Special Projects

Michael first led an organization-wide planning process as CFO at Kennedy Institute in the late 1990's and led the strategic planning process as CEO soon thereafter. He has helped dozens of organizations design and implement organization-wide planning and budgeting processes as well as build the reporting mechanism to monitor performance against them.   The annual budget process is by default a planning and resource allocation exercise and should be afforded enough time to ensure resource decisions are thoughtful and aligned with the organization's goals and key priorities.

Michael has been providing guidance and assisting organizations in the development and refinement of accounting policies and procedures for more than twenty years.  Not only are these essential for business continuity and ensuring quality and consistency, they provide a framework to safeguard assets and ensure compliance with laws and regulations.  With the consolidation of OMBs Circulars in Uniform Guidance in 2014, there exists a best-practice framework for policies and procedures that embodies strong internal control principles, which is required for Federal award recipients but useful for many other organizations as well.  

Michael's work in the area began in the 1980s developing fringe, overhead and indirect rates for an internationally focused nonprofit and evolved into designing accounting structures and implementing cost allocation methods as CFO in the late 1990s.  A carefully structured system is necessary to optimize cost recovery within contracting and grants management constraints.  OMB's Uniform Guidance defines three acceptable cost allocation methodologies from which Federal award recipients should select the most appropriate structure and organize the accounting structure to support its use.

Michael negotiated his first indirect cost rate with a federal agency as CFO in the late 1990s and has since negotiated or helped clients negotiate rates dozens of times with the US Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services.  Federal award recipients should evaluate their cost structure within the context of acceptable methodologies to optimize cost recovery.  The cost structures available under Uniform Guidance are frequently accepted by private sector funders as well as required to be accepted by Federal granting agencies.  While the term "negotiated indirect cost rate" suggests some subjectivity to the process, except in the case of statutory caps on indirect cost recovery Federal "negotiators" must follow the accepted methods and the only negotiation is around proper application of the methods.

Michael began using technologies in the accounting process in the 1980s, at which point he developed a more accurate lease amortization routine in spreadsheet software than had been implemented on a company's main frame computer system.  While Michael has worked extensively with Sage Intacct and QuickBooks from an implementation standpoint, having a seasoned resource that can help manage third-party implementation process can also be helpful. In addition to core accounting systems, there are many related, special-purpose platforms that integrate with accounting systems and enable stakeholders outside of the accounting function to perform their respective roles in the accounting process in a simpler and more purpose-built interface.  Michael can particularly assist in developing the business requirements that should guide the evaluation of competing software choices to ensure the ultimate selection will achieve the desired outcomes.