Fineman West & Company is a Los Angeles accounting, tax and business advisory firm with a more than 40 year history. On their own published figures, apparel makes up around 60 percent of their client base, spanning fabric converters, private label manufacturers, branded apparel companies, retail and outlet stores, and accessories.
Fineman West is a Los Angeles accounting, tax and business advisory firm with a more than 40 year history, and on their own published figures apparel makes up around 60 percent of their client base. They are an AIMS360 partner, which is a different thing from an AIMS360 integration. This page explains the difference, and what an apparel CPA actually needs your ERP to produce.
An app in the Shopify App Store is not the same thing as a Shopify Partner. You can be in both, or just one, or the other. The same is true here. An integration is a working data connection between AIMS360 and another system. A partner is a company AIMS360 has a direct working relationship with that adds value beyond a data connection. Fineman West is the second kind. There is no software link between AIMS360 and Fineman West, and none is needed, because a CPA firm works from your reporting rather than from your database.
| Integration | Partner | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A data connection between AIMS360 and another system | A company AIMS360 works with directly |
| What you get | Records moving between systems without rekeying | A service AIMS360 deliberately does not provide |
| Who you pay | Included with AIMS360, no separate integration fee | The firm, on their own terms |
| Examples in accounting | QuickBooks, Sage 100, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics | Fineman West and the other firms on the partners page |
AIMS360 does not sign tax returns, issue audit opinions or advise on entity structure, and does not intend to. Those belong with a firm whose licence and liability cover them. The accounting integrations page is the software list. This page is about the people.
Almost nobody publishes this, and it is the single most useful thing on this page. These are the seven things an apparel accounting engagement asks for, in the order they usually get asked. A brand that can produce all seven from one system rather than from a spreadsheet rebuilt in January is the brand whose engagement costs less and closes faster.
| What they ask for | Why it matters in apparel specifically |
|---|---|
| Inventory valued at cost on the closing date | With the style, colour and size detail behind it. A total is not enough when the write-down question is about which colourways did not sell |
| Receivables aging, factored and non-factored split | The two populations are reported differently. If they are in one column somebody has to unpick them by hand |
| Payables aging | Including what is owed to contractors and mills, which in apparel often sits outside the ledger until the invoice arrives |
| Shipping cut-off evidence | What physically left before and after the closing date. Wholesale ships in waves against cancel dates, so a few days either side moves real revenue |
| Landed cost components | Duty, freight and clearance belong in the inventory value rather than in expense. Getting this wrong overstates cost of goods and understates the balance sheet |
| Retailer deduction and chargeback reserves | Deductions taken but not yet resolved are a real liability. Brands that write them off as a cost of doing business cannot show the accountant a number |
| Returns reserve | Higher in apparel than almost any other category, and it moves by channel. Wholesale returns and ecommerce returns behave nothing alike |
If you are interviewing accounting firms, this table works as a checklist in the other direction too. Ask each firm which of the seven they will want and in what format, before the engagement starts rather than in the week they need it.
The reason a year end close is painful for most brands is not that the numbers do not exist. It is that they exist in four places and disagree. AIMS360 holds them on one record, which is what makes them reconcilable.
Accounts receivable ages by customer and by invoice, and factor approvals and assignments are tracked inside the order flow rather than in a side log, so the factored and non-factored split is a report rather than a reconstruction.
Accounts payable carries vendor bills against the purchase orders and cut tickets that generated them, so what is owed to a mill or a contractor is visible before the invoice lands.
Automated invoicing and batch invoicing generate the invoice from the shipment record, so the invoice date and the ship date come from the same event. That is what makes cut-off provable rather than arguable.
Stock is held by style, colour and size on one master record, with landed cost components carried into the value. Accounting and reporting read from that record rather than from an export.
Last reviewed 18 August 2026 by AIMS360.
Partner status confirmed with AIMS360. All figures about Fineman West are attributed to the firm's own published material at fwllp.com and to public announcements, checked in August 2026, rather than stated as AIMS360's own assessment.
A common worry when a brand changes ERP is that the accountant has to learn a new general ledger in the same year. That is not the trade AIMS360 asks you to make.
AIMS360 runs orders, inventory, production, warehouse and EDI, then syncs invoices, credits, vendor bills and payments into the ledger you already use. QuickBooks Online and Desktop, Sage 100, NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics are all connected, and every one of those integrations is built and supported in house at no additional charge. The full list is on the accounting integrations page.
For brands that factor, the financing integrations connect the factor relationship into the same flow, so credit approvals and assignments do not live in email.
AIMS360 implements AIMS360. Every rollout is run by the in-house team, and you get a named implementation manager before the project starts. Implementations are not handed to a consultancy.
An accounting firm can take part, and often should. Mapping a chart of accounts, deciding how the general ledger should be structured for the way you actually sell, and advising on how landed cost and reserves are treated are all jobs where your accountant's view belongs in the room. That work happens alongside your AIMS360 implementation manager, who still owns the plan and the go-live date. More on how a rollout runs is on the implementation page.
Attributed to Fineman West and to public announcements rather than repeated as AIMS360's own claim.
| What they publish | Detail |
|---|---|
| Firm | Fineman West & Company LLP, a full service accounting, tax, audit and business advisory firm in Los Angeles, at 801 South Figueroa Street |
| History | A more than 40 year history, built by legacy leaders Gary Fineman and Harold West. Harold West is credited with the firm's Beyond The Numbers slogan |
| Leadership | Co-managing partners Wendy On and Jeffrey Hyldahl |
| Apparel concentration | They state that apparel comprises around 60 percent of their client base, including fabric converters, private label manufacturers, branded apparel companies, retail and outlet stores, and accessories |
| Other industries served | Consumer goods, manufacturing and distribution, real estate, technology, entertainment, hospitality, professional services and non-profits |
| Network | Member of The International Accounting Group, which they describe as more than 220 firms in nearly 90 countries |
| Recent growth | Merged with Katz & Associates in January 2021, and has since announced a merger with Steven L Jager, CPA. Now also offering business management services |
| Contact | fwllp.com, info@fwllp.com, 213 688 9898 |
The 60 percent figure is the one worth weighing if you are choosing a firm. Apparel accounting is not general accounting with different clients on it. Inventory that moves in seasons, receivables that sit behind a factor, retailer deductions that arrive months after the sale and returns that run higher than most categories all change how a set of books should be built. A firm where most clients look like you has already met your problem.
A partner. The distinction matters and the two are often confused. An integration is a working data connection between AIMS360 and another system, like QuickBooks, Sage 100, NetSuite or Microsoft Dynamics. A partner is a company AIMS360 has a direct working relationship with that adds value beyond a data connection.
Fineman West is an accounting firm you engage directly. There is no software connection between AIMS360 and Fineman West, and none is needed, because what they work from is your reporting rather than your database. The software list is on the accounting integrations page.
No. AIMS360 implements AIMS360. Every rollout is run by the in-house AIMS360 team with a named implementation manager assigned before the project starts.
An accounting firm may take part in a rollout, typically by mapping a chart of accounts or advising on how the general ledger should be structured, but that work happens alongside your AIMS360 implementation manager, who still owns the plan and the go-live date.
Yes, and the two solve different problems. An ERP records what happened and produces the numbers. A CPA firm decides how those numbers should be treated, signs the work that lenders, factors and investors rely on, and handles tax position, entity structure and planning.
What a good ERP changes is not whether you need an accountant but how much of the engagement is spent reconstructing records rather than advising you. That is the part AIMS360 accounting is built to remove.
Inventory valued at cost as of the closing date with style, colour and size detail behind it. Receivables aging with the factored and non-factored balances separated. Payables aging. Shipping cut-off evidence showing what left before and after the closing date. Landed cost components, so duty and freight sit in the inventory value rather than in expense. Reserves for retailer deductions and for returns.
A brand that can produce those seven from one system rather than from a spreadsheet rebuilt in January is the brand whose engagement costs less and closes faster.
Many brands keep it, and AIMS360 is built to allow that. AIMS360 runs orders, inventory, production, warehouse and EDI, then syncs invoices, credits, vendor bills and payments into QuickBooks Online or Desktop so nothing is keyed twice.
The same pattern works with Sage 100, NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics. Your accountant keeps working in the ledger they already know, and the apparel detail stays where it belongs.
It splits your receivables into two populations that have to be reported differently, and it introduces a third party whose records must agree with yours. Your accountant needs the factored and non-factored balances separated, the credit approvals behind each account, and the assignment history.
AIMS360 tracks factor approvals and assignments inside the order flow, so approval status sits on the order rather than in a separate log. The factor connections themselves are on the financing integrations page.
On their own published figures, apparel makes up around 60 percent of their client base, spanning fabric converters, private label manufacturers, branded apparel companies, retail and outlet stores, and accessories. The firm has a more than 40 year history in Los Angeles and is a member of The International Accounting Group, a network they describe as covering more than 220 firms in nearly 90 countries.
Those are their figures, published on their own site, rather than AIMS360's assessment. Other firms are listed on the AIMS360 partners page.
Ask them for their year end request list, then let us show you where each item comes from. It is a faster way to judge an ERP than any feature comparison, and it is the conversation most vendors would rather you did not have.
