Services
Small business CFO support
Most small businesses do not need a full-time CFO and could not afford one anyway. What they need is someone who reads the numbers every month and says plainly what they mean. Edith ran finance for a multi-unit restaurant company, so this is the seat she is coming from rather than one she is reaching for.
What this covers
Cash flow forecasting
A forward view of what is coming in and going out, so payroll, tax deadlines and slow seasons stop arriving as surprises.
Budgets and planning
An annual budget you actually use, checked against what really happened, with the variances explained in plain language.
Pricing and margins
What each product, service or location earns once labor and overhead are in the number. Margins measured in pennies is familiar territory here.
A monthly management review
The same operating numbers each month, in the same format, with a short written read on what moved and why. Built for you to run the business from.
Decisions with a number attached
A hire, a piece of equipment, a second location, taking on debt. The analysis before the decision rather than the explanation after it.
Working alongside your bookkeeper
This only works on clean books. If bookkeeping is handled here the two fit together, and if it is not, we work with whoever keeps them.
Who this is for
- Owner-operators past the point where the bank balance is a strategy
- Restaurants and multi-unit hospitality, where labor and food cost move weekly
- Businesses planning a hire, a location or a large purchase
- Anyone who has books but no real sense of what they are saying
What to have ready
- Access to your books, or whatever records currently exist
- Last year's business tax return
- Recent bank and credit card statements
- Payroll reports, if you have employees
- A sense of the decision in front of you, if there is one
Do not worry if some of this is missing. Part of the job is telling you exactly what is still needed.
How it works
Look at what exists
We start from your books, bank activity and last year's return, to see what is reliable and what needs work first.
Agree what matters
Every business runs on three or four numbers. We pick yours rather than reporting everything and calling it insight.
Set the cadence
Monthly for most, quarterly where the business moves slowly. You know when the review lands and what will be in it.
Let it compound
The value is not in month one. It is having twelve months of consistent numbers on the day a real decision shows up.
This is management reporting and advisory work, built for you to run the business from. It is not an audit or a review, and it is not prepared for a lender or any other outside party. If what you need is work that carries formal assurance, you need a firm that performs it, and you will hear that on the first call rather than the third.
Other services
Tax preparation
Individual returns, Schedule C and E, S-corps and partnerships. Prepared, reviewed and e-filed by a licensed CPA.
Bookkeeping
Monthly close and clean, reconciled records, so filing season is a formality instead of an excavation.
Payroll
Pay runs, quarterly filings, and year-end W-2s and 1099s, with deposits made on schedule.
State tax filings
Sales and transaction tax registration and returns, including the city-by-city rates that catch out-of-state help.
IRS notices
A letter arrived and you would rather not read it twice. A CPA can respond and represent you directly.
Let's find out if we're a fit.
Twenty minutes, no charge. Bring last year's return and your questions, and you'll leave knowing what the work involves and roughly what it costs.