Adviser — Working Capital and Cash Recovery

Follow the transaction, not just the ratio

Trace selected orders from commercial commitment through production, delivery, invoicing and payment. Examine disputed receivables, stock ownership, obsolete material, minimum-order policies and supplier terms. Establish where local incentives encourage excess production, early purchasing or delayed dispute resolution.

Practical advisory responsibilities

• Build a cash-release opportunity register supported by transaction-level evidence and realistic timing.
• Recommend changes to credit control, billing, inventory planning and purchase approvals that address causes rather than symptoms.
• Test whether proposed targets would harm availability, quality or strategic supply relationships.
• Help finance and operations agree ownership and verify realised cash separately from accounting movements.

Validate cash opportunities against the accounting and operational records before including them in a headline total. The same stock reduction must not be counted again as a purchasing saving, and a receivable collected through discounting should show the associated economic cost. For each opportunity, record the action required, expected collection or release date and the reason timing could slip. Recommend measures that reveal recurrence, such as new disputes and replenishment of obsolete stock, so the improvement programme addresses the inflow of problems as well as the existing balance.

Qualifications that count

Candidates should have delivered working-capital improvement in a manufacturing environment and understand planning systems as well as finance. They need analytical precision, confidence working with operational teams and the ability to challenge headline benchmarks when product or supply characteristics make them misleading.

Acceptance of the work

The engagement should produce validated opportunities, process changes and a measurement approach that can be maintained internally. Strong evidence includes reduced recurrence of disputes, better control of slow-moving stock and cash improvements that persist after the initial intervention. Recommendations should explain any service, resilience or supplier-financing trade-offs explicitly.