View-only access
Ledger access is view-only by default. We do not post, void or reclassify in your file. If a change is needed we write it for your bookkeeper to make.
How the work runs
Slow at the start, steady after that.
The first two weeks are for reading. After that the dates stay still, the pack stays short, and the conversation gets easier because the same people keep showing up.
The first conversation
Thirty minutes, no charge. We ask what decision you are stuck on, how the books are kept, and who else is already in the room (bookkeeper, CPA firm, lender). You do not need a briefing pack. A sentence about the decision is enough.
If the work sits outside what we do, we say so on that call and, where we can, name a firm that would be a better fit. If it sits inside, we send a one-page first-read proposal the same week.
The first read
Two weeks. We review the ledger, rebuild two years of trends, cut margin once, and write a memo of six to nine pages. The walkthrough is sixty minutes on a shared screen. You can bring your accountant. Most people do.
The memo names what we are sure of and what is still loose. If a figure depends on an allocation we had to invent, the invention is written next to the figure. The fee is a flat CAD 1,800.
Rebuilding the foundation
If the chart of accounts mixes departments, or if locations share costs with no rule, later reports will keep saying something polite and untrue. We reset the chart, the departments and the allocation rules with your bookkeeper so that a monthly pack means something.
This step is sometimes a short note in the first-read memo. Sometimes it is its own project. We will not start a retainer on a ledger that cannot support the cuts you need without saying so first.
The monthly cycle
Days 1 to 4 we close and reconcile with your bookkeeper. Days 5 to 7 we rebuild the pack and write the commentary. Day 8 is a forty-five minute call. The rest of the month you write, and we answer the same business day.
The dates do not float because a month was busy. If something large lands mid-cycle we add a short note. The pack still arrives on day eight.
The quarterly deep read
Once a quarter we step back from the month and look at pricing, capacity, capital spend and lender covenants. The deep read is still written. It is longer than the cover memo and shorter than a strategy binder.
If a facility is in play, this is when the trailing-twelve and the covenant schedule get a full refresh. If hiring is the question, we put cost, utilisation and cash next to each other so the hire is a number, not a feeling.
Commentary
How we write commentary
Memos are in plain language. We show the arithmetic on the page beside the sentence, so you can follow the sum without opening the workbook. If a movement is small we say so and move on. If it is large we stay with it until the cause is named.
Uncertainty is written as a range. A single figure with no range around it is easy to present and hard to use. We would rather say a cash gap sits between six and eleven days than pick the middle and hope.
Every figure we put on a page carries the range around it, so you can see how tight or loose the estimate is.
Handling your data
When work ends
Access is reviewed the week an engagement ends. Working papers are retained for seven years, then deleted. Your files are handed over in open formats before we close the folder.
Where it lives
Files are kept in Canadian-hosted storage. Nothing is shared with a third party without written instruction. We do not use client data to train anything.
Where the practice stops
We do not perform audits or any other assurance engagement. We do not file tax returns. We do not key bookkeeping data into your ledger. We do not sign financial statements, and we do not allow our name to appear as if we had prepared statements for an outside reader.
Those lines keep the work honest. When a request crosses them we will name a suitable firm if we know one, and we will stay on our side of the work if you still want the analysis.
A first conversation is thirty minutes and costs nothing.
Tell us the decision you are sitting with. We will tell you, in the same week, whether a first read is the right next step.