A customized approach: How CFO Strategic Partners’ diagnostic tool can power your business

At CFO Strategic Partners, we go beyond the bottom line. Rather than focus on just the numbers, we look at the whole picture. It’s our mission to enrich the lives of people we work with so they can build businesses they can take pride in. Most importantly, we want owners to sleep at night knowing they’re doing the right things to help their businesses thrive.

When we first talk to new clients, they often wonder what, exactly, we’re going to do to help them. To ensure we’re making the best recommendations and employing the right financial strategies, our CFOs perform an initial analysis fully evaluating each business from the start. From the information we gather, we create our diagnostic.

While we customize this diagnostic to address each business’ objectives, values and challenges, every diagnostic touches on 5 critical areas we have found, in our 20 years of business, are the most meaningful for our clients. Our internal process ensures consistency in our approach but allows for customized and tailored solutions.  Because we have 20 years of history doing these, the value we can provide in a relatively small number of hours is outstanding. 

So what does that look like to our clients? Here are a few examples of businesses that have recently come to us requesting we perform a diagnostic:

When your company is seeing growth, but you can’t assess its value…

If your company has found a market niche and is growing quickly, but your financial reporting and forecasting is insufficient or possibly just not optimized, you may not truly know how well you’re performing. Even more importantly, this lack of visibility into your results may affect the perceived value of your business. Through our diagnostic, we can assess which accounting processes you should restructure and can develop a financial reporting process to present your business in the most favorable light. We can also assess the current value of your company and identify key drivers that will help improve this value. This can help maximize your company’s valuation as you plan an exit strategy.

When your company is experiencing significant industry changes…

If the industry you work in is in flux, you need to know how to respond quickly. This generally requires short-term planning to avoid business interruption and to ensure efficient use of cash; however, strategic planning is also critical for long-term business viability. Through our diagnostic process, we provide recommendations on cash flow planning, as well as assistance in modeling your business for long-term success. The visibility received through the diagnostic process can provide essential support during a time of change and uncertainty.

When your company is solid now, but you’re worried about the future…

Your business might be stable and profitable at the moment, but if you aren’t sure you’re planning properly, thinking about the future could keep you up at night. Through our diagnostic, we can help you identify gaps in your planning process. Should you implement monthly reporting reviews? Do you have an adequate forecasting process? Is there a strategic plan in place? What happens to the business when you decide to retire? Our diagnostic can start the process toward providing you confidence in where your business is headed.

When your accounting department is broken…

You may be doubting the abilities of an employee in your accounting department, or you may have experienced turnover in a critical position within the department. You may be struggling with why you are not able to get the financial reporting you, as the CEO, need to make decisions in a way that is timely and accurate.  These are typically signs the department is not functioning properly. We are adept at assessing skills and talents of all members of the accounting team and determining how to better align strengths and workload. Yes, we do encounter times where we recommend a restructure of a position or department, but oftentimes the accounting team simply lacks the processes, tools, or leadership they need to succeed. We prefer relying on processes and technology whenever possible so we are not reliant on any one person for performance of the department, and we always encourage cross-training and proper internal controls.  The goal of this diagnostic is to ensure the accounting department is an asset to the organization rather than a challenge. 

After the diagnostic process is complete, many of our clients discover invaluable information and almost always ask, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”

The diagnostic report is an extremely beneficial tool, and we don’t just look at it once. We use it as a roadmap to help prioritize goals and objectives and to provide long term support to our clients, if they have the need. 

If your company is struggling to see the whole picture, our team can help. Call us at 407-426-8288 or email shannon@cfosp.com to learn more.