CAPITAL ALLOCATIONPART OF THE FRACTIONAL CFO SCOPE

Capital allocation and investment appraisal.

Capital gets allocated to whoever argues best. Business cases are built to get approved rather than to be true — the revenue assumption is generous, the ramp is optimistic, and the ongoing cost is quietly left out. Nothing is ring-fenced, so an approved project competes for cash with payroll every month. And almost nobody goes back eighteen months later to ask what the last one actually returned, which means the same optimistic assumptions get used again.
WHAT WE DO ABOUT IT, BELOWUNITED STATES AND CANADA
How We Run It
01 / 03
What we actually do, in the order we do it.

Every request goes through the same appraisal, whatever its size: the cash it consumes, when it turns, what it returns against a hurdle that reflects your actual cost of capital, and what happens if the ramp takes twice as long. Lease against buy, build against acquire, and the option of doing nothing costed properly — because doing nothing is always available and rarely priced.

Approved projects are ring-fenced in the cash forecast so they stop competing with operations for the same money each month.

And every material investment gets a post-investment review at a fixed point after completion: what it cost, what it returned, and where the original case was wrong. Not to allocate blame, but because a business that reviews its last five decisions makes better sixth ones.

BROUGHT IN FOR THIS, AT NO CHANGE TO THE FEE

Capital appraisal specialists for the hurdle rates and the post-investment review

What Changes
02 / 03
What you can do afterwards that you cannot do now.
Rank competing projects against each other on the same basis. Say no to a proposal for a reason you can articulate. Know what your last three capital decisions actually returned.
Who Arrives With This
03 / 03
The sentences that usually bring somebody to this page.
Nobody arrives asking for a workstream. They arrive with a situation, and this is one of the two or three we would put against it.
“We keep approving projects and I cannot tell you what they returned”
THE OTHER SIXTEEN
The rest of the scope.
Nobody needs all of it at once. The diagnostic decides which two or three matter first in your business, and you keep that assessment either way.
Planning and forecastingReporting, KPIs and the boardCash, treasury and working capitalControls, systems and the closeDebt and lendersEquity and investorsTransactionsValue, exit and successionPricing, margin and unit economicsTax coordination and incentivesCross-border and multi-entityCompensation and the finance teamRisk, fraud and crisisTurnaround and profit improvementTechnical accounting and revenue recognitionGovernance and stakeholders
SEE THE FULL SCOPE →
What Happens Next

Tell us what your month looks like. We will tell you whether this is the first thing to fix.

One hour on your business, with the CFO who would hold the seat rather than a salesperson. Nothing to prepare and nothing to sign. A written note back within two working days saying what we heard and what we would look at first.
BOOK A CONVERSATIONREAD THE AGREEMENT
ONE HOUR · NO CHARGE · A WRITTEN NOTE BACK WITHIN TWO WORKING DAYS
THE HOURWhat the business does, how the cash moves through it, and what would have to be different in a year.
THE NOTEWhat we heard and what we would look at first, in writing, within two working days.
THE PODThe CFO and controller who would hold your seats, each with a named backup behind them.
THE STANDARDClose by the seventh working day, pack on the eighth, and a published response standard in between.