Services Delivered: Operational & Financial Restructuring and Leadership & Culture Reset Coaching.
Engagement: April 2025 – January 2026.
Executive Summary
Depin, Inc., a manufacturing company experiencing a transition, found its internal operations struggling to keep pace with growth. While the company had a talented team and significant market opportunity, its back-office systems, leadership routines, and financial workflows had become increasingly reactive.
Financial operations were heavily concentrated under one leader, creating bottlenecks, single-point dependency, and limited transparency into key financial activities. Manual, paper-heavy processes slowed Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, reconciliations, and month-end close activities. Work was often duplicated across systems and repeatedly interrupted by urgent requests and avoidable rework.
At the same time, leadership strain was affecting trust, accountability, communication, and morale. Newly promoted leaders needed support transitioning into management roles, while existing leaders needed greater clarity around expectations, delegation, feedback, and team accountability.
Carmen Franklin and Tami Levin partnered with Depin through a dual-track transformation: stabilizing operational and financial systems while strengthening leadership capabilities and workplace culture. Together, they helped the organization reduce rework, improve Accounts Receivable discipline, clarify role ownership, increase cross-functional collaboration, strengthen leadership confidence, and establish more consistent operating rhythms.
Employee feedback reflected meaningful progress, resulting in an overall favorable survey score of 4.32 out of 5, with employees reporting reduced stress, improved organization, clearer roles and expectations, increased technology adoption, stronger communication, and improved morale.
The Challenge
The company did not simply need a new spreadsheet, a new meeting, or a one-time process cleanup. It needed a stronger management system, and a leadership reset that could hold overtime.
Single-point dependency and limited transparency
Financial operations were concentrated under one leader, creating dependency, bottlenecks, and limited transparency into key financial activities. Team members did not have a clear view of the status of Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, or month-end close activities.
Critical information existed primarily in one person’s head rather than in documented processes or shared systems.
As a result, other employees were unable to easily track progress, identify issues, or step in when needed. Leaders had limited insight into bottlenecks, priorities, and workload distribution, and cross-training opportunities were constrained because essential knowledge was concentrated with one individual.
Paper-heavy duplication and multi-pass reviews
The workflow relied heavily on printing, manual notes, and repeated review cycles. Documents were reviewed on paper, then reviewed again by another person, then reviewed again inside the accounting system. This approach created time loss and rework by design.
Inconsistent cadence across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and month-end close
Without predictable routines, work became reactive. Small exceptions turned into urgent fire drills. The month-end close process (the work required to finalize financial activity, reconcile balances, and produce reliable reports) lacked consistent rhythm and clearly defined ownership.
Leadership strain impacting trust, accountability, and morale
As pressure increased, leadership routines were not structured enough to support the team. Newly promoted leaders needed management skills. Existing leaders needed stronger communication and accountability rhythms. As a result, trust eroded and morale declined.
Employment-risk exposure
Concentrated authority, inconsistent boundaries, and unresolved conflict dynamics were creating a high-friction environment that increased the likelihood of internal complaints, turnover, and loss of key talent. This threatened continuity of operations and the organization’s ability to execute reliably.
The Approach: Dual-Track Transformation
Carmen Franklin and Tami Levin designed the engagement around two parallel tracks.
The first track focused on operational and financial restructuring to address workflow inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and process gaps.
The second track focused on leadership development and culture transformation to equip leaders and employees with the skills, behaviors, and communication practices needed to sustain operational improvements.
This dual-track approach was essential because the organization’s challenges were not purely technical. Long-term success required both stronger systems and leaders who could consistently communicate expectations, delegate effectively, build trust, reinforce accountability, and reduce dependency on informal knowledge or personality-driven problem-solving.
Track 1: Operational and Financial Restructuring
Clarifying ownership and decision rights
The restructuring work began by clarifying role responsibilities, decision rights, approval paths, and escalation processes. This reduced ambiguity and enabled team members to better understand expectations, ownership, and accountability.
Standardizing routines across key finance functions
Routines were standardized across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, reconciliations, and the month-end close process. The goal was to create repeatable operating discipline that reduced bottlenecks and improved consistency.
Reducing duplication and modernizing workflows
Paper-heavy processes were streamlined through more efficient, paperless workflows. Eliminating unnecessary review cycles reduced rework, improved visibility, and created additional capacity for higher-value activities.
Track 2: Leadership and Culture Reset Coaching
Individual coaching for leaders and key team members
One-to-one coaching was provided for newly promoted leaders, established managers, and key employees across operations and administration. Coaching focuses on helping individuals strengthen self-awareness, communication effectiveness, leadership confidence, and accountability.
Development areas included:
- Delegation and prioritization
- Providing constructive feedback and recognition
- Building trust and psychological safety
- Clarifying expectations and role responsibilities
- Strengthening accountability and follow-through
- Navigating conflict and difficult conversations
- Managing workload, stress, and competing priorities
- Improving communication across departments
- Increasing confidence and decision-making effectiveness
Leadership development tools and frameworks
Coaching incorporated practical leadership and communication frameworks to create sustainable behavior change, including:
- Behavioral and communication style assessments
- Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace
- Principles from The New One Minute Manager
- Foundational concepts from Dare to Lead
- Foundational concepts from The Advantage
These tools helped leaders better understand individual work styles, improve collaboration, recognize employee contributions effectively, create greater organizational clarity, and build a more supportive and accountable workplace culture.
Reinforcement and sustainability
To prevent regression, coaching and operational improvements were reinforced through regular check-ins, ongoing support, and continuous feedback loops. The focus was not only to implement change, but to build the leadership habits, communication rhythms, and accountability systems necessary to sustain long-term results.
Proof It Worked
Accounts Receivable discipline improved
Accounts Receivable balances in the 31–60 day bucket decreased by 39 percent after establishing a structured weekly review and follow-up routine.
Capacity was regained by eliminating rework
A key finance role reported reclaiming approximately four hours per day after duplicative steps and paper-heavy reviews were removed.
Employee survey showed strong adoption and improved morale
Employee feedback reflected meaningful adoption, resulting in an overall favorable survey score of 4.32 out of 5. Team members reported reduced stress, improved organization, clearer roles and expectations, stronger communication, increased technology adoption, and improved morale.
Leadership capability and accountability increased
Leaders demonstrated greater confidence in delegating responsibilities, communicating expectations, and holding team members accountable. Coaching helped managers transition from reactive problem-solving to more proactive leadership practices, reducing dependence on individual contributors and strengthening cross-functional collaboration.
Role clarity and team effectiveness improved
Clarified responsibilities, improved communication rhythms, and stronger accountability systems reduced confusion and increased alignment across teams. Employees reported greater understanding of expectations and ownership, contributing to a more stable and productive work environment.
Client Perspective
What the Client Says About Tami Levin
“We never thought we would need a coach for our employees until we started working with Tami at Tami Levin Coaching. It turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve made for our company.
Tami has worked with everyone from our top-level management team to our younger shift leads, and the impact has been significant across the board. She quickly identified key areas where coaching would make a difference and always maintained excellent communication with me, so we stayed aligned on goals and progress.
What really sets Tami apart is how personable and relatable she is. She builds trust easily and connects with all types of employees, which makes her coaching incredibly effective. She’s truly exceptional at what she does, and our company is stronger and more cohesive because of her work.
I highly recommend Tami to any company looking to grow, improve leadership, and invest in their people.”
Dan Bonebrake, Founder & CEO, Depin Packaging / ECORRCRATE
What the Client Says About Carmen Franklin
“Carmen at Franklin-Martinez Bookkeeping and Consulting, LLC has been an incredible asset to our company. She’s extremely knowledgeable, not just in bookkeeping, but in so many other areas of business, from HR to practical, common-sense decision-making.
Carmen brings a great balance of being easy to work with while also staying factual and to the point. She’s helped guide us through a challenging transition and continues to add tremendous value as our company grows.
I highly recommend her to any business looking for a trusted, well-rounded advisor.”
Dan Bonebrake, Founder & CEO, Depin Packaging / ECORRCRATE
When to Contact Us
You may benefit from operational and leadership support if:
- You are struggling to transition from working in the business to leading the business
- Teams are experiencing rapid growth, operational changes, or a need for stronger leadership systems
- Employee absenteeism, tardiness, performance issues, or turnover are affecting productivity
- Leaders are overwhelmed, overcommitted, or at risk of burnout
- Roles, responsibilities, and accountability are unclear
- Communication breakdowns, low morale, or lack of trust are affecting team performance.
- Managers struggle to provide effective feedback, coaching, and accountability
- Employees need support with confidence, communication, time management, or prioritization
- Accounts Receivable are drifting and no one owns it
- Month-end close is always a scramble
- Critical processes depend on one person
- Teams are overwhelmed by rework, duplicate steps, and inefficient workflows
- Newly promoted leaders need support developing management skills
- Workplace culture is negatively affecting production, engagement, or retention
About the Team
Tami Levin
Tami Levin provides one-to-one leadership coaching for newly promoted leaders, established managers, and key employees. Her work focuses on communication, delegation, trust-building, accountability, role clarity, and leadership development.
She helps organizations navigate cultural reset moments by strengthening leadership capabilities, improving team dynamics, and creating healthier, more productive workplace environments that support long-term growth.
Carmen Franklin
Carmen Franklin stabilizes operational accounting and financial workflows for growing businesses. Her work focuses on cadence, controls, clarity of ownership, and execution discipline so teams can close consistently, reduce rework, and scale without single-person dependency.
How We Can Help
We offer a 30-minute Readiness Diagnostic to identify the top constraints slowing execution, including cadence, controls, role clarity, leadership behaviors, communication, and accountability.
Following the assessment, you will receive a prioritized recommendations summary and implementation roadmap designed to improve operational efficiency, strengthen leadership capability, and support sustainable growth.
How to Contact Us
- Tami Levin | (503) 569-1230 | tami@tamilevincoaching.com
- Carmen Franklin | (503) 899-2656 | consulting@franklinmartinezllc.com