DEBT & LENDERSPART OF THE FRACTIONAL CFO SCOPE

Debt and lenders.

The credit package is assembled the week it is due, out of whatever exists, and it reads defensively. Covenants are agreed because they were in the term sheet, without anyone modeling them against the actual forecast — so the business signs up to a fixed charge ratio it will breach in month seven under its own plan. And the relationship is transactional: the lender hears from the company at renewal and when something is wrong.
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.

We prepare the credit package the way a credit committee reads it: the business case first, the risks named by us before they are found, and the numbers reconciled to the statutory accounts so nothing has to be explained away.

Every covenant is modeled against the forecast before it is agreed, including the downside. If a proposed covenant breaks under your own base case, that is the negotiation, and it happens before signature rather than after.

Then the relationship is run rather than endured: reporting on time every period, compliance certificates filed early, and a call before bad news rather than after. Lenders price uncertainty. Removing it is worth basis points.

BROUGHT IN FOR THIS, AT NO CHANGE TO THE FEE

Debt specialists who have sat on the lender side of the table

What Changes
02 / 03
What you can do afterwards that you cannot do now.
Walk into a lender meeting knowing what they will ask. Understand what the term sheet in front of you actually costs across its life, not just its headline rate. Renew without drama.
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.
“My lender is asking for more than I can give them”
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 closeEquity and investorsTransactionsValue, exit and successionPricing, margin and unit economicsTax coordination and incentivesCross-border and multi-entityCompensation and the finance teamRisk, fraud and crisisCapital allocation and investment appraisalTurnaround 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.