Cash and profit clarity in 10 business days.
Most owners are making decisions from numbers they can’t fully trust, with no reliable forward view. The Sprint replaces the guessing with a clear read on where you are now, where you’re heading over the next 12 months, and which of your numbers are safe to act on. If after the delivery call you don’t have that, full refund. No questions.
What you will know that you do not know today.
By the end of the sprint, you will know whether the next 13 weeks of cash are safe, tight, or exposed; where profit is actually being made or lost; which numbers can be trusted; and which owner decisions should proceed, pause, or be reworked.
What you receive.
Executive read
KPI dashboard, reviewed commentary, decisions pack, risk register. The owner’s monthly briefing.
Profit
Monthly P&L with budget variance, profit and margin visibility by client, project, or service line, and an operational KPI scorecard.
Cash
A 13-week cash forecast with inflows, outflows, and known cash events laid out week by week. See the squeeze before it hits.
Forecast
Integrated three-way 12-month forecast (P&L, cash flow, balance sheet) with Base, Upside, and Downside scenarios.
Working model
Built in Excel or Google Sheets. Drivers and assumptions visible. Yours to keep. No SaaS lock-in.
Delivery call
A walk-through so you understand the model, not just receive it.
When this is the right call.
Built for owner-operated businesses with real operating complexity. Revenue band $2M–$15M. Service, project, people-heavy, or B2B operating businesses where cash and profit depend on clients, jobs, teams, suppliers, or delivery capacity.
- /You only need bookkeeping cleanup
- /You need tax, audit, or legal advice
- /You have no usable accounting or operating data
- /You already have a 13-week cash forecast and margin view you trust
How the sprint runs.
Five stages, ten business days, fixed scope, fixed price.
Fit call
30 minutes. Confirm fit, scope, and fixed fee. If it is not a fit, we say so.
Data intake
You provide the agreed exports. Within 48 hours we confirm whether the data is workable. If not, we agree a smaller scope or refund in full.
Build
Cash, profit, and margin model from your data.
Findings
Risks, assumptions, and decision review.
Delivery
Owner pack, model handed over, delivery call.
What you provide.
A short list, not a data project. We work from what you already have.
Numbers that reconcile and can drive real decisions.
Useful for direction, not safe for large decisions.
Gaps that need filling before certain questions can be answered.
Looks real, but cannot support hiring, pricing, cash, or growth decisions.
- Read-only or export-based access. We do not need write access to your accounting system.
- AI-assisted analysis is reviewed by a finance professional before delivery. Confidentiality terms are in the engagement note.
- NDA available on request. Final outputs are delivered only to the agreed contacts.
What this is, and what it is not.
Fixed fee. No retainer.
- Open-ended scope
- No refund
- No deliverable you own
- 10 business days
- Refundable · 7-day window
- Working model yours to keep
Built and reviewed by Liam Collier.
Liam started in Business Advisory at BDO New Zealand, working with owner-operated and mid-market businesses up to roughly NZ$100M in revenue. The work focused on advisory, forecasting, reporting, and helping owners understand the numbers behind decisions.
He then moved into industry as a finance business partner inside an Australian mid-tier law firm, working across cash visibility, management reporting, profitability analysis, and owner decision support. Since then he has worked directly with his own clients, giving him advisory-side, operator-side, and founder-side exposure to the same gap the Control Sprint is built to close.
Honest answers.
Q01 Could we just use AI to build this ourselves?
You can ask AI to build a model. The risk is whether the model is built from the right data, whether the assumptions are safe, whether the outputs reconcile, and whether the conclusions are reliable enough to support real decisions. AI produces analysis. It does not take accountability for what the numbers mean.
Q02 Is this replacing our accountant?
No. Your accountant handles compliance, tax, and historical reporting. The Control Sprint is operating control: cash, profit, margin, risk, and decision clarity.
Q03 Who actually does the work?
The sprint is founder-led. Liam reviews the work before delivery and leads the delivery call. Analyst support may be used for data preparation and modelling, but findings, interpretation, and recommendations are not outsourced.
Q04 Why not just build this internally?
If someone internally has the time, skill, and objectivity to turn scattered data into a usable control model quickly, you may not need this. If the model would sit half-built for months, the sprint exists to get it done.
Q05 Do we need clean accounting data?
No. Clean data helps, but it is not required. If the data is messy, we will show what can be trusted, what cannot be trusted, and what needs to be fixed before certain decisions are made.
Q06 How much time will this take from us?
Usually 2 to 5 hours across the entire sprint: fit call, data handover, clarification questions, and the delivery call. The build work happens on our side.
Q07 Can this really be done in 10 business days?
Yes, because the scope is deliberately narrow. We are not rebuilding your finance function. We are using the data you already have to build the most decision-useful control pack possible inside a fixed sprint. The 10-business-day window starts once the agreed data has been received.
Q08 What happens on the fit call?
We confirm your business model, current finance setup, data availability, and the main decision or control problem you want solved. If it makes sense, we quote a fixed fee. If it does not, we will say so.
Q09 How is this different from a fractional CFO?
A fractional CFO is an ongoing relationship, typically $5,000–$10,000 per month with open-ended scope. The Control Sprint is a one-time fixed-fee deliverable: $5,000, 10 business days, refundable, model owned by you. If you want ongoing finance support after the sprint, that is a separate conversation. If you want a defined piece of work with a clear exit, the sprint is the right shape.
Stop making expensive decisions from unclear numbers.
In 10 business days you will know what cash looks like over the next quarter and the next year, where profit is leaking, which numbers can be trusted, and which decisions need attention.