Advisory
Business advisory services in Ghana
Work that supports a decision, not a filing.
A price, a purchase, a restructure, a growth plan, a funding round, or a control that keeps failing. Advisory is the work you commission because something has to be decided, and the decision is worth more than the fee.
Request an advisory proposal See what is includedAdvisory is the work that exists because a decision is pending. Somebody is buying, selling, borrowing, restructuring or trying to work out why a business that looks profitable keeps running out of cash. The output is not a filing. It is an answer, with the reasoning attached.
The three questions we are usually brought in for
What is it worth? A shareholder is leaving, an investor is arriving, a court needs a number, or a family is dividing a business. A valuation is a professional opinion supported by method, evidence and stated assumptions. Its value lies in whether it survives challenge from the other side, so we build it to be challenged.
Is it what they say it is? Due diligence before you buy, invest or lend. Not a re-audit, but a targeted examination of the things that would change your price or kill the deal: revenue quality, working capital, undisclosed liabilities, tax exposure and the gap between the management accounts and the reality.
Why does the money keep disappearing? A profitable business with no cash, a margin that erodes without explanation, or a control environment that produces the same audit findings year after year. This is diagnostic work, and it is usually the most commercially valuable thing we do.
What good advisory output looks like
Short. A valuation report that runs to eighty pages is usually hiding a weak method behind volume. What matters is the basis, the evidence, the assumptions stated plainly enough that someone can disagree with a specific one, and a conclusion you can act on.
The same applies to a controls review. A list of thirty findings ranked by nothing is a document that gets filed. A list ranked by financial exposure, with a named owner and a testable remedy against each, is a work plan. We write the second kind.
When restructuring is the honest answer
Not every business we look at can be fixed by better reporting. Where a company is balance sheet insolvent or heading there, the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act 2020 (Act 1015) provides routes that are considerably better for creditors and directors than continuing to trade and hoping. Directors carry personal exposure for trading while insolvent, and the point at which advice is worth taking is well before the point at which most people take it.
The insolvency and restructuring framework, including administration
Typical duration for a valuation or a due diligence engagement
Quoted per phase, so you can stop after the first one
Scope
Seven kinds of decision support
Each of these is scoped as a discrete piece of work with its own deliverable, so you are never committing to an open-ended engagement.
Business valuation
A supportable opinion of value for a shareholder exit, an investor entry, a dispute, a court process, a family settlement or a management buy-out. Prepared under International Valuation Standards using the methods the circumstances justify, with assumptions stated plainly enough to be challenged.
Financial and tax due diligence
Before you buy, invest in or lend to a business. Targeted at what would change your price: revenue quality, normalised earnings, working capital, undisclosed liabilities, tax exposure and related party arrangements. Delivered as a findings report with the deal implications drawn out, not as a data dump.
Internal control and process review
Where the same issues keep recurring, where a fraud has occurred, or where growth has outrun the process. We map what actually happens rather than what the policy says, test the controls that matter, and rank the gaps by financial exposure with a testable remedy for each.
IFRS implementation and conversion
First-time adoption, conversion between IFRS and IFRS for SMEs, or implementing a specific standard that has become material to you: leases, revenue, financial instruments or impairment. Includes the opening balance sheet, the disclosure package and training your team so it does not depend on us next year.
Insolvency and restructuring
Options review for a business under pressure, informal restructuring and creditor negotiation, and formal processes under the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act 2020 (Act 1015). Directors carry personal exposure for trading while insolvent, so the useful time to take advice is earlier than most people take it.
Business strategy and structuring for growth
Where the business needs a direction rather than a number. Reviewing which lines to grow and which to retire, how the group is structured and whether that structure still fits, entity and holding arrangements, and what has to be true financially for the plan to work. Written as a decision paper the board can act on.
Transaction support and funding readiness
Getting a business into a state where an investor or a lender can say yes: records reconciled, related party arrangements documented, forecasts that reconcile to the ledger, and a data room that does not raise more questions than it answers.
Process
Scoped in phases, so you can stop
Advisory work goes wrong when the scope is open. We break every engagement into phases with a deliverable at the end of each one, so you can act on the first and decline the rest.
Scoping conversation
Half a day, no charge. We establish what decision the work has to support, who will read the output, and what would make it useless. Most poorly scoped engagements fail at this step by skipping it.
Before the proposalIndependence assessment
We check whether the work creates a conflict, particularly where you are an audit client. If it does, we tell you before you commit rather than after.
Before acceptanceProposal and phasing
Written scope, deliverable, named team, timetable and a fixed fee for each phase. You commit to phase one only.
Within two working daysInformation and access
A specific request list, and access to the people who know how the business actually runs rather than only to those who own the documents.
Week 1Fieldwork and analysis
The work itself. We raise findings as they emerge rather than saving them for the report, because a finding you learn about in week two is worth more than the same finding in week six.
Two to six weeksReport and decision meeting
A short written deliverable, then a working session with the people who have to act on it. The meeting is the point of the engagement, not the document.
On completionEngagement
Fees, timing and who does the work
Fee basis
Fixed fee per phaseQuoted in the proposal. You commit to the first phase only and decide on the rest once you have seen the output.Who does the work
A partner throughoutAdvisory work is judgement work. The partner is in the analysis and in the room.Timeline
Three to eight weeksA focused valuation or controls review sits at the shorter end. Due diligence and IFRS conversion at the longer end.Sectors
Where we are asked most often
Recapitalisation, portfolio review, regulatory capital and Bank of Ghana engagement.
Margin analysis, working capital under levy pressure and asset valuation.
Costing, distributor economics and stock control where growth has outrun process.
Revenue recognition under IFRS 15, funding readiness and investor reporting.
NHIS receivable valuation, claims process review and clinical procurement controls.
Contract accounting, retention recovery and project cost control.
Grant compliance frameworks, donor reporting and internal control design.
Succession, shareholder exits, valuations for settlement and governance design.
Independence
What we can and cannot do for an audit client
Advisory work sits close to the audit, and the rules that keep the two apart exist for good reason. We would rather set out the position before you brief us than discover a conflict halfway through.
- If you are not an audit client, the full advisory range is available
- If you are an audit client, work that we would later have to audit is restricted
- Valuations feeding into audited figures need particular care
- We cannot design a control and then opine on whether it operates
- We cannot own a remediation and then test it
- Independence is assessed per engagement, not once per client
Questions
Questions we are asked before the proposal
How is a business valued in Ghana?
How long does due diligence take?
Can you do advisory work if you are our auditor?
What is the difference between a controls review and internal audit?
When should a struggling business take restructuring advice?
Do we have to move to full IFRS?
Will an investor accept your valuation?
Can you help us get ready for funding without doing the raise?
Next step
Tell us the decision you are trying to make.
Half a day of scoping, no charge, and you will know whether this is work worth commissioning and roughly what it costs.
Under Advisory
Valuation and due diligence
Business valuation for shareholder exits, investor entry, disputes and court processes. Financial and tax due diligence before you buy, invest in or lend to a business. Both built to be challenged, because both will be.
Business strategy and structuring for growth
Which lines to grow and which to retire, whether the group structure still fits, and what has to be true financially for the plan to work. Written as a decision paper the board can act on.
Internal control and process review
A one-off diagnostic for where the same issues keep recurring, where growth has outrun the process, or where something has already gone wrong. We map what actually happens rather than what the policy says.
IFRS implementation and conversion
First-time adoption, conversion between frameworks, or implementing a specific standard that has become material to you. Including the opening balance sheet, the disclosure pack, and training your team so it does not depend on us next year.
Insolvency and restructuring under Act 1015
An options review for a business under pressure, informal restructuring and creditor negotiation, and formal processes under the Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring Act 2020 (Act 1015). The useful time to take advice is earlier than most people take it.