About the client
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals was a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapies for cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary diseases. Its pipeline included bentracimab (PB2452), a reversal agent for the antiplatelet therapy ticagrelor; pemziviptadil (PB1046), a once-weekly VIP receptor agonist for pulmonary arterial hypertension; and PB6440, an oral agent for resistant hypertension. PhaseBio's proprietary elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) technology platform differentiated its drug delivery approach across these programs.
PhaseBio operated as a NASDAQ-listed company managing multiple concurrent clinical programs with a lean finance team responsible for CRO accruals, vendor management, investor reporting, and public company financial controls.The company was headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
The challenge
QuickBooks, Word documents, and a month-end close that consumed the team
PhaseBio was managing its financial operations on QuickBooks with manual processes at every stage of the procurement and close cycle. Purchase orders were created in Microsoft Word, a document management workflow, not a financial control. The mapping, matching, and management of POs against invoices and contracts had become unmanageable as the number of active CRO and vendor relationships grew. Month-end close was consuming disproportionate finance team time because every step required manual data assembly and reconciliation.
For a NASDAQ-listed company managing concurrent late-stage clinical programs with a co-development partner, investor, and external auditor scrutinizing the financial records, the gap between the system in place and the system required was widening with each new program milestone.
What was breaking down
- Financials managed in QuickBooks with entirely manual processes. No system-enforced approval controls, no automated matching, no audit trail generated at the point of transaction.
- Purchase orders created in Microsoft Word. Documents, not system records, with no connection to vendor approval status, contract terms, or payment authorization workflow.
- PO mapping, matching, and management became overly complex as active vendor relationships multiplied across clinical programs. The manual reconciliation burden scaled with the business in the wrong direction.
- Month-end close was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Every close required manual assembly of data from QuickBooks exports, PO documents, CRO invoices, and bank statements.
- Multi-currency transactions across 4 currencies were being managed outside the system. Foreign exchange exposure and intercompany conversion were tracked manually, creating reconciliation risk at every period-end.
- Generating accurate reports for investor updates, board meetings, and audit preparation required additional manual effort on top of the close process, with accuracy dependent on the underlying reconciliation quality.
What was at stake
- Co-development partnership required reliable, auditable financial reporting on program spend. Manual QuickBooks records did not meet that standard.
- External audit would test the adequacy of procurement controls. Word-based POs with no approval workflow produce no audit evidence and constitute a control deficiency.
- Finance team capacity consumed by close and reconciliation work was unavailable for investor relations, program reporting, and strategic analysis functions that a NASDAQ-listed company requires.
- Manual banking added reconciliation risk at every period close and left cash position visible only at month end rather than in real time.
Why Archer Insights
Best practices for clinical-stage biopharma on NetSuite
PhaseBio needed a partner who had configured NetSuite specifically for clinical-stage biopharma companies managing multiple concurrent programs, not a generalist implementation that would require the finance team to adapt a manufacturing or distribution methodology to a clinical-stage operating model.
Archer Insights was selected to implement NetSuite across the full accounting, procure-to-pay, and financial reporting stack. The scope covered the complete financial infrastructure: chart of accounts, multi-currency accounting, Coupa integration for PO and vendor bill processing, banking, budget management, financial reporting, role-based access controls, and comprehensive documentation and training. Archer's direct experience with clinical-stage biopharma accounting requirements, including CRO accrual structures, segregation of duty controls, and investor-grade reporting, was the deciding factor.
The solution
Full NetSuite implementation from chart of accounts to go-live
Archer implemented NetSuite as PhaseBio's financial and operational platform, deploying a configuration set built specifically for the requirements of a NASDAQ-listed clinical-stage company. The implementation replaced QuickBooks, retired Word-based POs, connected Coupa and bank directly to the ERP, established a governed vendor management system, and built the reporting and dashboard infrastructure that a lean finance team needs to operate at public-company standards. Every workstream was documented comprehensively and supported through an ongoing managed services engagement.
01 — Accounting foundation
5-digit chart of accounts, department, class, and project dimensions, calendar-year accounting periods, multi-currency (4 currencies), journal entry approvals, recurring journals, and reversals.
02 — Coupa-integrated procure to pay
Vendor record configuration, PO receipt from Coupa, vendor bill setup, and bill payment processing, all connected directly to Coupa for a controlled non-CMO procurement cycle.
03 — Banking and reconciliation
Bank statement imports, bank reconciliation, auto-reconciliation rules, credit card statement imports, and credit card reconciliation.
04 — Roles, permissions, and access control
5 role configurations, global permissions, segregation of duty enforcement, permissions setup report, and employee hierarchy for approval workflows.
05 — Budgets and financial reporting
Native budgets, budget import templates, multiple budget categories, budget vs. actuals reporting, and a full financial report library including income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, general ledger, AP aging, and comparative reports by dimension.
06 — Dashboards and KPIs
8 custom dashboards configured for finance leadership, including KPI portlets, dashboard alerts, reminders, charts, and report portlets.
Implementation scope
What Archer configured
Accounting
- 5-digit chart of accounts
- Department, class, and project dimensions
- 4-currency multi-currency setup
- Journal entries and approval workflow
- Calendar-year accounting periods
- Recurring journals
- Reversals
Employee and access management
- System access setup
- Approval hierarchy configuration
- 5 role configurations
- Global permissions
- Segregation of duty enforcement
- Role setup permissions report
Items and costing
- Non-CMO item setup
- Service item setup
- Item accounting
- Costing configuration
Procure to pay (Coupa integration)
- Vendor record configuration
- PO receipt from Coupa
- Vendor bill setup
- Bill payment processing
Banking
- Bank statement imports
- Bank reconciliation
- Auto-reconciliation rules
- Credit card statement imports
- Credit card reconciliation
Financial close and budgets
- Close process checklist
- Period management
- Native budget setup
- Budget import templates
- Multiple budget categories
- Budget vs. actuals reporting
Dashboards and reports
- 8 custom dashboards
- KPI portlets
- Dashboard alerts and reminders
- Income statement
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow
- General ledger
- Trial balance
- Comparative income statement
- AP aging and AP register
- AP payment history by bill
- Reports by dimension
Documentation, testing, and training
- Business Requirements Document (BRD)
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) records
- Business Process Documentation (BPD)
- UAT training manual
- Functional walkthrough videos
- QA and functional testing
- 40 hours end-user training
- Production deployment
- 24 hours go-live support
NetSuite modules and integrations deployed
Core accounting, Multi-currency, Procure to pay, Coupa connector, Banking, Budget management, Financial reporting, Role-based access control, Custom dashboards, Approval workflows, Bank reconciliation, Period management
"A purchase order created in Microsoft Word is a document. A purchase order created in NetSuite is a financial control. The difference between those two things is the difference between an informal procurement process and one that produces audit evidence at the point of commitmen
Outcomes
Procurement control
Word-based POs were retired entirely at go-live. All purchase orders originate in Coupa and flow into NetSuite as system records with approval controls and a full audit trail at the point of commitment.
Multi-currency accounting
4 currencies configured and reconciled in a single system. Foreign exchange and intercompany conversion no longer handled through manual spreadsheet adjustments outside the general ledger.
Banking automation
Bank statements import directly into NetSuite with auto-reconciliation rules applied at import. Manual banking reconciliation steps were removed from the close process.
Financial close efficiency
A governed close process checklist, recurring journals, and automated reconciliation reduced the manual data assembly burden that previously consumed disproportionate finance team time each period.
Budget visibility
Native budget modules configured with multiple budget categories and import templates. Budget vs. actuals reporting available on demand, by dimension, without manual assembly from separate systems.
Audit-ready access controls
5 role configurations deployed with segregation of duty enforcement, global permissions, and a permissions setup report. Finance team access aligned to public company control standards.
The Archer edge
What a specialist delivers that a generalist cannot
A clinical-stage biopharma implementing NetSuite has requirements that are structurally different from a distribution company or a manufacturing firm. The chart of accounts reflects program-level cost tracking. The procure-to-pay cycle integrates with procurement platforms like Coupa because clinical-stage companies often have a procurement system in place before they have an ERP. The reporting hierarchy reflects program, department, and project dimensions rather than product lines.
Archer's implementation team configured each of these workstreams from direct experience with clinical-stage biopharma accounting requirements. The 40-hour training program, the business process documentation, and the functional walkthrough videos were produced as deliverables that the finance team could use to onboard new staff and demonstrate control adequacy to auditors. This is the practical difference between a specialist and a generalist: the deliverable set is designed for the operating environment the client is actually in.
Replace document-based procurement with a governed NetSuite environment
If your clinical-stage company is managing procurement through Word documents, QuickBooks, and manual reconciliation and needs a financial system built for public company obligations and auditor scrutiny, Archer Insights can show you what a controlled procure-to-pay environment looks like.
About Archer Insights
Archer Insights, LLC is a NetSuite Alliance Partner serving life sciences and healthcare organizations exclusively. The firm is an Inc. 5000 company and a 5-time consecutive NetSuite Alliance Partner Spotlight Award winner (2022 through 2026), recognized for biotech and biopharma specialization. Engagements cover new NetSuite implementations, enhancement services, proprietary software modules, and managed services.
Editorial note
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2022. The NetSuite implementation described in this case study was completed prior to that filing. The operational capabilities delivered, including the procure-to-pay controls, multi-currency accounting, and Banking integration, reflect the state of the system as configured and deployed by Archer Insights during the engagement.