Cash
Cash discipline
- A rolling 13-week cash flow, updated every week
- Receivables reviewed with names and dates, not just a total
- Work finished Friday is invoiced by the following Wednesday
Services Direction
Fractional CEO and COO
Plenty of growing businesses don't have a sales problem. They have a gap between the work and the cash. Work gets sold and not finished, finished and not invoiced, invoiced and not chased, while payroll goes out on schedule regardless. I sit alongside the owner, a few days a month, and install the operating system that closes that gap: the numbers, who owns them, and when they get reviewed.
Who it's for
When you need an operator, not another hire
This is for businesses that have outgrown the way they're run, but don't need, or can't yet carry, a full-time executive.
Owners carrying it all
Every decision still runs through you. The expectations live in your head, and nobody else can hear them or hit them.
More than one business unit
Several units or companies under one owner, each with its own team, its own numbers, and nobody looking at all of it together.
Busy but cash-tight
Sales are up and the calendar is full, but the bank balance tells a different story. Nothing connects the work to the cash.
Planning a transition
A succession plan, a partner buyout, or a step back from day-to-day work, with structure that needs to hold without you in every room.
What changes
What changes on a Monday
Visible, weekly changes, not a binder on a shelf. The work runs cash first, profit second, structure third. Structure is usually the root cause, but cash buys the runway to fix it.
Completion
Work that turns into revenue
- A published weekly revenue target for each unit
- The schedule built backwards from that target
- One board showing everything sold and not yet banked
Accountability
Clear ownership
- Every task the business needs, mapped to who is doing it today
- A one-page scorecard per unit: three to five numbers, each with a name beside it
- Roles redesigned around what people own, before anyone talks about replacing them
Cadence
A rhythm that holds
- A 15-minute weekly numbers meeting for each unit, led by its manager
- A monthly financial review with the owner
- A quarterly planning day with the leadership group
People
A team that understands the numbers
I take the leadership group through margin, fixed and variable costs, and the cash cycle, in plain language and using your own numbers. When everyone has a number they own and talks about it every week, the system holds up without me.
How the work runs
Six weeks to see it clearly, then we decide
You should not be asked to commit to months of something neither of us has seen yet.
Foundation
Six weeks with something on the table every week: interviews, a map of roles and costs, the first 13-week cash flow, and the path from quote to cash traced in every unit.
The gate
At week six we sit down with what Foundation found and decide together whether this continues. If we stop, you keep everything produced.
Install
About 90 days of putting the operating system in place: cash discipline, scorecards, the weekly meetings, and the cost savings Foundation found.
Steady state
The rhythm keeps running, quarterly planning stays, and the scope is reviewed every quarter and reduced as the system starts holding itself up.
What makes it work
What it takes to work
From you
- Access to the books, the receivables, and the contracts
- The freedom to talk to anyone directly
- About two hours a week of your time, plus the monthly review and the quarterly day
Air cover and decisions
- When an expectation is stated, you back it in public
- Disagreements get sorted privately, then we present one position
- When the analysis is clear, we act within 30 days
What this is not
- Not bookkeeping, and not a replacement for your bookkeeper
- Not an audit or an accountant's opinion
- Not a capital raise, and not a headcount cut dressed up as a review
What it looks like
Every task, mapped to a name
For an Edmonton construction business, part of the work was a task registry: every task the business needs done, mapped against who is doing it, who thinks they are doing it, and what is falling through the cracks. It ran to 155 tasks across three roles.
The gaps it exposed were not the gaps anyone expected. That is the point of building it. Once every task has one owner, the conversations about roles get much shorter and much less personal.
Common questions
Before you start
How much of your time do we get?
Roughly a day and a half a week during the six-week Foundation. Once the system is running, it is typically about four days a month in the business, plus the weekly meetings and being available in between.
Are you a fractional CFO?
No. I'm the operator who builds the system and works out which specialists you actually need. If you need a fractional CFO or a controller, I'll tell you, bring you people I trust, and manage them so they deliver.
Will you have the hard conversations?
Yes. Part of the role is stating expectations plainly and taking the heat for them. Decisions about anyone's employment always stay with you.
How will we know it worked?
We set baselines during Foundation and agree the targets together, then measure at 90 days: things like days to invoice, days to get paid, and whether the weekly numbers meeting is running in every unit.
Do you take a cut on specialists you bring in?
No. I take no commission or margin on any introduction, and you're free to hire anyone you like. Where I have an interest, you'll hear it from me first.
Contact
Close the gap between the work and the cash
Start with a 30-minute discovery call. Tell me what's going on in the business, and I'll tell you honestly whether a fractional operator is the right move.
Pick a time that works