Risk Advisory
Protect the value you have built with controls, governance and compliance that fit a growing business.
As a business grows, the owner can no longer see every invoice, sign every cheque and know every customer personally. Controls that worked at five employees fail quietly at fifty. Lenders, insurers, franchisors, large customers and eventual buyers all begin to ask how the business manages risk, and the answer affects the terms they offer.
Sapere Advisory's risk practice helps owner-managed and mid-market businesses put in place the controls, reporting and governance appropriate to their size, without the bureaucracy designed for public companies. Our approach is practical: identify the risks that could actually hurt the business, address the ones that matter most and document enough to satisfy the people who will ask.
How we help
Internal controls review and design
Assessment of controls over cash, receivables, payables, payroll, inventory and financial reporting, with practical fixes prioritized by risk and cost.
Fraud and cash-handling risk
Segregation of duties, approval limits, banking controls and point-of-sale procedures for businesses handling cash, cards and customer deposits.
Enterprise risk assessment
A structured review of strategic, operational, financial, regulatory and technology risks, ranked by likelihood and impact, with owners and mitigation plans.
Financial reporting and close process
Month-end close discipline, reconciliations, review procedures and the reporting controls that produce numbers a lender or buyer can trust.
Compliance readiness
Preparing for the requirements of lenders, franchisors, regulators, insurers and key customers, including CRA compliance, privacy obligations under PIPEDA and provincial law, and industry-specific standards.
Transaction and diligence readiness
Identifying and resolving the control and compliance gaps a buyer's due diligence will find, before the buyer does.
Vendor, customer and concentration risk
Assessing dependence on key suppliers, customers, contracts and people, and building the mitigation into strategy and financing plans.
Cyber and technology risk
Practical assessment of the technology and data risks that expose the business to loss or downtime, delivered with Sapere Digital and Sapere AI where technical remediation is needed.
Governance for growing businesses
Board or advisory board structures, delegation of authority, reporting cadence and shareholder agreement provisions appropriate to an owner-managed company.
Our approach
Scope
We agree which parts of the business to examine and why, whether prompted by growth, a lender request, a fraud concern or a planned transaction.
Assess
Interviews, walkthroughs and testing of the processes and controls in scope, benchmarked against practices appropriate to your size and industry.
Prioritize
A risk-ranked findings report that distinguishes what must change from what would be nice to change.
Implement
Support for the process, system and policy changes, including documentation and staff training.
Sustain
Periodic review and a control self-assessment routine so that improvements hold.
Why Sapere Advisory
Proportionate, not bureaucratic
We design controls for a business with a finance team of three, not thirty.
Grounded in accounting and finance
Our advisors prepare financial statements, arrange financing and run due diligence, so we know which weaknesses matter to the people who assess your business.
Connected to the rest of the group
Technology risk remediation, data and reporting, tax compliance and accounting support are available in-house through Sapere Digital, Sapere AI, Sapere Analytics and Sapere Accounting.
Confidential and independent
Fraud and control concerns are handled discreetly and reported directly to the owner.
Common questions.
Quick answers about risk advisory, based on current Canadian tax and accounting rules.
Do we need risk advisory if we are not a public company?
Can you investigate a suspected fraud?
What will a lender or buyer actually ask about?
Find the gaps before someone else does
Book a risk review with Sapere Advisory. We will identify the exposures that matter most to your business and what it would take to close them.
Related advisory services
CFO Advisory
Senior finance leadership on a fractional basis: monthly reporting, budgeting, lender reporting and board-level analysis without a full-time hire.
Deal Advisory
Buy-side and sell-side support for owner-managed businesses: target assessment, financial due diligence, deal structuring, acquisition financing and closing.
Restructuring & Turnaround
Cash stabilization, covenant relief, lender and creditor negotiation, and a credible recovery plan when cash or covenants have become the pressing issue.