Accountfully Service Spotlight:  Finance and Advisory Services

You’ve met our people, our clients, and learned more about the teams that support our services, but how about the services, themselves?  Welcome to the Accountfully service spotlight series, where we share the details on each outsourced accounting service.  Find out what we offer, how it can help, and see if it is a good fit for your business.

Finance and advisory support makes a great next service addition, as clients gain traction and grow because it helps them confidently navigate big, scary financial decision-making. Once the numbers are dialed in, and the accounting is humming away, we find many clients seek more of that advisory-level insight, but are not in a position to hire an in-house CFO.  Common needs that require advisory is managing hiring, keeping investors up to date, or mapping out big steps with forward-facing financial input.  Who better to offer that than the team that knows the numbers inside and out already?  If some of these challenges are hitting home, we can help.  Take a look to see how it can benefit your business.

What Is It?

Accountfully's Finance and Advisory services enhance our standard accounting package by providing a forward-looking cash and profitability outlook. While your accounting is focused on more reactive management, finance and advisory is important to look ahead and plan beyond the immediate data at hand.  

When Do I Need It?

A client will need finance and advisory support when:

• seeking funding or investors
• planning for large purchases
• need to analyze how inventory turnover affects cash balances
• you are hiring and need to know its effect on the bottom line
• you're managing a not-so-normal cash cycle
• you want to analyze cash requirements to make better funding decisions, such as debt versus equity
• you prefer a more proactive approach to planning, overall

Watch our video on the five signs you need Finance and Advisory support:

How Much Does It Cost?

All finance and advisory services are billed at $225 per hour.

What Do I Get?

Here are ways we support our finance and advisory clients:

▶︎ 13-Week Cash Flow:

• We map out a rolling 90-Day cash cycle to help clients fully understand cash requirements for future operations, potential future fundraising needs, and short-term liquidity risk.

▶︎ Multi-Year Forecast:

• We create a three to five year model with an Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows to forecast future financial results.
• This model can be used to support fundraising needs, analyze cash requirements for future operations, plan for large purchases, and help set sales/revenue goals.

▶︎ Annual Budget:

• The Annual Budget–similar to the Multi-Year forecast–includes the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows.
• Once completed, the Annual Budget should be reviewed on a monthly or quarterly basis with the account team to ensure we are on track to re-forecast as needed.

▶︎ Controller/CFO Services:

• This is a great fit for clients who already have an accounting team in place.
• We interpret financial results and help create KPIs to help the client make strategic decisions.

▶︎ Ad-Hoc Financial Reporting:

• This applies to any additional finance and advisory-related reporting and analysis not already included in the original Service Level Agreement (SLA).

The Finance and Advisory Package

For clients in need of a detailed forecast built from the ground-up, we offer a forecasting package that includes the set up and maintenance of a detailed forecast and budget.

This is not a "set and forget it" product. The goal is to create and useful and adaptable forecast that accurately guides you toward desired outcomes.

Your three-year forecast begins with an initial discovery call to determine what the goal of the forecast is–planning, fundraising, etc., then we agree on a timeline for its execution.  Next, we map your historical financial results from QuickBooks into the forecast so actual results can easily be compared to the forecast.  Clients can expect to see a draft in two to four weeks.

▶︎ Month One: business discovery, forecast draft preparation, and an initial review.

Once we have discussed your goals, synched the data and decided on the focus of the forecast, we will create a draft to review together.

What is Included in the Forecast?

Our package includes the creation of a forecast and four one-hour meetings to review the forecast to actuals, and make any adjustments as needed.

The three-year forecast with monthly financial statements is created specific to your business, and includes:

Profit and Loss:

• Detailed revenue and COGS forecast
• Flexible payroll schedule to add employees as you grow
• Detailed expense forecast

Balance Sheet:

• Inventory roll-forward forecast
• Fundraising and debt forecast
• A/R and A/P estimates

Statement of Cash Flows:

• Shows the impact of business decisions on your cash balance

▶︎ Months Two–Four: analysis of forecast-to-actuals, ad hoc requests, monthly advisory discussions.

In the following months, we will meet once a month to assess how the forecast is tracking against your performance, as well as your goals. We are available for one-off requests as needed.

Package Pricing

Pricing depends on the forecast's complexity and will be billed in installments over four months. The total project price ranges from $6,000 to $14,000. Monthly payments range from $1,500 per month–$3,500 per month. Any out-of-scope hourly requests are billed at $225 per hour.

What Do Your Clients Think?

Our long-time Nashville-based client, Noise New Media has seen huge growth in recent years as a result of re-arranging their pricing structure.  Our finance support helped clear up some of the gray areas surrounding hiring and job costing.  What it revealed was a need to offer their talents to clients with more freedom of movement within their team, while better supporting the client’s goals as well.  Pricing based on ticket sales allows them to leverage their team as needed to support the ultimate goal of their big-event marketing clients: ticket sales.

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‍Steve Richo, the cofounder of Noise New Media, notes the impact of knowing what your time costs:

“It helps us establish what our hourly rate should be, our hourly billing, and we never knew that before. That is just like one of the most important things you could have in a business–what is an hour of my time worth?”

How Do I Get Started?

If you are a current client of Accountfully, we likely have the info and access we need to get started.  Once you have added finance and advisory to your service level, we will schedule a call to map out our plan.  An initial setup will take place to develop the tools from which we will plan, like your budget and cash flow forecast.  Once the bulk of the setup is finished, our regular, monthly meetings will address more forward-looking items and review any budget updates.

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For new clients, we will start by learning about your business and addressing the service level that meets your needs.  You can start by sharing the basic details of your business and scheduling a call on our contact page.