Home  /  Fractional FP&A  /  How it works How the FP&A partnership works

A finance department's discipline. Built in three weeks, run every month.

This is the system behind the retainer — the driver map, the auditable schedules, the three-statement engine, the live command center, and the monthly rhythm that keeps it all honest. Scroll to watch it get built, sheet by sheet, on an illustrative company.

Scroll to build the system
01 / 10 — Your situation

Decisions on gut, and last month's bank balance.

Hires, pricing, equipment, runway — the biggest calls in the company get made with the least information. The goal of this system is simple: every big decision gets a dress rehearsal first.

Fractional FP&A / strategic finance
02 / 10 — Scope the drivers

We map how the money is actually made.

Two days with you, not your spreadsheets alone — units, rates, capacity, seasonality. Drivers ranked by dollar impact, vanity metrics cut, and the decision list the model must answer agreed in writing. Scope and fixed fee before any build starts.

One-page driver map, signed off
03 / 10 — Build the schedules

Schedules a CFO could review line by line.

Revenue built volume × rate × mix with seasonality. A headcount grid with wage cards, burden, and an explicit overtime policy. Costs on per-unit logic; capex and working-capital timing spelled out. Inputs → logic → output, in plain sight.

Zero hardcoded numbers inside formulas
04 / 10 — Wire the model

A three-statement engine with no plugs. Ever.

The schedules cascade into a full P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow that balance in every period, in every scenario. A switchboard toggles base, upside, and downside instantly, and an assumptions register means nothing lives in someone's head.

A living model that answers “what if” in seconds
05 / 10 — Integrate the data

Refresh becomes one click — not an afternoon.

QuickBooks, payroll, and billing connect at the source. Power Query cleans, maps, and normalizes — documented and repeatable, with a chart-of-accounts map you own and can extend. Actuals tie to the source to the dollar.

A documented data pipeline you own outright
06 / 10 — The command center

Your numbers, live — in the room.

Page-per-question design: every page answers one management question, every KPI definition is written down, and leadership can drive the what-if controls live in the meeting. Company → branch → unit → month, in two clicks.

A command center, not a report
07 / 10 — Pressure-test

Nothing earns decision rights until it survives this.

Backtested against your history until calibration reads 1.00. Downside runs show exactly where cash pinches first — and in which month. The top assumptions get stressed ±20% and the model's honest limits are documented.

A model you can defend to a bank, board, or buyer
08 / 10 — Run the rhythm

The monthly loop that keeps the plan alive.

Actuals land and every variance is attributed to its driver — not a “misc” bucket. The forecast rolls forward so the plan never goes stale. You get the pack before the call, and the call is 45 minutes: what changed, why, what we do.

Every miss explained by cause, in time to act
09 / 10 — Decisions, rehearsed

Every big call runs in the model before it runs in real life.

The hire, the price change, the equipment purchase — each one rehearsed with the tradeoffs visible. This is the whole point of the system: cheaper, faster, calmer decisions.

Decision support, on demand
10 / 10 — What you keep

If we part ways, everything keeps working.

The living model, the data pipeline, and the command center are yours outright — plus a finance partner on call each month. The discipline of a finance department, at a fraction of the hire.

Yours to keep · from $2,450/mo
The offering

The monthly finance partnership.

The build takes about three weeks; the rhythm runs every month after. Everything stays yours if we ever part ways.

WHAT YOU GET
  • The living driver model — yours outright
  • The Power BI command center — one source of truth
  • Monthly KPI pack + variance bridge, before the call
  • The 45-minute monthly call: what changed, why, what we do
INVESTMENTFrom $2,450 / month

Scoped to your business in writing — a fraction of an $85,000+ finance hire.

See the full retainer offering →

Want this system running your numbers?

A fixed-fee build and a monthly rhythm, exactly as shown — and everything is yours to keep. Start with a free consultation.

Request a consultation