Services

Business & Accounting Advisory

Whether you require a transitional executive, assistance with special projects, or just a solid professional who can pick up quickly, we can help.

We’ll serve as your guide through:

Interim/Outsource Accounting & Finance Needs
Business Plans & Feasibility Studies
Budgets & Financial Modeling
Internal Controls & Compliance

Whether it’s an unexpected vacancy, ongoing assistance, or a critical project, Morrison is an effective, cost-efficient solution. Our tested professionals have served in CEO, CFO, controller, analyst and other roles for organizations ranging from less than $2 million in revenues to hundreds of millions.

Interim/Outsource Accounting & Finance

The answer to any business challenge requires the right combination of ability and availability. Personnel turnover, special or one-time projects, deadlines, and other needs put many organizations in positions where they are short of the internal ability to fill certain needs, lack of availability due to other needs, or both. We can be your cost efficient solution.

Our interim/outsource services include:

Filling CFO, controller, and similar roles on either an ongoing or temporary basis, from temporary full-time to outsource part-time.
Providing assistance and direction in meeting year-end closing needs, bank and other reporting requirements, and other deadline or project-driven goals.
Clean-up of accounting records and/or assistance in preparation for external audits.
Assessing and redesign of accounting controls and procedures, departmental organization, and management structure.
“Special projects” to fill specific and often unique needs.

Business Plans & Feasibility Studies

Morrison has extensive experience with business plans and feasibility studies for internal decisions, lender requirements, investors, grant proposals, and other needs. Morrison can help with nearly any planning challenge, including comprehensive feasibility studies and business plans that address financial, marketing, engineering and other key aspects of potential ventures.

Our planning and feasibility services include:

Prepare feasibility studies and business plans for management decisions, financial institution (borrowing) requirements, and potential investors. Prepare multi-year financial projections using our proprietary projection model.
Assessing market potential of new products, including quantitative and secondary market research.
Feasibility studies, business plans and multi-year financial projections for new operating facilities (food processing, cold storage, etc.).
Feasibility studies, business plans and multi-year financial projections for new product introductions, product extensions lines, marketing projects, etc.

Budgets & Financial Modeling

Whether for management, external purposes (e.g., financing), or compliance requirements, budgets and financial forecasts done right are critical to planning and managing an effective organization. Morrison’s professionals don’t just “check the box;” we help you develop budgets and processes to enable you to better plan and manage your organization.

Our budget & financial modeling services include:

Design of budgets and budgeting process designs to help organizations plan and monitor operating results, and to satisfy the needs of lenders and investors.
Analysis for budget vs. actual results to help create a core understanding of operations.
Creation of cash forecasting models.

Internal Controls & Compliance

Effective internal controls, accounting procedures, and timely compliance with financial institution covenants can prevent a lot of problems but can be difficult to assess internally. Our experienced CPA team can assess, document, revise or completely redesign your approach to these key disciplines.

Our internal control & compliance services include:

Documentation of current accounting procedures and controls.
Assessing and addressing accounting controls and procedures, departmental organization, and management structure.
Revising or designing accounting procedures and internal controls.
Design and implementation of procedures to prepare and submit financial institution compliance reports.
Assessment of current staff and departmental organization, and assisting with staff transition.

How we’ve helped others

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People Solutions

People are the heart of a healthy, thriving business. We will help you attract the right talent and develop your human resources and business strategies.

We'll serve as your guide through:

Executive Recruiting
Organizational Development
Interim and Outsource Human Resources
Human Resources Advisement and Compliance
Mission Development and Strategic Planning

Regardless of the size and nature of your organization, we understand that success is directly related to people. At Morrison, we work hard to ensure you have the right talent, and help develop your structure and culture to ensure a healthy and strong business.

Executive Recruiting

See current Career Opportunities here.

Morrison leverages the diverse experience of our team to match talent with opportunity. We offer an effective and streamlined recruitment process with each engagement tailored to our client’s needs. Our unique billing model allows our clients to experience flexibility and a very high value engagement.

We have experience in a wide variety of functional areas, including senior management, accounting and finance, human resources, operations, sales and marketing, business development, quality and compliance, safety, procurement, and others. We successfully fill roles that include managers, directors, vice presidents, CEO’s, CFO’s, and board members.

Our Executive Recruiting services include:

Finding and identifying quality candidates from our extensive database, “passive candidate” searches, key advertising placements, and other resources.
Identifying job and market analysis for compensation.
Behavioral interviewing.
Formalized testing when appropriate.
If the need is immediate, our team can often fill many financial, human resources, and operational management positions in the interim.

Organizational Development

Organizational health is the key to business success. We work with clients to create tailored outcomes to help them grow into a better version of themselves. Morrison’s People Solutions team is highly skilled and our team members have experience working at every level within an organization to implement new strategies, culture, and systems that drive mission success.

Our Organizational Development services include:

Develop talent through tailored training programs.
Leadership training, training in communication and interpersonal skills, and training in human resources compliance and best practices.
Psychometric testing through the utilization of the Hogan Personality Inventory.
Managing organizational change and developing strategies to achieve transformation at any level.
Employee engagement surveys and designed solutions.
Succession planning.
Organizational alignment.
Reviewing and developing pay structures.

Interim and Outsource Human Resources

Our People Solutions team members have served organizations in a number of human resources roles, working with and for companies ranging from small family businesses to large corporations. We can step in at a moment’s notice or as a long term part time outside resource to provide assistance with day-to-day and strategic human resources management, allowing our clients to ensure their organizations have high-level human resources management and expertise.

Our Interim and Outsource Human Resources services include:

Providing outsourced Human Resources Management services and expertise for organizations needing professional level human resources management but not at a size threshold that justifies a full time position.
Filling the Human Resources Manager or Director roles on an interim basis during vacancies, maintaining necessary Human Resources functions.

Human Resources Advisement and Compliance

Morrison’s People Solutions team understands the nuanced and conflicting priorities organizations may encounter in balancing the need for compliance, best practices, organizational health, and business performance. Our years of collective experience provide us the opportunity to provide unparalleled assessment and advisement. If you have a challenge, our People Solutions team has likely encountered it.

Our Human Resources Advisement and Compliance services include:

Employee relations and risk mitigation.
Policies and procedures.
Human resources legal compliance and best practices.
Human resource audits, assessments, and diagnostics.

Mission Development and Strategic Planning

Morrison’s approach to mission and strategy development is highly effective and rooted in practicality and simplicity. We help facilitate an approach that leads to continuous review and development, so our clients are able to effectively respond to opportunities and challenges. We focus on achieving meaningful results that create a high degree of clarity, alignment, and accountability; working to ensure ongoing success.

Our Mission Development and Strategic Planning approach covers:

Mission development: Develop purpose, values, and mission statements.
Strategy development: Our approach is simple and effective, ensuring that the time spent is meaningful, focused, and concise. No “trust falls” ever!
Cascading of objectives and performance planning: Most strategic plans fail at the implementation phase; we provide training and strategies to cascade objectives throughout the organization.
Management review: Develop periodic review processes to assess continued relevance and effectiveness.

How we've helped others

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Grants

Securing more than $45 million in state and federal grant funding over our history, Morrison is an industry leader in finding and obtaining grant funding for for-profit and non-profit food and agriculture organizations.

We'll serve as your guide through:

Competitive Grant Writing
Strategic Grant Planning
Grant Administration

Many companies and organizations don’t think of grant funding as a potential source of income to fund projects and initiatives. Others have looked into grant funding, but find the process of writing complex technical narratives and managing the grant preparation process too onerous when coupled with a regular 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. workload. Additionally, many grant programs call for budgets, financial projections, business plans, feasibility studies, and similar requirements that organizations cannot complete on their own. With experienced grant writers and the added bonus of CPAs on staff, we can do it all, saving you time and added costs.

Competitive Grant Writing

With a success rate more than three times the national average for most grant programs, you can rest assured knowing you are in the right hands. Morrison plans every grant project thoughtfully, with a keen attention on finding the right funding source to offset the costs needed most by a company or organization, in a way that maximizes the scoring potential for submitted proposals.

We manage the grant proposal process every step of the way: we create proprietary templates to help gather the information from your team that we will need to write a successful proposal; we ensure you have the proper registrations and certifications; we review proposed project budgets or even design work plans to meet grant requirements; we conduct research and leverage your own information to tell a compelling story; we advise as to best partnerships and secure letters of support; we prepare forms for signature; we review everything top to bottom multiple times, with independent reviewers on our team; and we submit proposals, loading everything into electronic submissions systems and clicking send, or even hand-delivering paper applications to the appropriate agencies. We take the worry off of your plate and work as an extension of your organization, putting thought and care to ensure we submit the most competitive proposal we can.

We often receive comments from agencies and reviewers that our applications stand apart and rise to the top.

What makes the Morrison approach different? Our grant writers are more than just good writers — we know your industry and we know how the world outside the grant realm works. We stay up to date on everything from the price of steel to the consumption rates of California wine (we’d be great Jeopardy contestants). In our lives outside of Morrison, we sit on boards ourselves and review and approve multi-million dollar budgets. We also serve as independent reviewers on grant programs and use the insights gained to strengthen our own grant proposals.

Morrison has a long time history working with a number of state and federal grant programs, writing proposals every funding cycle for a number of clients. Our Competitive Grant Writing services include preparing competitive grant proposals primarily through the following programs:

USDA Value-Added Producer Grant
USDA Local Food Promotion Program and Farmers Market Promotion Program
USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Grant Program
USDA Risk Management Education Program
USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative
Various state Specialty Crop Block Grant Programs, including in California and Oregon
California Energy Commission Food Production Investment Program

In addition, we often leverage our skills to write in one-time programs, or programs that have less consistent funding cycles. Among others, these have included the CalRecycle Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program; various California Energy Commission programs; and other USDA and state programs. We can leverage our grant writing and project management skills to write nearly any grant application you’re interested in.

Strategic Grant Planning

Sometimes grant opportunities will sound like great options to pursue, but they might have requirements that can end up being too big of a burden for organizations and companies. Some grants can pay only for equipment and will require companies to pay for labor; others won’t pay for equipment at all, and will only cover personnel costs. In a given year there may be five opportunities that your organization is eligible to apply for, but only one that will pay for the costs that your company has prioritized for that fiscal year.

Grant programs don’t have to be an exact fit, but going after every grant opportunity without a solid strategy could commit you to executing projects that aren’t a priority or that don’t make good business sense. Not seeing the whole scope of grant funding available could also lead to your organization missing out on opportunities and spending more of your own money.

Our Strategic Grant Planning services include working with key members of your team to plan for and methodically and strategically pursue grant funding. We work with leaders across your organization, gathering your marketing team, director of operations, grower relations personnel, and even your board to learn your strategic goals for the next three to five years and match the right grant programs with those initiatives, providing you with a roadmap that includes details on grant requirements, resources needed, and timing of program due dates. Don’t have a strategic plan? No problem. We can help with that too and include grant strategy as part of our efforts.

Grant Administration

Once you have a successful grant, maintaining proper reporting and compliance can be a significant factor considered when your next grant application is being reviewed. For that reason, and to alleviate the burden that can come with grant compliance, Morrison works with a number of clients to provide grant administration services.

Often times, grant administration can be written into grant proposals, so you can have an outside party like Morrison manage the entire grant project, including confirming vendors, managing collection and payment of invoices, and interfacing directly with the granting agency.

Our Grant Administration services include: