During my 25+ years at various jobs in public and private accounting, I came to recognize the gap or disconnect between a company's day-to-day bookkeeping staff and the production of financial reports at period-end or year-end. The bookkeeping staff was able to produce an accounts receivable aging, a cash report, and maybe a very rudimentary profit and loss statement for the owner. "Official" results were available much after the period-end, usually too late to be an effective tool for running the business, especially in turbulent times like we are experiencing now.The term that best describes what I do is "part-time controller". I work with a company's bookkeeping staff (or do the bookkeeping myself for small companies) and produce timely reports for ownership. I make sure that accounting controls are put in place and I take steps to ensure that bookkeeping data entered into a general ledger is accurate and timely. It is then that I can produce timely accounting reports, formulate metrics that are useful for this business, and call management's attention to anything else that I feel is important. The important thing is that I take the time to get to "know" your business and your industry; I don't come into a situation thinking that I already know what you need.