About Consystent
Outsourcing Your CFO or Financial Controller - San Diego, CA

Richard Copeland (Founding Principal)

During his Finance and Accounting career of over 25 years, Copeland has amassed substantial experience directing restructuring and improvements of the Finance, Accounting, Human Resources and Information Systems/ Information Technology functions. His affiliations include public and private organizations across multiple industry segments; technology, manufacturing, professional services, Federal Government contracting, healthcare, insurance, wholesaling/distribution, publishing, retailing and others.

Copeland specializes in financial leadership at the CFO and Controllership level, including – improving internal control, profitability, and cash flow, strategic and financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, financing strategies, banking relations, line of credit/debt optimization, business process re-engineering, developing and streamlining policies, procedures, processes, and systems, accounting/GAAP/financial statements, staff training and mentoring, financial analysis, management reporting (financial performance metrics), external reporting (SEC, Banks, etc.), and tax minimization for private and public companies of various sizes.

Copeland’s efforts in these areas have resulted in significant improvements for multiple organizations in the following areas: actually securing funding sought, greater profitability and cash flow, accelerating monthly closings, error minimization, more meaningful/usable reporting, and continuous improvement across all F&A areas. Copeland holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management and earned the Certified Public Accountant designation in California and Minnesota.

Our Business Philosophy

We view business is a team sport – in which all operating, functional areas are vitally necessary to the organization’s success.

While high quality Finance, Accounting (F & A) and Administration (HR, IS/IT, Contracts, Purchasing, etc.) are important success components, these functions primarily exist to support Operations. Operations, including; Design, Development, Manufacturing, Services Delivery, Customer Service, etc. are the primary success drivers. However, without effective Business Development, Marketing, and Sales to access paying customers, overall success will be very limited.

Having adequate, competent finance and accounting staff is essential to providing owners and managers the data they need to monitor and effectively run the organization’s operations. Good systems, including training and support, are necessary as well. But, without quality people, performance of this function will be sub-optimal.

Investments in finance and accounting (F&A) – either human capital: employees, temporary staff, consultants or software, training and support – if carefully selected and used in focused ways, will almost always provide a significant and rapid return on investment.

Just as the ‘Lean’ concept of identifying and eliminating non-essential processes and optimizing the essential tasks can lead to cost minimization and consistent quality for Manufacturing, it can produce the same results when applied to the F&A function.

Our Consulting Services Philosophy

• We work at your direction and only when and as you request our services.
• Honesty and integrity are critically essential personal and business qualities. They are integral to everything we do for our clients; finance, accounting, reporting, discussions, meetings, dealings, etc. We take this very seriously because we understand that integrity is paramount in developing, building, and maintaining the high level of credibility essential within the financial consulting sector.
• We appreciate that you expect maximum value from the services you pay for and we continuously apply our expertise – Finance/Accounting/Systems and focused management of people and resources – to deliver first quality results to meet your expectations.
• If we cannot deliver what you need, we will acknowledge that and, if you want, seek to locate for you another service provider who can provide what you need, possibly one of our Affiliate providers.
• We value clear, effective communication with people at all levels in your organization.
• We know teamwork is crucial to the success of a relationship. We will work closely and cooperatively with you, your management team, their staff(s) and stakeholders (inside and outside your organization), as well as with any Consystent Affiliates that may be involved in serving your needs.
• We understand, believe in, and practice – cooperation, teamwork, implementing your organization’s mission (not our’s), work ethic, and accomplishment of value-added results.

The Consystent Affiliate Network

Consystent has an Affiliate Network of professional service providers to further assist with your organization’s administrative needs. They include providers in such areas as: Banking, CPA firms (Audits, etc.), Information Technology, Insurance, Legal, and others.

The purpose of the network is to help you locate quality providers quickly and easily. Please let us know your needs and we will recommend a quality provider to assist your organization.

We are continuously building the network and appreciate referrals from satisfied customers of service providers as well as inquiries from service providers interested in joining the network.

Richard Copeland Bio continued...

Richard began his F&A (Finance and Accounting) career upon graduation from the University of Minnesota. He then joined Arthur Andersen & Co. CPAs in their Minneapolis and St. Paul Offices, where he performed audits of many medium and large-sized businesses. He also worked for a local CPA firm to gain additional small business and tax experience.

Following his public accounting career, Copeland entered the industrial sector and enjoyed a dynamic career with a number of large, successful companies, including some ranked in the Fortune 50. Those companies included (current name in parentheses, if since acquired): Sperry-Univac (Unisys), Raytheon, United Technologies, TRW (Northrop-Grumman), ORINCON (Lockheed Martin), Aetna, Titan (L3 Communications), SAIC [Science Applications International Corporation], Maxim Systems (Accenture), and E/G Electro-Graph (Plansee Group).

Richard has accumulated in-depth experience in all areas of F&A by actually doing and directly supervising the work under the following titles:

Senior Internal Auditor Manager of General Accounting Manager of Cost Accounting Manager of Contracts Administration Manager of Contract Pricing Manager of Business Planning and Analysis

Business Unit Controller Director of Finance Vice President – Group Controller Corporate Controller Chief Financial Officer

After gaining the above experience, Copeland knew it was time to put his experience to use for multiple companies by becoming a Consultant. Accordingly, in 2005 he formed Consystent. Since then Richard has been a Consultant for various organizations, either under the Consystent banner or for Tatum, LLC (the national Financial/Executive services firm), where he was a Financial Leadership/CFO Partner.

He enjoys the variety of challenges in consulting and being able to do his very best work while supporting his Clients’ needs.

As CFO for E/G Electro-Graph, Inc., a technology-based manufacturer, he secured critically-needed larger lines of credit and restructured existing long-term debt with a new lender at improved interest rates. He accelerated monthly closes, developed an entirely new management reporting package and planning/budgeting processes and tools, effected significant advances in the information technology and telecommunications infrastructure, and out-sourced and, later, as available resources changed, in-sourced the human resources function.

Richard initiated a project that received tax refunds of over $700,000 for the shareholders. He also participated in a key strategic initiative to determine the future of the company, restructuring for greater competitiveness and profitability. A group decision was made to offshore manufacturing operations and renegotiate major raw materials agreements to significantly improve margins. This made possible the sale of the company to a European conglomerate and enabled a very successful exit for the shareholders. He also did the same thing at another company, receiving over $500,000 for the shareholders.

One of his most satisfying assignments was designing an ABC (Activity-Based Costing)/process cost accounting System for a highly computer-integrated manufacturing facility with near-lights-out automation. He found that to be an especially complex and interesting challenge and enjoyed the close interaction with the Design and Manufacturing Engineers, Operations, Information Systems/Information Technology, and Finance and Accounting people on the team. In other key assignments, Copeland prepared the necessary schedules and documents in preparation for planned IPOs at two companies.