Section B · Desk B6

A CFO for Ten Hours a Month

You do not need a full time finance chief. You need someone who can see the cash gap in August while it is still April.

Talk to the CFO desk
Two people at a desk covered in printed charts, one marking a bar chart while the other uses a calculator

Exhibit D: the 13 week cash forecast

Sample forecast

Cash on hand, next 13 weeks

A sample contractor, thousands of dollars, with the safety line at 40

Line chart of forecast cash for a sample contractor: starting near 92 thousand, dipping to 34 thousand in week 8 below a 40 thousand safety line, then recovering to 78 thousand by week 13. Safety line $34k $92k 04080120 WK 1WK 8WK 13
Week 8 dips under the line because three jobs bill late and payroll does not wait. Seen in April, it is a phone call to a supplier. Seen in August, it is a loan.

Where the ten hours go

Los Gatos: About three hours go to the forecast. Every week we roll it forward with real bank balances, open invoices and the bills you know are coming. You get one page with the low point circled and what we would do about it.

About four hours go to pricing and margin work. Which jobs, products or clients make money once you count the time they really take? Owners are often surprised. The busiest line is not always the profitable one, and a small price change in the right place does more than a big push in the wrong one.

The rest goes to reporting and meetings: a monthly sit down, a short pack for the bank or investors, and someone in the room when a lender asks a hard question. We prepare you, and we answer the numbers questions so you can answer the business ones.

The rate

$1,500 to $4,500 a month, fixed, depending on hours and how many entities we cover.

CFO work sits on top of monthly bookkeeping, and pairs with the planning meeting each fall. If your books are behind, the catch up desk gets them ready first. Write to the desk to see if there is room this quarter.