Five steps, and you can stop after any of them.
The first conversation commits you to nothing. The diagnostic is a two-week decision. The written assessment is yours whatever you decide next.
The first conversation is about your business, and it is the same conversation whether or not you go further.
One hour on your business, and nothing else on the agenda. We ask what the business does, how the cash moves through it, what the last twelve months looked like and what is actually keeping you up. Roughly an hour. You can have it without committing to anything, and most people do.
How the money comes in and goes out, what your close looks like today, who does the finance work now, which outside relationships matter — your lender, your accountant, your board — and what would have to be different in a year for you to call this a good decision.
A written note of what we heard and what we would look at first, sent within two working days. If we think your situation is better served another way, that note says so and names what we would do instead.
The CFO who would actually run your finance function, not a salesperson who hands you over afterwards. You meet them in the first hour, and if the fit is right that is the same person for the term.
If both sides want to continue, we agree the diagnostic. That is the only decision on the table at this point, and it is a two-week one.
Two weeks looking at everything. One document you keep either way.
We would rather spend two weeks finding out what is true than six months discovering it a surprise at a time.
Whether the numbers you make decisions on can carry the weight you put on them.
How long it takes, what holds it up, and what happens the week that one person is away.
Where it is, where it is trapped, and how far ahead you can currently see.
Where money actually moves, who approves what, and where a single point of failure sits.
How much of your month is people re-keying numbers a system should already produce.
Who does the finance work now, what they are good at, and what they have been asked to do without support.
Your lender, your accountant, your auditor, your board — what they are asking for and what they are getting.
What the business is trying to do next, and whether the finance function can carry it.
You keep it, and you can act on it with your own team, your accountant, or anyone else you choose.
The order is deliberate. The rhythm comes first, then the priorities.
Nothing ambitious gets attempted while the close is still unreliable, because a priority worked on top of a broken close produces an answer nobody can trust. So the first six weeks buy you a close on a fixed date, a pack that explains itself and a cash view that reaches far enough ahead. By week six the close lands on a fixed day, the pack explains itself, and you can see twelve weeks of cash. That is the platform everything else gets built on.
Your lead runs all of it. Where a line needs a specialist — the systems work, the lender conversation, a tax position — they bring in the firm rather than handing you to it.
Once it is running, the month has a shape, and every date in it is a date you can hold us to.
You always know when the numbers land, so you stop chasing them. Every date below is a working day, agreed before the engagement starts, and they hold in a good month and a difficult one. Between those dates you are not waiting for a monthly meeting to get an answer — the response standard on this page runs every day of the month.
Every commitment on this page is a number, and every number is in the agreement you sign.
Most finance relationships are sold on adjectives — responsive, proactive, hands-on. Ours is sold on a schedule with dates in it. Two standards are published below. You choose which one your business runs on at the start, and it is written into Schedule 1 of the agreement, with a service credit attached if we miss the close date. Ask any other firm for the same page.
| THE COMMITMENT | STANDARD | PREMIUM |
|---|---|---|
| GETTING HOLD OF US | ||
| Anything you send is acknowledged | 1 business day | 2 business hours |
| Payroll, payment, bank or security incident | 4 business hours, 9am–5pm ET | 30 minutes, 24/7 on call |
| Close blocker, lender or investor deadline, audit request | 1 business day | 4 hours |
| A substantive finance question | 2 business days | 4 business hours |
| Anything general or procedural | 3 business days | 1 business day |
| THE NUMBERS | ||
| Month-end close complete | Business day 12 | Business day 7 |
| Reporting pack in your hands | Business day 15 | Business day 8 |
| Bank reconciliations | Weekly | Daily |
| Payables entered | Weekly | Daily |
| CFO working session | Monthly | Weekly, plus on demand |
| CONTINUITY | ||
| Your named backup picks up your file | 1 business day | 2 business hours |
| Coverage drilled on live files | Once a year | Every quarter |
| Service credit if the close date is missed | 5% of the month | 15% of the month |
A calendar has two sides. Bank feeds connected, receipts in by the third working day and payroll data by the second are what let the seventh-day close hold — so those dates are agreed in the same document, and both sides can see them.
Remote-first, across the United States and Canada, and on site when the work calls for it.
We hire for the sector, not the commute. Your lead has run finance in a business like yours before, which is only possible because we are not limited to whoever lives nearby. A distributor in Alberta and a contractor in Georgia both get a lead who has run finance in that business before, which would be impossible if the search were limited to a commute.
You have seen the whole calendar.
The only decision in front of you is the first one, and it commits you to nothing. An hour on your business, and a written note of what we heard within two working days.