Services

The full analytics catalogue

The catalogue is written as twelve services because that is how buyers compare scope. Inside an engagement they share a chart of accounts, a close calendar and a single set of definitions for revenue, contribution and cash. You can commission one service. Most clients start with reporting and cash, then add profitability or a dashboard once the monthly numbers have settled.

Each service below states what you receive and the cadence we typically run. Fees sit on the engagements page because price follows entities, systems and data quality more than it follows a service name. If you are unsure where to begin, the diagnostic is the honest first step: we will tell you which of these twelve will move a decision in the next quarter, and which can wait.

Reporting and close

Packs that arrive while the month can still be managed

Management reporting packs

A management pack is useful when it arrives early enough to change something, and when the same pages mean the same thing every month. We design a pack around the decisions your board, owners and operators actually take: a flash profit and loss, cash and working capital, a short variance commentary, and two or three operating measures that the business already understands. We keep the structure stable so a reader can find last month’s question in the same place. Charts are used where a trend is the point; tables are used where a figure will be challenged. The first version is deliberately thinner than a wish-list pack, because a late encyclopaedia helps nobody.

What you receive

A written pack contents list and a close calendar with named owners
A template that can be filled from the ledger extract without a paste-up
A commentary page with a method for variance, not a blank box
One live month run with your team before we call the pack finished

Typical cadence: monthly, with a flash in the first week and the full pack by day ten.

Monthly close support and reconciliation review

A pack that lands on day 8 is only useful if the figures have been reconciled. We work with your bookkeeper or accountant on the close calendar: materiality thresholds, a list of accounts that must be tied out, and a short review of the reconciliations that usually hide the late surprises. We do not take over bookkeeping. We sit on the analytics side of the close and press for the items that stop the pack from being signed. Where a journal is required every month for the same reason, we write the method down so it does not depend on one person’s memory.

What you receive

A close checklist with dates, owners and a materiality line
A reconciliation review note for the accounts that feed the pack
A list of recurring journals and the evidence each one needs

Typical cadence: monthly through the first two or three closes, then as needed when the calendar slips.

Board and investor reporting packs

Board and investor packs fail when they are a restatement of the ledger with a new cover. We build a shorter document that uses the same definitions as the management pack, then adds the views a board or a lender actually asks for: liquidity, covenant-style headroom where you already track it, a look-back on the last forecast, and a one-page explanation of what moved. We do not write investment advice and we do not present a raise. We prepare the numbers layer so your directors can have the conversation with figures that match the monthly file.

What you receive

A board pack template aligned to the monthly management pack
A movement commentary with a method, so “sales were down” is never the whole sentence
A version history so last quarter’s pack can be compared without archaeology

Typical cadence: monthly or quarterly, timed to the existing board calendar.

Forecasting and planning

Plans that can be compared with the bank

13-week cash-flow forecasting

A 13-week cash forecast is a weekly working document, not a slide. We rebuild it from the bank balance, the receivables ageing, scheduled payments and a collection curve that reflects how your customers actually pay. Invoice dates are a starting point, not the receipt date. Supplier terms are taken from how you pay, which is often earlier than the contract says when a relationship matters. Each week the previous forecast is compared with what cleared, and the differences are written down. That is the only way the file survives contact with a busy Friday.

What you receive

A 13-week cash model with a receipts method you can explain
A weekly actual-versus-forecast page for the prior week
A short call agenda so the review does not become a general catch-up
Refresh instructions for the extracts that feed the file

Typical cadence: weekly rebuild and a thirty-minute cash call.

Annual budget build and quarterly reforecast

Budgets die when they live in a structure that cannot accept a monthly actual. We build the annual budget in the same shape as the management pack, so variance is a comparison rather than a translation exercise. Drivers for volume, price, labour and the larger overhead lines sit in one place. At the quarter we reforecast the remaining months without opening a new workbook. The reforecast is the working plan; the original budget remains as the board’s reference. That separation stops a mid-year argument about whether the target has “moved”.

What you receive

A budget file that maps to the pack and the chart of accounts
A driver sheet and a written list of the assumptions the board has seen
A quarterly reforecast process with a calendar and a change log

Typical cadence: annual build, quarterly reforecast, monthly variance in the pack.

Three-statement and scenario modelling

When a company is considering a new outlet, a pricing change, a refinance or a slower quarter, it needs a model that still balances after a driver is moved. We build three-statement models with an explicit cash flow, so a profit improvement that is only timing does not look like cash. Scenarios are named and held as cases, not as a trail of copied tabs. We document the drivers, the circularities we have accepted, and the things the model is not trying to do. The file is yours on payment, with enough notes for an incoming FD to take it on.

What you receive

An integrated three-statement model and at least two named scenarios
A driver dictionary and a list of limitations
A handover walkthrough with your finance lead

Typical cadence: a scoped project of three to six weeks, then updates when a decision returns.

Commercial analytics

Margin, price and the cash tied up in the cycle

Profitability by product, customer, outlet and channel

Most arguments about margin are arguments about allocation that nobody wrote down. We build contribution first: the revenue and the costs that move with the product, customer, outlet or channel. We then apply a documented set of allocations for rent, shared labour, delivery and central cost, so a fully loaded view can be shown without pretending it is a fact of nature. You will be able to see which answer changes when a rule changes. That is the point. Operators get the contribution view they can act on; the board gets both views and the method.

What you receive

A contribution file by the cuts you name in the diagnostic
A written allocation policy with the drivers and the exceptions
A fully loaded view that can be turned off without breaking the file

Typical cadence: monthly refresh aligned to the pack, with a deeper review each quarter.

Pricing and discount analytics

List prices are easy to show. Realised prices are harder, and they are the ones that reach the bank. We join invoices, credit notes and agreed discounts to the margin file so you can see leakage by customer, by sales person where that data exists, and by product family. We do not set your prices and we do not advise on competition law. We show the arithmetic of the last two or three quarters so a pricing conversation starts from what was actually charged. Where a discount is standing practice, we show the annualised effect on contribution.

What you receive

A realised-price and discount view for the agreed period
A short list of the relationships that move the total
A method note so the next quarter is comparable

Typical cadence: quarterly deep cut, with a lighter monthly exception list.

Working-capital, inventory and receivables analytics

Cash forecasts fail when working capital is treated as a residual. We build ageing, days and concentration views for receivables, payables and inventory, using the same extracts as the 13-week file. Inventory is cut by category and by age where the stock system allows it. Receivables are cut by customer group and by the promised terms versus the observed collection. The aim is a weekly or monthly conversation that names the invoices and the stock lines, rather than a single debtor-days figure that hides a deteriorating tail. Those named items then feed the cash call, so the forecast and the working-capital file stay on the same facts.

What you receive

Ageing and days views that reconcile to the ledger control accounts
Concentration lists for the balances that actually matter
A link from the working-capital file into the cash forecast

Typical cadence: weekly for receivables that feed cash; monthly for inventory and the full cycle.

Data, systems and capability

A layer your team can keep running

BI dashboards and data pipelines

Dashboards earn their place when they show the same figure as the pack. We build Power BI or Looker Studio views on top of a documented extract or a simple warehouse layer, with refresh instructions that a finance analyst can follow. We resist a wall of charts. The first release is the five or six views that the weekly and monthly meetings already need. Access is through your tenant. We do not hold a copy of the warehouse after handover unless a retainer says we operate the refresh. If the chart of accounts is not ready, we will say so and point you at the clean-up work first.

What you receive

A small set of dashboards tied to pack definitions
A pipeline note: source, transform, refresh, and who owns each step
A walkthrough for the people who will open the file every week

Typical cadence: build over four to eight weeks, then a monthly refresh check on retainer.

Chart-of-accounts and finance-data clean-up

Reporting arguments are often chart-of-accounts arguments. Revenue in four places, a clearing account that is never cleared, inter-company lines that do not mirror, and a payroll posting that cannot be split by department. We map the current chart to the pack you want, propose a tighter structure, and work with your accountant on the migration so history remains comparable. We also clean the extracts that feed models and dashboards: dates, entity codes, currency, and the customer and product keys that profitability depends on. This is unglamorous work. It is also the work that makes everything else cheaper.

What you receive

A current-state map and a proposed chart, with a mapping file
A list of data defects that block the pack or the forecast
A clean-up sequence that can be done beside a live close

Typical cadence: a scoped project of three to eight weeks, timed away from year-end where we can.

Analytics training and handover for in-house finance teams

A file that only we can run is a liability. Training is part of every build: how the pack is assembled, how the cash file is refreshed, which checks must pass before a number is sent upstairs, and where the known limitations sit. For teams that want to take the layer in-house we add structured sessions on the model, the pipeline and the review rhythm. We write a handover file that an incoming manager can read in an afternoon. We remain available for a short warranty period to answer questions that only appear in the second live close.

What you receive

A handover file: data map, calendars, model notes and refresh steps
Live sessions with the people who will operate the layer
A written list of what we will still do if you keep a retainer

Typical cadence: during the last two weeks of a build, plus one review after the next close.

Limits

What we deliberately do not do

We do not audit, review or compile statutory accounts. We do not file tax or any statutory return. We do not provide licensed financial advisory services, and we do not recommend the purchase or sale of any instrument. We do not replace your bookkeeper or your accountant; we work beside them. We do not take over payroll, accounts payable or the day-to-day posting of invoices. If a request sits on the statutory or advisory side of the line, we will say so on the first call and point you to the profession that holds that licence.