Working capital you can see, and a close that lands in time to matter.
Invoicing, collections, payables, reconciliation, close support and cash reporting — the two most canonical streams in any business, run properly. Fortress diagnoses that work, proves the fix in Shadow Mode, then runs the high-volume, rule-bound work under a named owner.
Fits when a PE platform or multi-entity operator is closing late, reconciling by hand, or sitting on cash the lender can already see.
The ERP shows transactions. It doesn't show which close step is costing you the timeline.
Days to close creeping. Reconciliation errors resurfacing. A/R aging past terms while A/P timing is managed by feel. Decisions made on numbers that are already two weeks stale.
- Invoices issued late or issued wrong, converting a payment cycle into a dispute cycle.
- Collections worked by whoever complains loudest rather than by exposure and recoverability.
- Payables processed without terms discipline, forfeiting available discounts and float.
- Reconciliation consuming the capacity that close depends on.
- Close extending past the date on which the numbers could still change a decision.
- Cash visibility assembled by hand, so the forecast is only as current as the last person to build it.
Assess. Prove. Then operate one workflow.
Start with one queue — usually collections follow-up, invoice exceptions, or a single recon. Expand only after controls and quality hold. Segregation of duties is not waived.
01 Assess
Three to four weeks. Baseline DSO/DPO, aging, invoice accuracy, days to close, recon exceptions and cash-forecast variance. Rank workflows by recoverable working capital and close risk. Pick one queue. Write access, SoD and evaluation requirements.
02 Prove
Shadow Mode, read-only. Assemble collections worklists, flag invoice exceptions, prepare recon packets, draft close checklists. Compare outputs to how the team actually closed a defined period. No payment release. No journal post without your approver.
03 Operate
Recurring capacity on the proven workflow: invoice handling, collections follow-up, A/P processing inside a written standard, recon prep, recurring cash reporting. Environment scoped here — yours, one you own, or hosted by Fortress or a named partner.
Queue governance, exception handling and the weekly review stay Fortress's own team throughout Operate — that never moves. Where the recurring work depends on technology, Fortress helps you integrate it into a platform you already run; where it calls for a more complex build or hosting, Fortress connects you with a vetted partner from its own ecosystem to build and run it, under a direct agreement between you and that partner.
Six workflows. One starts first.
Invoice handling
Issue on time. Catch the error before the customer does. Stop converting a payment cycle into a dispute cycle.
Issue lag · accuracy · dispute rate
Collections follow-up
Work by exposure and recoverability, not by who complained last. Prepare the packet. Escalate the exception.
DSO · past-due by bucket · touches per dollar
A/P processing
Match, code, queue. Hold terms discipline. Flag the invoice that needs a human before anyone releases cash.
DPO · missed discount · exception rate · cycle time
Reconciliation preparation
Assemble the packet mid-month. Surface the break while there is still time to fix it.
Exception rate · aging of breaks · packet completeness
Close support
Checklist, status, missing items. The close is a workflow. Treat it like one.
Days to close · late items · restatement risk
Cash visibility and reporting
A forecast that is not a weekend project. Variance the room can act on the same week.
Forecast-to-actual · report cycle · manual assembly hours
What can be operated. What always stays yours.
Fortress can run
- Invoice assembly and exception flags
- Collections worklists and follow-up drafts
- A/P matching and coding inside a written standard
- Reconciliation packet preparation
- Close checklist and status
- Recurring cash and aging reports
Always human-owned
- Approval authority
- Payment release
- Journal entry posting
- Credit decisions and write-offs
- Financial judgement and board numbers
- Who holds the keys in the control environment
Where a workflow would breach your segregation of duties, we redesign the workflow rather than ask you to waive the control.
What we engineer toward. Not what we guarantee.
Targets are set against your baseline in the diagnostic and measured in the monthly value review.
Ledger access only after controls and human gates.
Clarity Session
No ledger dump. Bring the number — days to close, DSO, or the cash forecast you don't trust.
Access before extract
Named access to ERP or subledger extracts only after the diagnostic is commissioned. Your control environment governs what we may touch.
Least privilege
Isolated environment. Encryption in transit and at rest. Logs of who saw what, which model ran, and who approved a write.
Narrow stack first
Typically the ERP or billing system plus the spreadsheet the close actually lives in. Additional entities after the first stack is stable.
Where you carry audit obligations, control documentation is produced from day one so operated work is auditable rather than retrofitted. Financial records are in scope the moment we touch the ledger. That access does not start in the Clarity Session.
What stays when we leave
A named owner for every close-cycle step, a huddle that catches recon issues mid-month, and a scorecard finance trusts. What keeps a close fast is a team that keeps improving at the work — not a one-time cleanup.
If the constraint is ownership and decision rights rather than one queue, that is Target Operating Model Design. If the finance seat is empty or overloaded, that is Fractional COO.
Bring the close step that is costing you the timeline.
Twenty minutes. No deck. No ledger dump. We will tell you whether a diagnostic is warranted, which workflow should go first, and what evidence Shadow Mode will need.
The session is free. The diagnostic is not.