How the partnership works.
Every engagement follows the same arc, scaled to the size of the mess. The order matters: you cannot forecast on books you don't trust, and you cannot make decisions from a dashboard built on bad data.
Discovery & alignment
Usually two weeks. A chance to learn the business, and for you to see how the work runs.
It covers the books, the systems, the close process, and the reporting you have today. Time with the owner or leadership team establishes what they understand what decisions you're trying to make and what's standing in the way. At the end of discovery you get a written assessment with prioritized findings — no obligation to continue.
System & workflow stabilization
Get the foundation right before building anything on top of it.
Clean the chart of accounts. Reconcile what's broken. Document the close. Fix the workflows that are creating the mess in the first place — bill pay, expense, payroll, intercompany. This is the unglamorous work most providers skip. It doesn't get skipped here.
Financial visibility & forecasting
Turn clean books into clear answers.
Build the reporting package. Set the KPIs. Stand up the cash forecast. Get the dashboards in front of the people who need them. Built right, the Monday conversation is about what the numbers mean, not who's pulling them.
Ongoing CFO-level partnership
The work becomes about decisions, not data.
Standing weekly or biweekly working sessions. Quarterly reforecasts. Scenario analysis when the situation calls for it. Lender, investor, and board reporting. Whatever the next decision is, the financial infrastructure is there to support it.
What you can expect
- Senior eyes on the work. No junior staff handed your books.
- Clear deliverables on a calendar. You always know what's coming and when.
- Direct, jargon-free communication. Accounting translated into operating decisions.
- Process documentation, so the work doesn't stay dependent on one person forever.
What is expected from you
This works best as a real partnership, so a few things matter on your side too:
- Honesty about the state of the books — there is always worse, and the cleanup is faster when the starting point is clear.
- Access to the decision-maker. The work is most valuable in direct conversation with the owner or CEO.
- A willingness to invest in the foundation before the dashboards. Skipping the cleanup phase makes everything downstream less reliable.