HomeCFO Service
Advisory work for founders who have outgrown doing the numbers themselves and do not need a full-time finance director. Cash flow, pricing, board reporting and getting ready for due diligence.
Bookkeeping records what happened. This is about what to do next, with somebody who has read the numbers properly before the meeting starts.
A rolling forecast of what comes in and what goes out, built from when your customers pay in practice rather than from invoice dates. Companies that fail are often profitable on paper in the month the cash runs out.
Gross margin by product, by client, sometimes by project. Founders are frequently subsidising their worst customer with their best one, and until the numbers get cut that way, nobody inside the business knows which is which.
A monthly or quarterly pack with commentary attached, answering what investors ask before they ask it. Reporting that arrives late and raw spends credibility you will want intact at the next funding conversation.
Buyers and investors test whether your records support your claims. Revenue recognition, related party transactions, contracts and the tax filings get reviewed before anyone external looks, which is the cheapest moment to find a problem.
A budget connecting headcount, runway and revenue targets, so a hiring decision made in March shows its effect in November. Plans that live only in a founder's head tend to be optimistic in the same places every time.
Preparing the financial side of a raise or a facility application, then answering what comes back. Taking numbers you have not stress-tested to a lender is how a sound business collects a poor decision.
The first month establishes the picture. After that it settles into a cycle matched to your board calendar and your cash cycle.
We read the last twelve months of accounts, the current forecast if one exists, and the contracts that drive revenue. This is also the point where we tell you if the company does not need this service yet.
First two weeksYou get a written scope covering what is delivered, how often and by whom, priced as a monthly retainer or a project fee. A fee that moves after the work begins is not a fee, it is an estimate.
Before work startsThe cash flow model, the reporting pack and the margin analysis get built once and then maintained. Building them on a ledger that is already reconciled is the reason this work sits close to the bookkeeping.
First full monthNumbers land, the pack goes out, and a conversation follows about what changed and what to do. Decisions are written down, so the next month opens by checking what happened to the last ones rather than starting again.
Monthly, with quarterly reviewNo number sits on this page because the work differs in every company. A monthly forecast and a board pack for a business with one revenue line is a different job from supporting due diligence through a raise.
Scope, frequency and who does the work set the fee, and you have it in writing before anything begins. Where a piece of work has a defined end, preparing for due diligence among them, it is priced as a project rather than a retainer.
Quoted for your company
Agreed in writing before we start
Talk it throughFees are quoted per engagement and exclude GST. This advisory work sits on top of bookkeeping and compliance fees rather than taking the place of them.
Often not. A company issuing four invoices a month, with one product and money in the bank, needs accurate bookkeeping and nothing above it. This work earns its fee when decisions start getting expensive: hiring ahead of revenue, pricing a second product, raising money, or watching cash tighten without knowing what is causing it.
Bookkeeping and tax record what has happened and report it on statutory deadlines. This work looks forward and has no filing attached. Each needs the other, since a forecast built on a ledger nobody reconciled is fiction with decimal places in it.
A senior person with the experience to sit in a board meeting, supported by the team handling the monthly detail. You are told who that is before signing, because a retainer that arrives with an unnamed resource behind it is a different product from the one described on this page.
Less than running it yourself, more than none. Expect a monthly review conversation, with questions in between when something needs a founder's answer. Decisions stay with you. You get the numbers, a recommendation and the reasoning behind it, then you choose.
No, though the work is easier when the ledger is current and on Xero. Books kept elsewhere and kept well are fine to work from. Books months behind have to be brought up to date first, because a forecast built on guesswork is worse than having no forecast at all.
Send the last twelve months of figures and tell us the decision sitting in front of you. If the honest answer is that a CFO is premature for your company, you will hear that instead.
Tell us what you need and we will point you to the right answer, or bring in one of our chartered professionals. Out of hours you get a reply first thing the next working day.