CPA, controller and fractional CFO for Dayton and west-central Ohio businesses

Most of the owners we talk to have outgrown the setup they started with. Usually there's a bookkeeper entering transactions and a tax preparer who sees the numbers once a year, and the owner is making the big calls in between without much to go on. Revenue has grown, maybe there's a second entity or a second location, the bank wants regular reports, and it's still hard to say which jobs made money last quarter or how much cash will be in the account 90 days from now. You're past bookkeeping but not ready for a full-time CFO, and you want someone senior who explains the numbers in plain English.

Shelby County, where we're based, had more manufacturing jobs per capita than any other Ohio county as of 2022, per the Ohio Manufacturers' Association. Honda's engine plant in Anna, also in Shelby County, is the company's largest auto engine plant in the world, and at the south end of the corridor Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton is the largest single-site employer in Ohio.

A lot of the businesses around big operations like those sell parts, labor, services or equipment into a handful of large customers. We think owners in that spot need to watch two numbers more closely than most. One is how much of the revenue rides on your top two or three customers. The other is the gap between paying for material and payroll and getting paid on the customer's terms, because a slow quarter at one plant or a change in payment terms can squeeze cash quickly. To check the first, add up last year's sales to your top 3 customers and divide by total sales. For the second, count the days from when you pay for material and payroll to when the customer's payment lands.

Skilled trades and construction. Clean books every month and a plain read on your cash position and profit margins, so you're ready when it's time to talk to the bank about equipment financing.

Industrial and specialty construction. Often several companies under one owner, with time-and-materials billing and a lot of money tied up in equipment. Our QuickBooks Desktop to Online page tells the story of a multi-entity fabrication business we moved off legacy desktop software, with the cutover finished in under two weeks.

Healthcare. Knowing the margin on each visit or patient, and modeling a second location before you commit to it. We also help get payroll set up so it ties cleanly into the books.

Nonprofits and foundations and associations and membership organizations. Reporting management can use to lead, and books that keep restricted money separate from money you're free to spend.

Wealth management and financial services. Reporting on your own firm that lands early enough to plan year-end moves.

It starts with a 30-minute discovery call. If it looks like a fit, the first step is us going through your books, your systems and your reports, and fixing what's broken. Then we close your books on time every month, meet with you on a regular schedule, and we're there when the big calls come up, like pricing, hiring, borrowing or buying another business. Along the way you get management reports you can actually run the business on.

We work month to month. There's no long-term contract and no fee to end it.

A fractional controller starts at $36K a year and a fractional CFO starts at $60K a year. Most of our engagements fall between $2,500 and $10,000 a month, and where you land depends mostly on how much you need from us and how complex the business is.

If you're in the Miami Valley and any of this sounds like your business, tell us a little about it and we'll set up a 30-minute call.