The practice

Seven pieces of work, done by hand.

Each engagement is built on your chart of accounts and the way you actually sell. Nothing below is poured into a shared template and sent out under a new cover.

Monthly

Monthly management reporting pack

The pack is the spine of the practice. We close with your bookkeeper, rebuild profit and loss, cash and a short balance-sheet watch list, and write a one-page cover memo that says what changed and what we would do. The rest of the pages show the arithmetic, so you can disagree with us using the same figures.

Most retainers live here. The call on day eight is part of the pack, not an extra. If a month is quiet, the memo is shorter. If something broke, the memo names it on page one.

Cadence: Monthly, same dates each cycle
Typical first month: Chart review, two-year rebuild, first full pack
Who it's for: Owner-run companies that already close the books

Cash

13-week rolling cash forecast

We start from the bank and the open receivables and payables, then layer known payroll, rent, tax instalments and supplier terms. The model rolls forward every week. A gap that will arrive in week nine is still useful. A gap that arrives on Friday is usually only a conversation about who to call.

We keep receipts and payments on separate lines so you can see which lever actually moves the close. The same workbook can feed a lender conversation later without being rebuilt from scratch.

Cadence: Built once, then rolled weekly or with the pack
Typical first month: History, terms, and the first thirteen weeks
Who it's for: Companies with lumpy receipts or a tight facility

Margin

Margin and unit-economics analysis

We take revenue lines and the costs that move with them, then write down how shared costs were allocated. If hygienist hours, shop time or delivery routes sit in overhead, we put them back on the work that used them. The result is a margin you can take into a pricing conversation.

Unit economics follows the same method. We pick the unit you actually sell (a chair-hour, a case, a job) and stay with it. Mixed units make a tidy chart and a poor decision.

Cadence: A concentrated build, then a light monthly refresh
Typical first month: Price list, job cost sample, allocation rules
Who it's for: Multi-site, multi-line, or quoting-heavy businesses

Budget

Annual budget build and monthly variance review

Budget season for most of our clients runs from October to December. We build from the last two closed years, the current run-rate, and the two or three decisions you have already taken (a hire, a lease, a price change). The budget is a set of named assumptions, not a single stretch target.

From January we compare actuals to those assumptions each month and write why the variance happened. A variance without a cause is only a colour on a page.

Cadence: Build in autumn, review with the monthly pack
Typical first month: Assumption workshop and first draft
Who it's for: Companies that want the year named before it starts

Outside readers

Lender and board reporting package

Banks and boards ask for a trailing-twelve view, a covenant schedule, and a short explanation of anything that moved. We build those pages from the same close as the monthly pack, so the figures match. The appendix tries to answer the questions a credit adjudicator will ask before the meeting, which shortens the meeting.

We do not speak for you at the bank. We prepare the pack you walk in with, and we join a call if you want us there to talk through a schedule.

Cadence: Quarterly, or when a facility is in play
Typical first month: Covenant map and first trailing-twelve
Who it's for: Borrowers, and companies with an outside board

Foundation

Chart-of-accounts rebuild and bookkeeping review

If departments, locations or product lines are mixed in the ledger, later reports will keep lying politely. We sit with your bookkeeper, rewrite the chart so the cuts you need are native, and write a short guide for how new accounts get opened. The rebuild is slow on purpose. A rushed chart is expensive for years.

We review postings. We do not take over data entry. Your bookkeeper remains the person who keys the work.

Cadence: A defined project, usually four to eight weeks
Typical first month: Current chart, sample months, proposed map
Who it's for: Companies whose reports fight the ledger

Starting point

First read (one-off diagnostic)

The first read is how most engagements begin. In 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. You leave with a written view of cash, margin and the two or three decisions that would change the next two quarters.

The fee is flat. If you continue on a retainer, the first-read files become the opening working papers. If you stop, the files are still yours.

Cadence: One-off, two weeks
Typical first month: The whole engagement is the first month
Who it's for: Owners who want a clear read before a retainer

Fees

What engagements cost

First read: Flat CAD 1,800, two weeks
Monthly analysis retainer: CAD 950–2,400 per month, depending on entity count and transaction volume
Forecast build: From CAD 2,600
Chart-of-accounts rebuild: From CAD 3,200
Budget season (Oct–Dec): Quoted against the current year and the number of departments

Fixed fees are agreed in writing before work starts. We invoice monthly. Either side may end the engagement on thirty days' written notice. There is no lock-in year and no cancellation fee beyond work already delivered.

What is included in every engagement

Same-day e-mail answers on business days
One scheduled call a month
Written commentary rather than dashboards alone
Your files handed over in open formats
A named point of contact at the practice

Software we work in

Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage 50, Google Sheets and Excel, and Dext or Hubdoc for documents. We adapt to the stack you already run. We do not resell software and we do not earn referral fees from vendors.

What we need from you

View-only ledger access, the last two fiscal years, a current price list or rate card, and bank and loan statements. If those are late, we can still start a first read on what you have, and we will say what is missing in the memo.

If this looks like the right kind of work

Write to us with the decision you are stuck on. We reply the same business day and book a thirty-minute call at no charge. If you would rather read more first, the questions page covers the usual ones.

Write to us Questions we get