Business Process Consultant, Ireland

Mapping an Irish entity that answers to two audiences

The first task in an Irish engagement is usually to establish where the process actually runs. An Irish subsidiary may take orders and ship goods locally, have its payables processed in a shared service center abroad, close its books against a group calendar and report to an Irish board for statutory purposes. Each team sees its own part. Nobody sees the handoffs.

I map each flow across those boundaries in online sessions with the people involved, wherever they sit: a swimlane for the Irish warehouse, one for the group shared service center, one for the external accountant or payroll provider. The map then makes questions visible that were easy to ignore before:

• Who confirms that goods arrived before a supplier invoice is paid elsewhere?
• Which Irish customer terms are known to the people chasing payment?
• When the group calendar forces an early close, which accruals are estimates and who makes them?
• Which checks happen twice because each side assumes the other is unreliable?

The answers rarely require new software. They require agreement about who does what, documented so both Irish management and the parent can see it. That agreement is the foundation for everything else on this page, and for ERP work in Ireland if it follows.

Approval limits under a parent's control framework

Many Irish entities inherit a delegation of authority from their parent. Where the parent is listed in the US or elsewhere, its internal control framework may also set rules about segregation of duties, evidence of review and access to financial systems. Those rules were written for a much larger organization, and a small Irish finance team cannot always apply them literally.

I document the approval design process by process: what needs approval, at which limit, by which role, with which evidence and with what fallback when the approver is away. Where the group rule cannot be applied as written, for example because one person handles both supplier setup and payments, I describe a compensating control, such as an independent review of bank detail changes, and flag it for group finance to accept or reject. Limits are expressed as bands that management fills with its own values.

The result is an approval matrix that the Irish team can operate and the group can audit. It also becomes a ready requirement for any approval workflow later. Interpreting regulatory or listing requirements is for your auditors and advisors; my role is to make the operational design clear, consistent and honest about where it relies on people rather than system controls.

Order to cash in euro, sterling and direct debits

Order to cash in Ireland often has more variants than the team realizes. Some customers pay by SEPA direct debit, others by bank transfer, some in euro and some in sterling, and customers in Northern Ireland or Great Britain may need different invoice treatment that your tax advisor confirms. Each variant brings its own steps, and the gaps tend to sit between them.

The map of this flow is built around its decisions. Who sets up a new customer and checks their credit? Who obtains and stores a direct debit mandate, and who handles a returned collection? How is a customer's currency decided, and who can change it? When a delivery is short or damaged, who issues the credit note and who tells credit control? Where a dispute is open, does anyone stop the reminders?

The future process gives each decision a rule and an owner. A returned direct debit triggers a defined follow-up rather than a surprised phone call. Currency and tax treatment are set when the customer is created, not on each invoice. Disputes are recorded in one place. These rules later shape configuration and any automation for Irish back offices, but they are agreed first as process, in plain language.

Public tenders, contracts and project delivery

Irish companies that sell to public bodies or work on contract face a different flow from order to cash: a bid decision, a tender response, contract award, project delivery, variations, invoicing against milestones and a closeout. These steps cross sales, operations, finance and sometimes legal, and they are often managed by email and memory.

I map that path as a project delivery process. The map shows where the bid decision is made and on what information, how the costing in a tender response becomes the budget the project is measured against, who approves variations and how they reach the invoice, and how timesheets and supplier costs are tied back to the project. For public sector customers it also notes the invoicing route each buyer expects, including structured electronic invoices where a public body asks for them; which rules apply is for your advisor to confirm.

The value is in the handoffs. A tender priced on assumptions nobody passes to the delivery team, or a variation agreed on site but never invoiced, is a process failure before it is a system failure. Fixing these on paper first makes any later project or ERP system easier to configure, and the requirement detail can continue through business analysis in Ireland.

Documentation people use, then the software decision

Process documentation fails when it is written for an audit and never opened again. I keep it short: a one-page map per process, a few lines of procedure per role and the approval matrix. The documents sit in the same shared space as the team's daily files, and each has a named owner who approves changes.

Hire to pay shows why ownership matters. Payroll in Ireland is usually run through a payroll provider or dedicated software, which reports to Revenue as each payroll is processed. The process around it, starters, leavers, changes in hours, expense claims and approvals, sits with managers and HR. I map who sends what to payroll and by when, so the provider receives complete inputs and nobody discovers a missing leaver after the run. Questions of payroll law stay with your payroll advisor.

Software comes after the design. Sometimes the agreed process fits the tools you have once they are configured properly. Sometimes it points to a new system, and the maps feed requirements and selection. The global method is on my business process consulting page, and the Ireland overview sets out my other services for Irish businesses. The engagement is delivered remotely, with sessions scheduled in the Irish working day.