Seminar aims to demystify inventory assessment

Demystifying the way companies control, cost and value their inventories will be one topic of discussion at a Sept. 25 seminar organized and sponsored by the Business Development Company of Rhode Island.
The due-diligence seminar aims to provide tools to a target audience of local accountants, lenders, lawyers and consultants who work with business owners on company growth and strategy, said Garrett Hunter, president of the BDCRI, a non-bank lender that provides debt and equity financing for regional companies’ growth and expanded employment.
Those tools could help provide the answers when clients want to take out a loan on their inventory, said Paul Bourget, a speaker at the seminar and founding owner of Woonsocket-based Bourget & Associates Inc., which specializes in collateral audits for banks in Rhode Island, New York and California.
“Because inventories are often the most complicated assets … most lenders and CPAs don’t have an understanding of the nature of inventories … how to audit them or understand the risks,” Bourget said. “A lot of banks are skittish of lending on inventories … hopefully I can bring some comfort there.”
Understanding inventories and helping clients implement better controls and procedures for them could help accountants and consultants provide a greater value to their clients, he said, because it could enable their clients to go after new loans or bigger loans.
For lenders, Bourget hopes to give examples of inventory problem areas so that they can better identify risks. Lenders will be able to ask better questions, he said.
Ron Lang, a managing partner of Ronald Lang & Associates, will be the second presenter at the seminar. Lang has assisted several companies in repositioning themselves for sale.
BDCRI chose due diligence as the focus of the seminar because “sometimes due diligence turns up facts that were unknown before … and if you’re careful in due diligence before a transaction it proves to be worthwhile for both parties,” Hunter said.
One objective is to help the attendees retain clients and grow their businesses by giving them the tools to help their clients grow their businesses, he added.
Though the BDCRI has been doing these seminars every 18 months or so for the past 15 years, this year the non-bank lender is making the seminar an annual event.
“It is good for us to appear before our referral audience,” he said. “We get a really good turnout … they end up networking … we have found it is a very constructive thing for the BDCRI to do.”
The seminar will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. next Tuesday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Crossings in Warwick. Attendees will be selected by invitation, but anyone interested in attending is welcome to contact the BDCRI at 351-3036 for more information. •