Running the finance function with you
What being in the business looks like
Each level of engagement has its core, and the rest is built around your
business. Not everything here is in every package — what goes in is what
adds value for you. It is a fixed fee either way, and if the scope changes
the price changes with it.
Cash, forecast and watched. Rolling cash flow forecasting, balance
monitoring and working capital cycles — including the unglamorous part,
which is deciding who gets paid and when.
Margin you can act on. Reporting broken down the way the business
actually runs, by location and by line, so that pricing becomes a decision
rather than a habit.
Money moving properly. Payments in Canadian dollars, US dollars and
internationally, so collections and payables stop depending on cheques and the post.
Lender and bank work. Business plans and financing proposals prepared, and sitting in the conversation rather than sending a file into it.
Structure. Corporate and personal tax planned together, compensation
structured deliberately, and the line between the business's money and yours drawn and then kept.
Day to day. The AP and AR inbox, the question that comes up on a
Tuesday, and being on site often enough to know what the shop is actually doing.
If this is where
you are
The company works. The finance behind it has not kept up.
Debt has arrived from several places at different times and nobody holds the
whole picture.
Cash is a weekly worry — who gets paid, in what order, and what happens if a large invoice lands late.
You are quoting from instinct, because nothing tells you which jobs, sites
or lines actually make money.
A bank or a lender has asked you for something you cannot produce quickly.
Growth is available and you are not certain the business can carry it.
Once the books are clean the work stops being accounting. It becomes being in the business.
What this is not
It is not a monthly report emailed to you.
It is not a person you meet once, at year end.
It is not advice given at a distance from the operation it is about.
We will challenge you, and we will challenge your status quo. If that is notwhat you are looking for, the honest answer is that we are not the right fit.
Why this matters
Industrial and field businesses in Alberta usually start hands-on and stay
that way long after the finance behind them should have changed. The owner
is the estimator, the closer, the fixer and, by default, the finance
function — and finance is the one of those jobs that quietly compounds when
it is done late.
A finance function that sits inside the business, rather than reporting on
it afterwards, changes what an owner is able to decide and when. That is the
whole of the argument, and it is why we work the way we do.
Where most engagements start: Cleaning up and getting current
If this sounds like you, the next step is simple.
Or email us: hello@cv-cpa.ca