Die Finanzdoktoren – The Finance Doctors

Finance leadership for companies growing into Japan

Fractional and interim CFO support, M&A, audit and AI in finance. From a trilingual CFO who has run finance functions in Japan, Hong Kong and Germany, and who knows how head office and the Japan team each see the numbers.

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What we do

Six areas, delivered as a project, as interim cover, or as a fixed number of days per month. Every engagement ends with a team that can carry on without us.

  • Fractional and interim CFO

    For startups and overseas companies setting up or scaling in Japan

    Senior finance leadership for the months or days per week you need it. We set up the Japan finance function, keep head office informed in its own reporting format, and step in when a finance leader leaves unexpectedly.

    What this covers
    • Setting up finance for a new Japan entity: banking, accounting and payroll providers, chart of accounts, monthly close calendar
    • Group reporting packages for head office alongside local JGAAP, with IFRS experience on both sides
    • Budgets, forecasts, business plans and cash and liquidity planning
    • Board and investor reporting, and a clear line of sight from local numbers to group targets
    • Bridging head office and the Japanese team in English, German and Japanese
    • Interim cover during vacancies, with a structured hand-over to the permanent hire

    Tax filings and legal matters stay with your licensed tax accountant and lawyers. We coordinate them and make sure the work arrives on time.

  • M&A and company transformation

    For owners, boards and head offices preparing a deal, a restructuring or an exit

    Hands-on support through strategic reviews, transactions and the operational change that follows them. We run the finance workstream, prepare the data and keep the timeline honest.

    What this covers
    • Strategic reviews and option assessments, including market entry and market exit
    • Due diligence preparation: data rooms, question lists, management presentations
    • Business cases and valuation support for acquisitions and investments
    • Restructuring, wind-downs and asset divestments, run in an orderly way
    • Integration of finance processes, systems and teams after a deal
    • Balance sheet transformations that require union, system and auditor alignment

  • Corporate finance and internal audit

    For finance teams that need to grow, change systems, cover a departure or review how they work

    With our background in corporate finance and internal audit, we support building and growing your finance department, moving to a new accounting system, providing coverage during unexpected departures, and assessing processes that are already running.

    Topics we review and advise on
    Accounting and finance processes
    Streamlining local processes, including the links between process steps and people; feasibility studies for moving processes to shared service centers; reviews of risk control matrices.
    FP&A and controlling
    Cost allocation schemes, investment proposals and their tracking, management reporting packages and report automation.
    Risk management
    Risk catalogues, agreeing on focus risks, reviewing mitigating measures and supporting risk reporting.
    Internal audit
    Audit plans and audit programs, support during field work and in responding to audit reports, and project management of rectifying measures.
    Property transactions
    Financial oversight when buying or selling real estate: selecting agents, assessing bids, guarding the timeline, and working out the accounting, treasury and tax implications with specialists.
    Training
    Training sessions on every topic above, including finance for non-financial managers.

  • AI in finance

    For finance teams that want to spend less time on routine work and more on analysis

    Practical use of AI in everyday finance work: automating recurring processes, training your team, and setting up company-specific AI skills that know your reports, your terminology and your way of working.

    What this covers
    • Finding the recurring finance tasks where AI saves the most time, and automating them
    • Company-specific AI skills for reporting, variance commentary, reconciliations and data cleanup
    • Hands-on training for finance and procurement teams, in English, German or Japanese
    • Guidelines for using AI with confidential financial data

  • SAP and data system projects

    For companies implementing, migrating or rescuing an ERP or database project

    Interim and project-based project management for SAP and database implementations and migrations, with a finance owner's view of what the system has to deliver.

    What this covers
    • Project setup, planning, budget control and steering committee reporting
    • Requirements, vendor selection, tenders and commercial negotiation
    • Master data and database migrations, including restarting stalled projects
    • Interfaces between SAP and source systems, and the controls around them
    • Coordination between Japanese users, overseas head office and offshore support centers

  • AI-generated media

    For teams that need visual and multilingual material quickly

    Support with AI-generated images, video and presentation material for training, internal communication and corporate content, including versions in English, German and Japanese.

How an engagement runs

The same order a good doctor follows: understand first, then act, then make sure you can manage on your own.

  1. Diagnose

    An initial conversation and a short review of your numbers, processes and team. You get a clear view of what needs attention and what can wait.

  2. Treat

    A defined scope, timeline and fee, as a project, interim role or fixed days per month. We work inside your team, not beside it.

  3. Hand over

    Documentation, trained people and working processes, so the improvement lasts after we leave.

Portrait of Tobias Lindt

Tobias LindtFounder, Die Finanzdoktoren G.K.

A trilingual CFO who works in data and delivers value beyond finance

Tobias Lindt is a trilingual CFO, working in English, German and Japanese, with more than 20 years in corporate finance, controlling and internal audit across Germany, Hong Kong and Japan. He is as comfortable building dashboards or AI workflows as defending contentious accounting positions with statutory auditors.

After holding-level controlling in Germany, he joined a newly founded group internal audit office in Hong Kong, auditing subsidiaries across Asia and rolling out a profit recovery program in several countries.

In Japan he was CFO and board member of a foreign-invested company with more than 1,200 employees, covering finance, controlling, information systems and internal control under IFRS and JGAAP. He led the M&A workstream of a strategic review and the orderly market exit that followed, completing a real estate divestment months ahead of plan.

Through Die Finanzdoktoren he set up the finance function of a US-backed startup in Tokyo as its interim head of finance. His later corporate roles in Japan span FP&A, HR controlling and procurement planning: he stepped beyond pure finance to take responsibility for the neighboring functions, because that is where the value sat.

Data runs through all of it: a rebuilt business intelligence team whose dashboards lifted margins noticeably within months, automated SAP interfaces, a rescued database migration, and daily AI use with custom skills he builds and teaches.

Where the experience comes from

Fractional and interim CFOCFO and board member of a foreign-invested company in Japan; interim head of finance for a US-backed Tokyo startup; 17 years of reporting to an overseas head office, in three languages
M&A and transformationM&A workstream lead in a strategic review; market exit and real estate divestment; acquisition work in Poland; a balance sheet transformation from idea to auditor approval
Corporate finance and internal auditGroup internal auditor across Asia; head of controlling and FP&A; auditor-approved positions on impairment, provisions and IFRS 16
AI in financeDaily AI practice in finance and procurement analysis; custom AI skills for recurring work; team onboarding and training
SAP and data systemsSAP accounting interface automation; merchandise database migration brought back on track; system migration with a vendor tender at half the prior support cost
AI-generated mediaThe same daily AI practice, applied to visual and multilingual material

Start with a conversation

Tell us what is happening in your finance function or your Japan plans. Write or call in English, German or Japanese.

tl@die-finanzdoktoren.jp
Registered address
7-11-10 Oi, Shinagawa
140-0014 Tokyo, Japan〒140-0014 東京都品川区大井7-11-10
Established
2022, Tokyo