Knowledge and Insights

At Mercadien, our outsourced CFO advisory teams work with an extremely diverse range of organizations: from small, family-run businesses to established mid-market companies. But among the organizations we enjoy helping most are those making a difference to our local communities here in New Jersey and beyond. 

Our professionals advise many organizations that work with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It’s an extremely important service that creates a vital support network for vulnerable individuals, but it’s an industry with complex accounting, compliance, and finance needs. 

Organizations in this space have all kinds of complexity to navigate, from collecting payments from a diverse range of payers to more traditional transactional accounting. In addition to these services, many organizations benefit significantly from working with an experienced outsourced CFO who understands their operations and with the skills to help them plan for the future.  

At Mercadien, we’re proud to support a number of organizations in this space with a wide range of financial management services. Today, we’re shining a spotlight on what those relationships look like and the value they drive for our clients. 

IN FOCUS: ACCOUNTING FOR INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS

Accounting is important in every organization – regardless of whether it’s a for-profit or a nonprofit. It’s a responsibility many organizations face challenges with – particularly in an industry as complex as the IDD and human services space. 

Many of the agencies we work with deal with an intricate network of payers, from federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare to state-level housing and support payments, grants, insurance companies, and more. These programs fund many of the services that individuals receive from disability service providers. Understanding how to manage revenue cycles and navigate billing processes for each of them is vital to any human services agency’s success. 

Outsourcing accounting tasks, including billing, to an experienced provider with knowledge of this space can free up organizations to focus on what they do best: providing important services to the community. 

At Mercadien, our team is well-qualified to assist with these tasks. Some of the typical services our outsourced accounting team provides for intellectual and developmental disability service providers include:

• Patient Billing: While Mercadien does not currently provide direct billing services, we  understand the compliance requirements, including the documentation standards, of Medicaid and other third-party insurance payers.  We frequently forecast revenue for clients utilizing their acuity or case mix index information, and determine cost driver information based on staffing ratio requirements. Federal and State grant programs often require grant reports and cost allocation plan support.  Our team has deep experience with many funding sources, their compliance requirements, grant reporting and billing protocols.  We bring peace of mind that your organization will be paid for the services it performs in a timely manner and that once paid, will retain the funds.
• Payroll, Sales and Corporate Income Taxes: We work with many third-party payroll providers on behalf of our outsourced accounting clients to understand their employee base and manage the consequences of having employees working remotely or on site in multiple states or tax jurisdictions. Each state has its own labor laws, including PTO regulations, unemployment rules and wage and hour rules. Our role is to help our clients navigate these rules and shape the most tax-advantaged payroll and state taxation strategy possible.  With experts in many different tax disciplines,  our professionals will ensure your organization meets all tax reporting requirements.
• Managing AR & AP: Our team will help you build a better understanding of your organization’s cash position by building financial models and reporting infrastructure that helps you better manage cash flow.
• Bookkeeping Tasks: from reconciling bank accounts, entering vendor invoices and paying your bills, to closing the books on a monthly process, our team brings a systematic approach that ensures financial clarity. 

Consider these services just a taste of the accounting solutions our team provides for human service providers. With a comprehensive understanding of how human service providers operate, from IDD to behavioral health organizations, our professionals bring a nimble, completely customizable approach suited to the needs of every organization. 

Many organizations rely on our outsourced accounting services to plug gaps in their team, add additional bandwidth for major projects, or build financial frameworks that can scale as the business grows. Some organizations opt to work with an outsourced accounting partner in their start-up phase before pivoting to an in-house approach once they reach a certain scale, but many organizations choose to maintain long-term relationships with their accounting partners due to the efficiencies this approach allows. 

STRATEGIC ADVISORY SERVICES FOR DISABILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS

In addition to the transactional and controller type accounting services outlined above, Mercadien also provides a wide range of outsourced CFO services to intellectual and developmental disability service providers. Our team of experienced financial professionals is available to provide consulting services on a wide range of executive-level tasks. 

Many of the organizations we work with in this space have small accounting and bookkeeping teams or skill sets that stop at the controller level and lack the financial leadership of an experienced CFO. Mercadien’s professionals are well-equipped to fill this gap, helping organizations evaluate new funding opportunities, design and implement financial infrastructure, and manage cost containment programs. Our CFO services are forward thinking and strategic, closely assessing revenue generation and cost cutting opportunities.  We create budgets and forecasts, develop KPIs and benchmarks, and work regularly with the leadership team to solve problems, identify opportunities, and support growth initiatives with a robust network of colleagues in other professions.  

Outsourced CFO services tend to be very consultative in nature. Our team builds close relationships with the leadership teams and boards of our clients, helping them create, execute, and analyze financial plans. Oftentimes, we even work with CFOs whose teams lack the bandwidth to take on additional projects.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A SPECIALIZED APPROACH

There are many outsourced accounting and CFO services out there – but very few (if any) have the specialized knowledge of the intellectual and developmental disability space that Mercadien does. Our professionals have supported a rich variety of organizations in this and the behavioral health space over many years, and in that time, have developed deep expertise in the nuances of this industry. 

Our experiences and relationships allow us to provide clients with benchmarking services that help organizations understand how they are performing in relation to their peers. Our team makes an effort to stay abreast of any updates to government funding programs, tracks reimbursement rates, and has a deep, ever-evolving understanding of payroll and compensation requirements. 

WORK WITH MERCADIEN: EXPERTS IN ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE FOR DISABILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS

Robust financial processes and accurate, precise accounting and bookkeeping are key to the long-term sustainability of intellectual and developmental disability service providers. At Mercadien, supporting these organizations to achieve their mission is a responsibility we take seriously, and one we’re proud to have. 

Our approach blends transactional and historical accounting with strategic, CFO-level advisory services to deliver services that fulfill your organization’s financial management needs today and help lay the foundation for future growth. With all of the capabilities of a full-service accounting firm, our professionals are available to assist with a variety of other engagements, ranging from tax planning and internal audits of your compliance requirements, to a range of assurance services. 

If your organization is interested in learning more about working with Mercadien’s outsourced accounting and CFO professionals, we encourage you to contact us today.