Financial assessment for business owners
Find out what your numbers are actually telling you.
Three weeks. What's driving your numbers, what it's costing you, and what to fix first.
The problem
You're making real decisions on numbers you don't fully trust.
The statements arrive late. The profit on the P&L doesn't match what's in the account. You have a rough sense of which jobs or customers are worth having, but nothing that would survive being questioned. So the big calls, hiring, equipment, taking on the larger contract, get made on instinct and hope.
That works until it doesn't. Usually it stops working right when the business is growing fastest, because growth consumes cash before it produces any, and unreliable reporting hides that until the account is tight.
Why it matters
Bad information is expensive in ways that don't show up on a statement.
Unprofitable work looks fine for months when overhead is allocated wrong. A cash gap gets financed with a credit line that was meant for growth. A lender asks for supportable earnings and the answer takes six weeks to assemble, by which point the terms have changed.
None of that shows up as a line item. It shows up as an owner who works harder every year and can't say why it isn't getting easier.
What the assessment covers
- Financial statement review, chart of accounts, and debt structure
- Cash flow patterns and working capital position
- Profitability by service line, customer, or revenue stream
- Reporting systems and the monthly close process
- Industry benchmarking against comparable healthy businesses
- Owner interview covering goals, constraints, and what you actually want out of the business
What you get
- A quantified opportunity summary showing the financial impact of each finding where it can be responsibly supported
- A Financial Visibility Scorecard rating the business across six dimensions
- Benchmark comparison against healthy businesses in your industry and revenue range
- A written findings document in plain language, with the basis for every number shown
- A 90-day priority roadmap, sequenced by what will move the needle first
- A live debrief where you can push back and ask hard questions
Who this is for
- Owner-operated businesses roughly between $1M and $10M in revenue
- Owners preparing for financing, a transaction, or a step change in growth
- Anyone who has been putting off getting the financial side sorted out
- If the books are too far behind to analyze, start with financial cleanup instead
Who it isn't for
- Pre-revenue businesses, where the answer is usually simpler than an assessment
- Anyone who wants the report to say a particular thing
How it runs
Three weeks, one clear answer.
Week 1
Discovery and analysis
Financials, debt structure, reporting systems, and an owner interview to understand the business and the goals behind it.
Week 2
Score and prepare
Complete the scorecard across six dimensions, quantify the opportunities where supportable, and build the 90-day priority list.
Week 3
Findings and debrief
Deliver the scorecard, walk through what it says, and have a direct conversation about what needs to happen next.
How it ends
Week three ends with a recommendation.
Sometimes that recommendation is that you do not need me. I spent a decade on the lending side telling owners things they did not want to hear, and I would rather say it in week three than stretch an engagement to justify a fee. Where ongoing work is warranted, the next phase gets built from your findings rather than from a template, because the point of the assessment is that no two businesses need the same thing.
Most owners have been sitting on “I need to get my finances sorted out” longer than they'd like to admit. This is where you start.
The deliverable
The Financial Visibility Scorecard.
Every assessment ends with the business rated across six dimensions, plus a quantified summary of what the gaps are worth. These are the six, and the question each one answers.
Where the books cannot answer one of these questions, that gap is itself a finding. Most businesses score well on some dimensions and have never looked at others at all.
Common questions
Before you book.
What does the assessment cost?
Three thousand dollars, fixed. That covers the full three weeks, the quantified findings, the scorecard, the benchmark comparison, and the debrief.
What happens if we move forward?
If the findings point to ongoing work worth doing, the assessment fee is credited toward that engagement, so you are not paying for the diagnosis twice. If we do not go further, you keep the scorecard, the findings, and the roadmap.
What if my books are too messy to analyze?
Then the assessment is the wrong first step and I will say so on the intro call. Financial cleanup comes first, because I cannot quantify anything against records that do not reconcile. That is a separate project with its own fixed fee.
What if you find nothing?
Then you hear that directly from me, and it is a real answer rather than a failed sale. It happens in well-run businesses. If your books are clean, your margins are visible, and your cash is forecast, you do not need me, and I would rather tell you that early than stretch the engagement to justify the fee.
How is this different from what my CPA does?
A tax CPA files returns and works from last year's numbers. This looks at how the business runs right now: whether reporting is reliable, where cash is stuck, which parts of the business actually make money, and how you compare to healthy businesses your size. It is forward-looking, not a compliance exercise. Tablerock does not prepare tax returns. Tablerock coordinates with your existing tax CPA, or introduces one when you need a referral. Tax preparation is contracted separately.
I already have a bookkeeper and an accountant.
Keep them. This is not a replacement for either one, and in most cases the people already doing the work are doing it fine. What is usually missing is someone accountable for what the numbers mean and what to do about them. If your current setup has no gap, the assessment will show that.
Is this the same as fractional CFO work?
Some firms describe this as fractional or outsourced CFO support. Tablerock combines strategic financial guidance with the accounting and controller support needed to produce reliable information in the first place. The assessment is the diagnostic that comes before any of that.
What do I need to have ready?
Financial statements for the last two to three years, your most recent year-to-date, access to your accounting system, and a debt schedule. If any of that is messy or missing, that is useful information rather than a problem.
What happens after?
You own the findings, the scorecard, and the roadmap regardless of what comes next. The assessment is also phase one of the 90-Day BUILD Program, so if ongoing work makes sense, the fee applies as a credit toward it. If it does not make sense, you still leave with a priced list of what is worth fixing.
Next step
Request a Financial Assessment.
Start with a short conversation. If it isn't a fit, I'll say so.