Every engagement runs the same three movements. Whether it's a two-week diagnostic or a nine-month rebuild, the structure is deliberate — because the structure is what makes the work stick after we leave.
Book Diagnostic Meeting →Consultants love frameworks. Practitioners love results. This method exists because it produces the second by disciplining the first.
Read the current state — numbers, systems, team, tax posture. Define where the business is headed and what stands between here and there. Deliverable: a clear-eyed picture and a prioritized plan.
Execute. CFO-seat leadership, system and process build, automation and AI, tax remediation — hands on the wheel. The heaviest phase. Where the real work happens and the fingerprints get left.
Embed the new operating rhythm — close, forecast, board pack, controls — and hand the wheel back to your team. Success is when the cadence holds without us.
The Chart phase looks slow because it doesn't ship code. But every subsequent hour of Steer and Hold is paid back — or wasted — based on how well the diagnostic was done.
Interviews across the finance team and business partners. Data pulls from the ERP, FP&A tool, and reporting. Process walk-throughs on close, forecast, cash, tax. Deliverable: a target-state design, prioritized roadmap, and business case leadership can commit to.
Execute the roadmap. CFO leadership where needed. System implementations. Process redesigns. Automation and AI. Tax remediation. Every workstream sequenced. Every deliverable owned. The visible phase — but only as effective as the Chart phase that came before.
Stabilize the new operating model. Coach the team into the new rhythm. Fix what didn't hold. Hand off with confidence — or continue as fractional support if that's the right shape. This is where good work becomes permanent work.
Yes — even a two-week project has a Chart, a Steer, and a Hold, just compressed. Chart is understanding the problem, Steer is doing the work, Hold is making sure it sticks. Skipping any of the three is where consulting engagements go wrong.
That's a legitimate ask, and often the right first step. A standalone Chart engagement runs 2–4 weeks with a fixed fee. You leave with a target-state design and roadmap that's yours to execute — with or without us.
Typically 1–2 days a month of active coaching, a monthly review of the new cadence, and immediate response when something breaks. The goal is inversion: at the start of Hold, we're driving. By the end, we're on-call.
Many clients transition Hold into ongoing fractional CFO support. That's a decision made in the last month of Hold, not planned at the start. Our incentive is that Hold ends well, whether it becomes ongoing work or not.
A 30-minute call to pressure-test where you are and where the gaps are — no deck, no obligation.