Turnaround and restructuring advisory operating system

A small turnaround and restructuring advisory firm helps directors and owners whose businesses are under financial pressure. Enquiries arrive through the website, phone and referrals from accountants and lawyers, often with a deadline already running: a director penalty notice, a statutory demand, a bank review or a landlord threatening action. Each engagement needs the client's real numbers fast, a clear view of every creditor, a plan the director can act on, and steady follow-through. With two principals, that lives in email, spreadsheets exported from the client's accounting file and their own diaries.

An illustrative operating system for a turnaround advisory firm, with views for principals, advisers, the client services coordinator and accounts, plus a read-only client portal.

• Enquiry triage: the website questionnaire (industry, trading structure, pressure points such as tax debt, bank, landlord, trade creditors, personal asset exposure) lands on one board. AI reads it, flags urgent legal deadlines with a countdown, scores urgency and drafts a reply within the promised response time for a principal to approve. Referrals from accountants and lawyers are tracked by source.
• Free consultation to engagement: consultation booked by video or in person, conflict check, engagement letter and fee drafted for approval and signed electronically.
• Financial picture from Xero: with the client's consent, read-only connection to their Xero file. Aged payables and receivables, tax account balances, bank position and payroll liabilities are pulled in and turned into a 13-week cash flow forecast and a creditor schedule, refreshed weekly.
• Creditor negotiations: every creditor (tax office, bank, landlord, key suppliers, finance companies) with amount, status, next action and deadline. Proposals and payment plans drafted for the adviser to approve, and outcomes logged.
• Safe Harbour and director protection checklist: the evidence a director needs on file (books and records up to date, tax lodgements current, employee entitlements paid, an advice-backed plan likely to give a better outcome), each item with an owner and proof. The adviser and director decide; the system keeps the evidence.
• Turnaround plan and monitoring: plan milestones, weekly cash against forecast, early warnings when actual cash slips from the plan, and a weekly director update drafted for approval.
• Exit options: when a turnaround is not viable, a controlled exit pathway with steps, referrals to registered practitioners and document checklist.
• Client files and knowledge: each client's documents in SharePoint, Copilot grounded on the firm's files for drafting, and education articles for accountants and lawyers.
• Firm operations: adviser capacity and calendar, time and fees, invoices and payments, referrals partner relationships.
• Guardrails: the client's accounting file is read-only, nothing is sent to a client, creditor or regulator without an adviser approving it, and the system never gives legal or insolvency advice on its own.

Client accounting file (Xero, read-only with the client's consent), the firm's accounting ("Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks"), Microsoft 365 with SharePoint client files and Copilot, Teams for video consultations, website intake form, e-signing ("DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign or similar"). Exact connections are confirmed during discovery.

Illustrative: designed from how turnaround and restructuring advisers work and the data a client's Xero file provides, not built for a specific firm.