If one of these is your problem, you are in the right place.
Pick it below. You will see the exact analysis that answers it, the numbers it produces, and what the owner did about it — before you speak to anybody.
More than one of them is true?
That is the usual answer, and it is what the Financial Health Review is for — it works through all of them and tells you which one is actually costing you the most.
Figures come from a constructed example business so they can be shown openly. The method, the arithmetic and the conclusions are what a real engagement produces.
When several of them are true at once.
One examination across seven areas, delivered as a written report with an amount attached to every finding — then a ranked plan telling you what to fix first.
Profitability
Which clients, products and jobs make money once every cost is counted — and which quietly do not.
Cash & runway
A weekly cash picture instead of a monthly one, with the specific weeks that get tight.
Working capital
How many days of cash sit in unpaid invoices and stock, and how much can be released.
Pricing
Your prices tested against what the work actually costs, including the overhead nobody allocates.
Reporting
What you get today, when you get it, and the numbers you should be looking at instead.
Controls
Approvals, payments and month-end, assessed against the size the business is now.
Risk
Customer concentration, key-person and timing exposure, ranked by what it would cost in cash.
Your 30/60/90-day plan
What to do first, what it is worth, and what can safely wait until next quarter.
Fixed fee, agreed in writing before anything starts. The final figure depends on the size of the business and how much of the underlying data has to be rebuilt — a single-entity service business sits at the starting price; more entities, more products or missing records move it up. You always know the number in advance.
- Written findings report, with the workings attached
- An amount in money against every finding
- A 30/60/90-day plan you can run without me
- A 60-minute walkthrough call
- You keep everything, whether or not we work together again
Questions owners ask about the review
What do I actually receive at the end?
A written report — typically 12 to 20 pages — with a section per area, the figures behind each finding, and the schedules used to produce them. Then a one-page plan ranking what to do over 30, 60 and 90 days. Plus a call to go through it and argue with any of it.
How much of my time does it take?
About ninety minutes in total: a 30-minute scoping call at the start, a short data request you forward to whoever keeps your books, and a 60-minute walkthrough at the end. The analysis in between does not need you.
Our records are a mess. Should we tidy them up first?
No — and waiting for tidy records is how a year goes by. Incomplete books are the normal starting point. If the underlying records exist, the analysis can be rebuilt from them, and that rebuilding is often the first thing of value you get.
We are profitable already. Is there anything in it for us?
Usually more than for a struggling business. Healthy overall margins are exactly what hides the specific clients, products and jobs that lose money — the aggregate covers for them. The reviews that find the most are rarely the ones that felt urgent.
What if you find nothing?
Then the report says so in writing, and you have an independent second opinion on your finances. That is a legitimate result. I would rather write that report than manufacture findings to justify the fee.
Is this going to turn into a sales process?
The plan will name things that need doing. Some I could do; some your existing accountant should handle; some you should do yourselves and some need nobody. If the honest recommendation is that you do not need me further, it will say that. There is no follow-up sequence.
Each of these can be bought on its own.
Independent pieces of work, not stages of a programme. Start with whichever one matches the problem you have — many clients only ever need one.
Financial Health Review
The whole picture in one diagnostic, with a ranked plan at the end.
Costing & Pricing
What the work truly costs, target margins, break-even and price scenarios.
Planning & Forecasting
Budgets, rolling forecasts, weekly cash and the scenarios behind a big decision.
Financial Controls
Approvals, payments, duties and month-end, reviewed for the size you are now.
Internal Audit
An independent look at how one process really operates, tested end to end.
Management Reporting
A monthly pack that arrives on time and contains the numbers that change decisions.
Monthly Finance
Close, reporting, forecast and a monthly decision call, on a schedule you can plan around.
Fractional CFO
Senior finance judgement on cash, pricing, growth and capital, without the salary.
Accounting Support
Cleanup, reconciliations, month-end and management accounts when the books are behind.
All prices are starting points for a fixed-fee proposal. The final figure depends on the size of the business and the state of the records, and is agreed in writing before work begins.
Working with your financial information, safely.
No banking access. Ever.
I never ask for bank logins or the ability to move money. Read-only reports from whatever system you already use are enough.
Anonymise before you send
Customer and employee names can be replaced with codes first. The analysis needs the amounts and the structure, not the identities.
NDA first, if you prefer
Happy to sign yours before the first call. If you do not have one, I will send a short mutual NDA. Client work is confidential either way.
“We don’t have those reports”
Almost nobody does. If the underlying records exist — invoices, ledgers, payroll, bank statements — the analysis can be rebuilt from them.
Whatever system you use
QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho, Sage, an ERP, or spreadsheets. I work from the reports it can produce, so nothing needs to change on your side.
Clear professional boundaries
Advisory and internal audit work — not statutory audit, external assurance, legal or tax advice. Said plainly so nobody is misled. Scope
Someone whose job is understanding your problem, then answering it.
An accounting and finance background, ACCA candidate, and years spent at the practical end of it — ledgers that did not reconcile, month-ends that ran late, costing nobody had tested, and owners making large decisions on numbers they did not trust.
Your problem is not one of the six?
Thirty of them are written out in full, and if none of those fit either, describe yours in a sentence. You will get a straight answer about whether it can be solved and roughly what it would take — before any question of working together comes up.