In the order we do it.
The revenue line is a single number nobody can decompose, so when it misses, no one can say whether it was volume, price, mix or timing — and the argument at the board meeting is about whose fault it is rather than what to do.
We rebuild the forecast from its drivers, not from last year plus a percentage. Revenue comes apart into volume, price, mix and timing; cost comes apart into what is fixed, what steps, and what genuinely varies. Every re-cut names which driver moved and by how much. The model is one integrated three-statement build — P&L, balance sheet and cash tied together — so a change in payment terms shows up in the cash line automatically instead of being remembered.
Then we stress it. Not a “conservative case”, which is just the plan with a haircut, but the specific question: what has to be true for this to break, and how far away is that? Runway, covenant headroom and the first month you go negative all fall out of the same model.
What you can do afterwards that you cannot do now.
Answer a board question in the meeting instead of taking it away.
Tell your lender what happens under their downside case before they ask.
Know which two assumptions carry most of the risk in your plan, and watch those rather than all forty.
Your CFO does not do this alone.
With a named controller alongside them, a named backup on every seat, and the specialist bench behind both — all inside one fixed monthly fee.
The sentences that bring somebody here.
“I cannot see my cash far enough ahead”
“We keep approving projects and I cannot tell you what they returned”
“We are raising, and I do not think we are ready”
“Earnings have been drifting down for three years”
“We think we are leaving credits and incentives on the table”
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.
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.