Frequently Asked Questions

FP&A stands for Financial Planning and Analysis — using your numbers to decide where your business goes next. Your accounting looks backward at what already happened; FP&A looks forward: what to charge, who to sell to, how much to spend, and when you can actually afford to grow. That forward view is the whole job I do for you.

I help you understand your numbers and use them to make decisions — without hiring a full-time finance person. That means building financial models, checking whether you're really making money, planning cash, setting prices, and getting your finances ready for investors or a sale. "Fractional" just means part-time, so you get senior-level help at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

A fractional CFO is a part-time finance chief who owns your whole financial picture — accounting, compliance, fundraising, board reporting, team leadership. My focus is the planning and analysis underneath all that: the models, forecasts, pricing, and unit economics that actually drive the decisions. For most growing businesses, that hands-on analysis is exactly what they need, without the full CFO price tag. I do take on fractional-CFO clients too, but selectively — we'd start with a blueprint engagement first, so we both know it's the right fit before going further.

Your accountant keeps you compliant and files your taxes — that's about the past. I help you plan what's next: what to charge, whether you can afford to hire, how to fix cash flow, and how to grow without running out of money. Think of it this way: your accountant closes the books; I open the path forward. The best results come when we work alongside each other.

AI is great at building things fast — but it can't tell you when it's building the wrong thing. It'll confidently hand you a model that looks polished and points in completely the wrong direction. The value was never typing numbers into cells; it's knowing which numbers are right for your business, and that judgment is what you're actually paying for.

That's completely normal — most people don't. That's exactly what a first conversation is for. I'll ask a few questions, look at where you are, and tell you plainly what would help most right now — even if that turns out not to be me.

It depends on what you need. Project-based work — like a financial model or an 18-month forecast — usually takes a few weeks. Ongoing support is month-to-month and scales with you: some clients want a monthly check-in, others want a weekly strategic partner during a high-growth stretch. I scope it clearly up front, so you always know what you're getting and what it costs.

It depends on the size of the project. Some work is a flat fee for a specific deliverable; ongoing support is a monthly rate. I scope and price everything up front, so there are no surprises — and the first conversation is on me, so you can figure out whether it's even worth it before spending a dollar.

Yes. I work with whatever you already use — QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Excel, even manual records. You don't need to switch systems or buy new tools to work with me; I'm here to turn the data you already have into decisions.

Plain language, always. If I use a finance term, I'll define it on the spot — because my whole job is making your numbers make sense to you. My rule: if you can't explain it simply, it isn't done.

Profit and cash are not the same thing — that's almost always what's going on. You can be profitable on paper and still be short on cash, usually because money goes out before it comes in: customers pay late, you buy inventory up front, or a tax or loan payment lands at the wrong time. Once you can see that timing clearly, it stops being a mystery — and that's usually the first thing I help you map.

Profit is what's left after costs, on paper, over a period of time. Cash flow is the actual money moving in and out of your bank account — and when. You can be profitable and still run out of cash if the timing is off, which is why cash is the number that keeps the lights on. Watching both, not just profit, is what keeps you out of trouble.

That's your unit economics — the profit on one sale after every cost that touches it, including the ones that never show up on an invoice. A lot of owners are surprised to learn some of their products or channels quietly lose money. Once you know your real number per item, you can price and focus with confidence instead of guessing.

Good pricing balances three things: your costs, so you don't lose money; the market, so you stay in range; and the value you deliver, which is where the real pricing power lives. Most people price on gut feel. The ones who get it right price on the math — and that math is one of the fastest ways I can move your bottom line.

When your spreadsheet is held together with tape and you don't fully trust it anymore, it's time for a proper financial model — one that's structured, easy to update, and built to answer real questions. You don't need expensive software, just the right setup for your stage. That's exactly the kind of thing I build to be used, not admired.

You model it first. Before you commit, we run the numbers to see what the decision does to your cash and your profit — so a big move becomes a clear "yes, here's how" or "not yet, here's why," instead of a gut gamble. That's the difference between growing on purpose and hoping it works out.

At a minimum: your revenue, your real costs, your profit, and your cash position — how much you actually have and how long it lasts. Beyond that, the profit on each product or channel. A short monthly check keeps small problems from quietly turning into big ones, and it's something I can set up so it takes you minutes, not days.

Pre-revenue doesn't mean no numbers — it means no history yet. You still have assumptions: your pricing, your costs, how you'll grow, how much you'll spend. Good financial planning turns those assumptions into a model investors can actually believe, and one you can update the second real data shows up. That's the stage where getting it right matters most.

Usually it's the opposite. Your earliest decisions — what to charge, which customers to chase, how much to raise — are the ones that shape everything that comes after. Waiting until you "have numbers" often means the biggest choices were already made, sometimes the wrong way. Early is cheap; fixing it later is expensive.

You can build one fast — but AI can't tell you it's the wrong model. It'll confidently point you down whatever path you asked for, even if that path isn't fundable. The hard part was never filling in the cells; it's knowing which assumptions hold up under an investor's questions. That judgment is what you're really paying for.

At the early stage, it needs to show your assumptions clearly: your pricing, your costs, how you'll get customers, your burn (what you spend each month), your runway (how long your cash lasts), and the milestones your raise will hit. It doesn't need to be complicated — it needs to be believable and easy to update. That's what I build toward, not a 40-tab monster nobody opens.

Proof the market will pay, unit economics that make sense, a realistic raise amount, and a clear plan for the money. They're not just checking whether your model is built right — they're deciding whether you're building the right business. Numbers that fall apart under a few questions end the conversation fast, which is exactly what we prepare for.

Runway is how many months of cash you have left: cash in the bank divided by how much you spend each month (your burn). Most investors now want to see 18 to 24-plus months after a raise, because the next round takes longer to land than founders expect. Less than that weakens your position — so we build the model to show you're asking for enough to reach something real.

You raise enough to hit your next real milestone plus a buffer — based on your burn and your plan, not a number that just sounds good. Too little and you stall out; too much and you give away more of your company than you need to. The model is what tells you the right range instead of guessing.

A fundable model is built on assumptions you can defend, ties to real market proof, and holds up when an investor pushes on it. One that falls apart has numbers with no logic, hockey-stick growth with no reason, or costs that quietly ignore reality. Investors are running that math while you're still talking — my job is to make sure it holds.

The deck shows the headline; the model has to back it up. When an investor asks "how did you get this number?" or "what happens if costs double?", the deck can't answer — but the model can. A strong deck with a weak model behind it gets exposed in the room, and that's a hard moment to recover from.

Due diligence is when investors dig into your numbers before they wire the money. Getting ready means clean, consistent financials, a model that matches your deck, and clear answers to the questions they'll ask. The goal is no surprises — and it's far easier to prepare this before you're in the process than to patch it mid-diligence.