Fund Services Entity Close Judgement and Sign-Off Design Lead

The mandate

The defined problem is that legal-entity close sign-off does not reliably reveal how judgemental balances were challenged. Review completion is recorded, but source evidence, reviewer reasoning and escalation authority are scattered. The consultant will design and test a close judgement protocol for agreed fund-services entities, not perform statutory audit or assume responsibility for their accounts.

Deliverables are an entity judgement inventory, standardised evidence files and a sign-off workflow with explicit authority and unresolved-issue treatment. The workflow must remain practical during a close. It should help a reviewer understand a disputed balance and record a reasoned conclusion without requiring a second uncontrolled spreadsheet for every exception.

The four-month project starts on 19 October 2026 and closes on 18 February 2027. Milestone one on 23 November delivers the current-state judgement inventory and sampled evidence gaps. Milestone two on 11 January provides the redesigned files and pilot workflow. Milestone three on 18 February supplies pilot results, revised procedures and reviewer transfer. Three days weekly are expected.

Acceptance is by the regional controller and designated entity finance owners. They must demonstrate that selected judgements can be traced to source, reviewed by an authorised person and either approved with reasons or escalated before submission. The pilot must include a disputed balance and a late adjustment; passing only routine reconciliations will not prove the design works.

The sponsor provides authorised close files, an internal workflow coordinator and access to nominated preparers and reviewers. Work is hybrid from Mumbai. Automated tool procurement, remediation of every historical balance and external assurance opinions are excluded. Any expansion to materially different entity accounting models requires approved scope control rather than silent reuse of the initial protocol.

What you will own

• Catalogue judgemental close items by accounting basis, source evidence and approval authority, using sampled files to identify gaps rather than relying solely on interviews.
• Design evidence files that preserve preparer rationale, reviewer challenge and resolution, ensuring the final sign-off explains why a balance is supportable.
• Map authority routes for late or disputed entries, distinguishing delegated accounting approval from matters requiring policy or executive escalation before reporting.
• Build the pilot workflow around routine, disputed and time-critical cases, specifying how incomplete evidence is labelled without blocking every low-risk submission.
• Test reviewer execution against fresh cases, measuring whether users can identify the source and record a reasoned conclusion within the close timetable.
• Revise the protocol using pilot failures, retaining the control objective while removing administrative steps that add signatures without meaningful review.
• Deliver the operating pack and custodian instructions, obtaining observed user evidence that future judgement files can be maintained without consultant interpretation.

Candidate qualifications

• Evidence hands-on legal-entity close or controllership work in asset services or financial services. Explain a judgement whose approval trail was inadequate, how source evidence was rebuilt and the distinction between management sign-off and an independent assurance conclusion.
• Show design competence in review workflows that function under reporting deadlines. Candidates should describe a pilot failure, the reason users could not execute the proposed control and the change made without weakening the underlying accounting objective.
• Demonstrate technical understanding of consolidation interfaces, non-routine adjustments and disputed reconciliations. Provide a case where entity-level review mattered even though the group total looked plausible, and explain how the revised sign-off preserved both source ownership and escalation.
• Provide proof of consulting acceptance and reviewer transfer: identifiable test cases, authorised acceptors and a maintenance process users could operate. Confidential access must be carefully bounded, and professional accounting capability must be evidenced. The project does not confer statutory audit-signing rights, investment authority or responsibility for decisions the entity finance owner retains. Show how a reviewer was trained to explain the accounting basis of a late adjustment rather than merely follow the revised approval sequence.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 10 October 2026. Mandate reference PCT-CON-2026-IND-04.