Managing money is essential for entrepreneurs. An expert guides them toward the best solution to maintain liquidities and optimize profitability.

Jean-Michel Parizeau, Practice Vice-President within the firm, is part of the largest specialized treasury team in Canada and explains his contribution to organizations.

How would you describe your work?

We help clients improve their cash flow procedures, so our work relates to cash forecasting and payments. We provide visibility and predictability in terms of cash inflows and outflows. It’s very different from one industry to another.

We also help clients manage fraud prevention, financial risk, foreign exchange and interest rates, and bank reconciliation.

Our team works with state-of-the-art technology solutions for large corporations and SMEs, and we negotiated partnerships for customized solutions. We can therefore guide our clients in the implementation of a solution that gives them more control over their finances and provides them with additional leverage in their relations with suppliers and banking institutions.

What is a typical day?

We interact with a variety of clients: banks, insurance providers, large corporations and SMEs. In a single day, we can answer a wide variety of questions. Generally, we work on six or seven files in parallel with clients, so the days fly by.

Sometimes, for larger assignments, certain teams devote themselves to a particular client for a period of time, which is also very enjoyable.

How has the interest in your services evolved over time?

Our job has always been to optimize cash management, but now technology is increasingly being used to reduce the number of manual tasks and make processes more efficient. The work of finance professionals has become increasingly interesting over time.

In a context of full employment, companies are looking for efficiency and new options offered by technology. Why connect to four banking platforms and download information manually when one technological solution can provide this information in real time, wherever you are in the world? They seek our expertise therefore to help them evolve.

What training is required to exercise your profession?

Usually, it takes a bachelor’s or master’s degree in finance. Technological knowledge is also important, because we adapt solutions to each client’s situation and specific features. The needs differ from one industry to another and from one organization to the next.

What personal qualities are required more on a daily basis?

I value attitude, that is, the desire to work as a team and deliver quality to our clients as well as the desire to develop expertise. There is a wide range of possible niches and, here, we like to plan a development path for each team member.

What are your greatest challenges?

We have a significant number of clients and the tasks can build up, so sometimes you need to know how to say no and, above all, to learn how to ask for help at the right time.

Also, since cash flow is vital for companies, our clients expect us to be focused on their problems, so we have to be able to live with a certain amount of pressure, while still finding it acceptable.

What do you like most about your work?

The diversity of the assignments and the team. I thrive on the relationships with my colleagues. I have 25 years of experience in treasury and I don’t have the solution to everything; I’m not a specialist in every sector. You need to work as a team to find what works best. I like that aspect. When we find optimal solutions that meet the client’s needs, that’s our greatest satisfaction.

What advice would you give to someone interested in doing this job?

It’s an industry that offers a lot of learning opportunities, so I think you have to have an open mind and be motivated. You have to cultivate patience and humility, because there’s still a lot to learn after university. You also have to be focused on providing quality to your clients at all times.

Regardless of their activity sector, businesses are never sheltered from financial difficulties. When clients are struggling, Elise Lachance, Assistant Manager in Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton’s Recovery & Reorganization Group, steps in to help them navigate these rough seas.

What is your path?

I completed a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting, then continued my studies and obtained a Graduate Diploma in Accounting. I am currently a candidate for the CPA profession. I have been working in business recovery and reorganization at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton since 2020. I did my internship here and I haven’t left since!

How could we describe your specialization?

When a company is experiencing financial difficulties, it comes to us. Our primary objective is to help it become profitable again. This can be done in different ways, depending on the company’s particular situation, its level of debt and availability of liquid assets. If, after analysis or following the implementation of a certain number of measures, it appears that the company’s recovery is not possible without applying the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA), we need to resort to the BIA’s provisions that allow for restructuring, such as a consumer proposal or bankruptcy.

Can you tell us about a typical assignment?

We first assess the company’s ability to meet its short-term financial obligations and perform a financial diagnosis to determine the source of the problems. Each company’s circumstances are unique and there are several possible recovery measures, including finding new sources of financing or restructuring the company’s operations or finances.

We then develop an action plan with the company and follow up on the measures implemented to ensure that they are working. We also handle communications with creditors.

In cases where this does not work, sometimes we can issue a notice of intention while filing a consumer proposal.

Of course, we accompany the organization every step of the way, regardless of the solution chosen. We work in collaboration with lawyers, bankers, accountants, appraisers and tax specialists.

What do you most like about your work?

What I really like is that we are really involved in the relationship with clients from the start. I also like the fact that we work as a complementary team. Everyone has an essential place and a role to play.

Another thing I like is that the work is not routine. Even though the basic premise is the same, every case is different. We are always learning new things about our work or about a new industry that has specific rules, for example.

By helping companies with problems, we gain knowledge and experience that allow us to identify these problems more quickly and, in some cases, to intervene upstream.

What skills do you need to carry out this profession?

My colleagues often compare us to firefighters, because our goal is to put out fires. You have to be able to keep your cool! We also need good communication skills, as we are in close contact with many stakeholders. We have to be sympathetic and at the same time be as objective as possible.

It also requires a considerable adaptability, given the diversity of the companies. Curiosity is also essential, because we must never take the accuracy and completeness of the information provided for granted. We always seek to corroborate information, to ensure that it has been transmitted to us in its entirety and that nothing has been hidden from us, intentionally or not. This is what allows us to make the best decisions for the company.

Why did you choose Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton?

It is one of the best firms to practice this profession! Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton is a network of partners throughout Quebec who share their knowledge. We are well supported and our team is tightly knit. We work on serious matters, but we enjoy doing it. This is one of the team’s values and, for me, it’s important.

Working in tax innovation is not only about crunching numbers. It’s a job that also requires scientific and technical knowledge. We discuss the topic with Pascal Grob, SR&ED project specialist.

How can we briefly describe your specialization?

I help my clients finance some of their projects that are risky and technologically bold so that they can qualify for various federal and provincial tax credits and grants – Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED), Tax credit for the development of e-business, Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), etc.

With my team, I accompany them in the scientific presentation of their projects, and the associated tax optimization, before government authorities or certain organizations.

What types of companies call on your services?

Generally, growing SMEs working in information technology or manufacturing: vision, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, robotics, industrial processes (chemicals), etc.

To remain competitive, these companies must be on the lookout for technological and scientific advances in their field, and sometimes even technologically reinvent very conservative business fields.

In order to implement these innovation projects, they need to maximize the financial support to which they are entitled through, among others, SR&ED tax credits. It is therefore very useful to call upon a team of experts specialized in innovation financing. Presenting the facts requires precise terminology and the mastery of legal criteria, which is almost a profession in itself.

Is the demand for specialized services in this field on the rise, given the urgent need for organizations’ digital transformation and innovation?

Yes, absolutely! Just about every industry must innovate to fuel its growth and survive. The tax exemption for the salary expenses involved can be as much as 75% of expenses incurred. The programs are therefore very attractive and we receive a lot of requests for support in this regard.

What leads to this kind of work?

Our innovation finance teams have two types of experts: scientific directors and tax specialists. Innovation tax is not an academic specialization as such. Those who work in SR&ED have chosen this field out of interest, because they are passionate about innovation.

Scientific directors are professionals with a strong technical background, such as a bachelor’s degree in information technology or engineering. Ideally, you also need to have good experience working in a company and understand the business side. Research in a company is quite different from research in a university laboratory.

What other skills do you need to become a tax innovation expert?

A large part of the work consists of conducting technical interviews with company decision-makers and documenting projects, taking tax legislation into account of course. It is therefore necessary to be very curious and have strong communication and writing skills. It is also essential to have good summarizing and pedagogical abilities.

Finally, to be part of a team specialized in innovation financing, you must be creative, enjoy working as a team and be open-minded. We work on large projects, which involve significant financial stakes for our clients. The criteria defined by the laws we deal with are complex. We must therefore continually challenge each other to cover all possible angles and draw the best analysis for each case presented.

What’s a typical day like?

What I like about my job is that there is no typical day! There’s nothing routine about this field. When we start an assignment with a company, we set up meetings and interviews on site to discuss the project, talk to the scientific teams, see the facilities and plants, the labs, etc.

Then comes team brainstorming to determine how to make the project or certain company expenses eligible for the various programs. What positioning strategy will we use? This is the most important and most motivating phase. We are really getting into the shoes of a “scientific lawyer”.

The tax specialists are involved in optimizing all the potential credits and grants based on the strategy that will have been developed, but often they are also involved in defining the initial strategy.

Then there is the drafting of applications and presenting them to the relevant bodies.

What do you like most about your job?

We deal with companies that are developing the technologies of tomorrow in Québec. It’s very interesting because we have access to the projects as soon as they are conceived.

Furthermore, we have a wide variety of clients. In the same day, we can talk to a manufacturer specializing in machining parts and to researchers whose goal is to grow plants in the Sahara!!

In this profession, there is also a sense of togetherness among the teams. We are all passionate about our work. My team has been the same here for ten years, and that’s something I really appreciate.

Do you have any tips for people who would like to work in tax innovation?

I would say that you have to use your technical or scientific background, have a strong interest in business and have a desire to get to know the players of tomorrow in innovative sectors.

By doing this job at our firm, you learn to adapt your knowledge to the real world of business and you participate in the growth of these organizations. It is very stimulating.

If this sounds good to you, knock on my door or send me an email: we can definitely discuss opportunities together.