Some businesses could streamline complex corporate structures much more quickly if they had the right tools in place, an industry expert has revealed.

Navigating the process of corporate simplification in order to achieve greater financial transparency was the focus of a webinar hosted by Evelyn Partners, the leading integrated wealth management and professional services group.

The event, held with corporate performance management (CPM) platform LucaNet - www.lucanet.com/uk - provided guidance to businesses on integrating and configuring entities and simplifying complex group structures.

It was hosted by Helen Bassett, partner at Evelyn Partners in Bristol, who heads up the firm’s business outsourcing services team, fellow partner Claire Burden, who leads the advisory consulting team, and Michael Wensauer, team lead sales engineering at LucaNet.

The webinar audience heard that corporate simplification can often be a complex and time-consuming process, particularly if there are international divisions involved, for example, or different regulators need to give their approval. But having the right performance management tools in place could help some businesses speed up the process.

Claire Burden said she had recently worked with LucaNet on a project involving a large business with 42 separate entities that were eventually reduced down to seven.

“Corporate simplification can range from a highly complex group structure that wants to put its activities through a smaller number of groups to a smaller business that may have entities that they want to clear out,” she said.

“Closing a legal entity merely involves a ‘strike off’, a simple filing with Companies House, although that can pose its own risks if there are any outstanding issues. There is also a longer process known as a Members’ Voluntary Liquidation which offers more protection if you have been trading for a while.”

Michael Wensauer, team lead sales engineering at LucaNet, said corporate simplification can sometimes be a far simpler process than was often imagined.

“Our clients are typically up and running with their new corporate structures in three to five months,” he said.

“A corporate performance management platform like LucaNet helps businesses to streamline their financial processes and achieve far more financial transparency. Our system is very intuitive so many of the repetitive manual tasks can be eliminated with the click of a button.”