.
System selection, chart of accounts design, controls, approval workflows, close calendar and team structure — for UAE businesses outgrowing the finance setup they improvised at the start.
Fixed-fee project, typically AED 25,000–90,000 · Fixed fee agreed in writing before work starts
AT A GLANCE
Indicative scope. Final deliverables confirmed after the diagnostic.
Duration6–12 weeks
OutputDocumented, not verbal
HandoverYour team owns it
BasisFixed fee
THE PROBLEM
Every business improvises its finance function at the start, and it should — spending three months designing controls for a company with four customers would be absurd. The problem is that the improvisation is never formally replaced. It gets extended. New entities are bolted onto a chart of accounts designed for one. Approval happens over WhatsApp because that is how it always happened. Three systems hold overlapping versions of the same data. The one person who understands the reconciliation becomes structurally unreplaceable.
The trigger is usually external: a new entity, a funding round, a franchise agreement, an ERP migration, a first CFO hire, or an audit that produced an uncomfortable management letter. At that point the improvised setup has to be replaced deliberately, and doing it under deadline pressure is significantly worse than doing it on purpose.
This is a defined project with a fixed fee, a fixed duration and documented deliverables that your team owns at the end. We are not trying to make ourselves permanent.
IS THIS YOU?
The triggers.
If two or more of these are true, the diagnostic is the cheapest place to start. It is a fixed fee and it ends in a written findings note you own.
You are migrating to a new system
An ERP or accounting migration is the cheapest moment to fix structure, and the most expensive moment to carry existing mess forward.
You are hiring your first finance manager or CFO
Hiring senior finance into an undocumented function means they spend their first six months on archaeology instead of the job you hired them for.
An audit produced a management letter
Control weaknesses identified once tend to be identified again, with escalating language, until they are structurally addressed.
One person is a single point of failure
If a resignation would create a genuine crisis, that is a design problem, not a loyalty question.
Approvals happen informally
Undocumented approval is the precondition for most internal fraud, and it is the first thing an auditor or an insurer will ask about.
WHAT THE PROJECT COVERS
Six workstreams, documented.
Chart of accounts and reporting structure
Designed around how you manage the business — entity, site, channel, department, project — so that management reporting, statutory reporting and tax computation all draw from one structure rather than three parallel versions maintained separately.
Systems architecture
Assessing what you run, what it should integrate with, and where manual re-keying is creating both cost and error. Accounting platform, POS, payroll, expense management, inventory, banking and document storage — mapped as one flow with defined ownership at each handoff. We do not resell software and take no vendor commission.
Controls and segregation of duties
Who can create a supplier, who can approve a payment, who can post a journal, who reviews the reconciliation, and how each is evidenced. Designed to be proportionate — controls that are too heavy for the team's size get bypassed within a month, which is worse than not having them.
The close calendar
A documented month-end calendar with tasks, owners, dependencies and deadlines, so the close runs on a process rather than on one person's memory. This alone typically pulls close time from three weeks to under ten days.
Team structure and role design
What roles the function needs at your current size and at your next stage, what each owns, where to hire versus outsource, and realistic UAE market salary bands. Often the answer is fewer people with clearer responsibilities.
Documentation and handover
A finance operations manual: policies, procedures, calendars, approval matrices and system documentation. Written so a competent new hire can run the function from it. The test is simple — if it only works while we are here, we have not delivered.
WHAT YOU RECEIVE
Deliverables, listed — so scope is never a debate.
Everything below is included as standard at the scope agreed in your engagement letter. If something falls outside it, we tell you before we do it, not after.
Included as standard
- Current-state assessment with prioritised findings
- Chart of accounts and reporting structure design
- Systems architecture map and integration plan
- Approval matrix and segregation of duties framework
- Documented month-end close calendar
- Finance policies and procedures manual
- Team structure recommendation with UAE salary bands
- Migration and implementation plan
- Hands-on implementation support
- Team training and formal handover
HOW WE START
Four stages. The first one is small on purpose.
Assess
Two to three weeks reviewing systems, process, controls, team and pain points.
Design
Target-state design agreed with you before anything is built.
Implement
Build the structure, migrate data, configure controls, document everything.
Handover
Train the team, run parallel for one cycle, hand over ownership.
QUESTIONS
Before you engage.
Clear scope is a feature. Where work requires a separately licensed professional — a registered tax agent, a licensed auditor, a lawyer — the engagement says so in writing.
How long does a finance function setup take?
Typically six to twelve weeks depending on entity count, systems and whether a migration is involved. We publish a week-by-week plan at the start and hold to it.
What does it cost?
Fixed fee, generally AED 25,000 to AED 90,000 depending on scope, entity count and whether we implement or only design. Fixed fee rather than hourly, because open-ended finance projects have a tendency to become permanent.
Do we have to change accounting software?
Not necessarily. In many cases the software is adequate and the configuration is the problem. We will tell you honestly if a change is genuinely warranted, and we take no commission from any vendor, so the recommendation has no commercial angle.
Will you also run the function afterwards?
Only if you want us to. The project is designed so your own team can run it. The handover can end in a light review retainer, full outsourced accounting or a fully in-house model — all three are valid outcomes if they fit the operating need.
Can you help us hire the finance team?
We write the role specifications, define the competency requirements, sit in on technical interviews and advise on UAE market salary bands. We are not a recruitment agency and take no placement fee.
We are mid-ERP-implementation and it is going badly. Can you help?
Yes. We first test whether the finance requirements, target structure and controls were specified clearly enough before configuration. We then define the target state and work with your implementation partner to correct course where needed.
NEXT STEP
Start with the actual problem, not a proposal.
Tell us the current setup — entities, systems, transaction volume, what is going wrong. We aim to reply within one business day with a scoped next step and an indicative fee range.