How we work
What actually happens.
No discovery phase that bills for a month. We start by reading your numbers, tell you what the seat should cover, then either do the piece you need or take the seat outright.
The engagement
Five steps, and none of them are a workshop.
- The finance review
- We look at what you already have (the books, the last budget, whatever reporting exists) and what you are being asked for by a board, a funder, or a lender. You get a written read on what is working, what is missing, and what the seat should cover at your size. This is where almost everyone starts.
- A scope, in writing
- One page: what we will produce, when it lands, what we need from you, and what it costs. A project has an end date. A standing seat has a monthly rhythm. Either way, you know before we start.
- We take the work
- We build the budget, the model, or the reporting pack. We work from your bookkeeper's output and take questions back to them rather than forwarding them to you, so the reconciliation stays where it belongs.
- You get it explained
- Numbers arrive with the commentary already written: what moved, why, and what it means for the decision in front of you. If you need it walked through for a board, we walk it through for the board.
- It stays current
- On a standing seat, the budget gets reforecast, the reporting runs on its schedule, and the cash-flow view stays live. The point of the seat is that nobody has to remember to ask.
Two shapes
A project, or a standing seat.
A project
A defined piece with an end: an annual budget, a board reporting pack built from scratch, a cash-flow model, a pricing analysis. Scoped up front, delivered, handed over. You keep the file and the method.
A standing seat
The recurring work, month to month: reporting produced on schedule, the budget reforecast as the year moves, the board package ready before the meeting, and someone to call when a decision needs a number behind it.
Most engagements start as a project. When it works, we keep the seat.
What you get, and when
The rhythm of a standing seat.
- Monthly
- Management reporting with written commentary, the cash-flow view updated, and the budget-to-actual variances explained.
- Quarterly
- A board-ready package, the forecast reworked against what has actually happened, and a look at the decisions coming up.
- Annually
- The budget built for the coming year, reserves and runway reviewed, and everything your accountant needs handed over clean.
- When you call
- The figures behind a decision that will not wait for the quarter: a hire, a price change, a funding shortfall.
Get in touch
Start with the review.
It is the cheapest way to find out whether any of this is worth doing. If the answer is that you do not need us yet, we will say so.