A real estate lending firm engaged Stout to modernize its finance and accounting operations after years of operating with fragmented systems, inconsistent reporting, and manual accounts payable processes. The client maintained two separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) instances across entities, which made it difficult to produce consolidated financial reporting, compare entity-level performance, manage permissions, and maintain clean historical financial information. The structure also created duplicated administrative work and inconsistent use of the chart of accounts.

We consolidated the client’s ERP instances into a single environment, creating one system of record for financial data. As part of the consolidation, we harmonized the chart of accounts, standardized account structures, and implemented location tracking to preserve entity-level reporting within the new structure. We also remapped legacy general ledger activity and transferred historical financial data into the consolidated environment, allowing the client to retain reliable historical reporting aligned to the new chart of accounts.

In parallel, we supported the implementation of Ramp Bill Pay to improve the client’s accounts payable function. Before implementation, the client did not have accounts payable (AP) subledgers or a centralized process for tracking open payables, vendor obligations, approvals, payment timing, or period-end accruals. Invoice intake, review, coding, and payment processes were manual and difficult to reconcile, limiting visibility into cash requirements and upcoming disbursements.

We helped configure Ramp’s automated invoice capture, vendor recognition, accounting rules, approval workflows, and coding logic for general ledger accounts, departments, and classes. We also helped define approval hierarchies, accounting policies, and controls around invoice review, payment execution, and audit tracking.

As a result, the client gained a more scalable finance environment with a single source of truth, standardized reporting across entities, improved consolidated visibility, centralized AP tracking, stronger disbursement controls, better cash-flow insight, and more accurate month-end reporting and accrual management.