Turning numbers into actionable insights.
How good finance talks
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Reporting
Cash is down $80k this month.
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Diagnosis
Cash is down $80k because receivables slipped and a vendor prepaid.
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Decision
If AR stays here, we miss payroll buffer in 6 weeks. Here is what I recommend.
Fractional FP&A, focused finance projects, and automation that keeps the pack and the forecast current without you rebuilding the spreadsheet every month. Built for owner-led businesses that need a finance lead, not another full-time hire.
For owner-led businesses, roughly $3M to $30M. Remote and asynchronous: one kickoff call and one handoff call. Nothing is sold by the hour.
You have a bookkeeper. You do not have a finance lead.
The books close, eventually. What you do not get is the read: what changed this month and why, whether cash is fine for the next quarter, which of the numbers on your dashboard is the one to act on. A full-time hire for that runs well past what the business can carry. So it sits with you, at night, in a spreadsheet you rebuild every month.
The pack arrives late, or not at all
Month-end reporting that depends on somebody's evening is reporting that slips. The forecast is whatever it was last time anyone had a weekend for it.
Every number is a question
A figure with no source and no calculation beside it is a figure you cannot defend to a bank, a buyer, or a board. It gets argued about instead of acted on.
It all lives in one person's head
When that person is you, the business cannot be sold, financed, or stepped away from without the numbers going with you.
Common starting points. Scoped to your question.
These are common starting points, not a closed menu. Most work is scoped to your question.
Fractional FP&A
Ongoing finance lead hours: pack and forecast, cash and variance analysis, scenario asks, hiring and pricing "should we" work, KPI maintenance, owner dashboard upkeep, a monthly graded checkup, and ad-hoc analyses inside the retainer. Board or owner review when you want someone in the room.
Custom finance work
Whatever the unique problem is: a one-off analysis, a messy reporting rebuild, a model, a dashboard, a board deck. Those are illustrations, not a closed list. Fixed fee when the outcome is clear.
AI that keeps it current
Recurring workflows that refresh the pack and roll the forecast without manual rebuilds. You keep the files. How it runs itself.
It keeps working after I leave the call.
Everything I build for you lives in a plain folder in your own tools: the rules, the KPI definitions, every decision and the reason for it, the monthly procedure. Your AI agent reads that folder before it does anything, so the pack refreshes and the forecast rolls without me in the loop. You own the files. If we stop working together, nothing stops working. How that works.
Kenneth Gill
Director-level FP&A for a private-equity-owned software company in PropTech and FinTech. Eight years, five promotions, Junior Analyst to Director of FP&A. Full P&L support for business units ranging roughly $15M to $250M, and for multiple units at once totaling about $400M. Built the team's automation stack.
- Director of FP&APE-owned software company; full P&L support across business units from roughly $15M to $250M, often several at once totaling about $400M
- Forecast accuracywithin 2% on subscription revenue, 3.5% on transactional
- Dealsthree acquisitions integrated, one divestiture supported, a $7M investment case built at 6x projected return
- Automation10+ agents automating monthly finance workflows, about 15 hours a month saved; a GM-facing dashboard replicated across business units; a company-wide churn tracker
- ControlsSOX and internal audit background
- EducationB.S. Finance, 2018
- SystemsOracle EPM, Workday Adaptive, Power BI, Salesforce, advanced Excel, think-cell. Built context systems and automated finance workflows in Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Cursor, and Grok Bot
I have not held a CFO title. I have owned full P&L support for a self-contained ~$15M unit (and larger units), but I have not yet been the outside fractional for an owner-led business. I would rather say that here than have you find it out later. More about how I work.
Start with a call
Thirty minutes, no preparation needed. Bring the question you cannot currently answer from your numbers.
Fractional FP&A. Custom projects. Automation that sticks.
These are common starting points, not a closed menu. Most work is scoped to your question. Lead with finance. Automation is what makes it different. Nothing is sold by the hour on this site, because an hour is not what you are buying. Most work ends in a folder you keep.
Where this usually starts
Illustrations, not a closed catalog. If your question is not on this list, bring it on the call.
- Fractional FP&A / retainerMonthly pack, cash, forecast, variance, owner or board review, plus the ad-hoc asks that show up mid-month
- Financial reportingP&L, balance sheet, cash, variance reads that refresh
- Forecasting and budgetingAnnual plan, rolling forecast, scenario packs
- Interactive dashboardsThe five to eight figures leadership actually decides on; owner dashboard upkeep
- Exec and board presentationsOne-page reads and decks that survive a hard room
- Headcount and pricing asksHiring plans and "should we" pricing work tied to margin, not gut feel
- Investment cases and ROI models"Should we do this" analyses with a clear recommendation
- Dynamic modelsDriver-based models that update when inputs change
- KPI tracking and reportingDefinitions written down, calculations shown, no orphan numbers
- AI-leveraged automationsRecurring month-end and forecast workflows that run without you
Custom analyses for the unique problem
Projects are for the question that does not fit a retainer yet: a one-off analysis, a reporting rebuild, a model, a dashboard, a board pack. The list below is what a common "owner's numbers, automated" build looks like. It is an illustration, not a limit. If your unique problem is different, we scope that.
What a typical build can include
- Your books connected, so the pack reads from the source rather than from a copy
- A monthly pack: P&L, balance sheet, cash, and the variance read, refreshed without manual work
- A 13-week cash forecast that rolls forward each week
- The five to eight KPIs you run on, defined once, with the calculation shown beside every figure
- A one-page read each month: what changed, why, and what to do about it
- Custom analyses for the decision in front of you (hire, price, equipment, second location, buy vs build)
- All of it installed as a folder in your own tools, which you keep
How long
20 to 40 hours over 3 to 5 weeks, asynchronous. One kickoff call and one handoff call. You will not be asked to sit in meetings between them.
One rule throughout: no orphan numbers. Every figure traces to an input you gave or a calculation shown next to it. Anything that cannot be computed ships as a named open item, not a plausible guess.
Your monthly finance lead
Hours are for ongoing finance work, not a fixed two-SKU menu. Scope flexes with what the month needs.
What it can cover
- The pack, the forecast, and cash, run every month
- Ongoing variance analysis: what moved, why, and whether it matters
- Scenario asks as they come up (cash runway, hiring pace, pricing, a second location)
- Hiring and pricing "should we" analyses inside the retainer hours
- KPI maintenance and owner dashboard upkeep so definitions stay honest
- A monthly graded checkup of the finance workspace: what drifted, and the one fix first
- Ad-hoc analyses inside the retainer hours when a new question shows up mid-month
- The owner or board review, with me in the room when you want it
- Once the retainer exists: your policies, procedures, and new-hire material, kept in the same folder
The retainer assumes a solid base exists, built by me or by someone else to the same standard. If your numbers are already automated and defensible, we start here. If not, a project first is usually cleaner.
Fair questions
Why fixed fee and not hourly?
Because you are buying a result, and a result priced by the hour rewards the slowest way of reaching it. The fee is set on the call once I have seen how the data looks. It does not move afterwards unless the scope does, and then we talk first.
Which systems?
Whatever your bookkeeper already uses. The pack reads from your books and from the systems you already run payroll, billing, and customers on. Connecting them is part of the project, and the pack is built in your tools, not in mine.
Do I need to be technical?
No. You need to be able to open a folder and read a one-page report. The automation runs inside an AI agent you already have or can get on an ordinary paid plan. Setting it up is part of the project.
What if it is not working out?
The folder is yours either way, and it keeps running without me. If the engagement is not a fit, we stop. You keep what was built.
One call to scope it. One call to hand it over.
Everything in between is asynchronous and on my schedule, which is why it can be priced the way it is. You will get files, not meeting invitations.
- A 30 minute callWhat you run the business on today, where the numbers come from, what you cannot currently answer. I say on the call whether this is a fit, and if it is not, who to ask instead.
- A written scope and a fixed feeWhat gets built, what it reads from, the KPIs we agreed, the fee, the dates. You sign it or you do not.
- Access, then silenceRead access to the books and the systems the pack needs. Then three to five weeks in which you will hear from me only when a question cannot wait. Every question comes with what I already found, so you answer rather than research.
- The handoff callThe pack, the forecast, the KPIs, and the one-page read, live, refreshing from your own systems. I show you how it runs, where the files are, and what the monthly procedure is. You leave with a folder you own.
- Optionally, the retainerIf you want the numbers run and read every month, and someone in the room for the owner or board review, that can start after handoff. If not, the project stands on its own.
What I will not do
Bookkeeping, tax, and audit. Those belong with your CPA and I will work alongside them. Fundraising decks and investor introductions.
The part that makes this different: it keeps working after I leave the call.
Most fractional finance work leaves a spreadsheet and a dependency. This leaves a system.
Everything I build for you lives in a plain folder in your own tools. Not a portal, not my software: a folder of plain text files and the connections to your books. In it are the rules the work runs under, the definition of every KPI, every decision we took and the reason for it, and the monthly procedure written down step by step.
Your AI agent reads that folder before it does anything. That is what makes the pack refresh and the forecast roll without me in the loop: the agent is following written procedure, not remembering a conversation. Each month it opens with a graded checkup of the workspace, so you find out that something drifted from the workspace itself rather than from a wrong number three weeks later.
What that buys you
- The numbers arrive on a schedule, not on somebody's evening
- Every figure traces to an input or a shown calculation, so it can be defended to a bank, a buyer, or a board
- The reasoning is filed, so a decision from March is still explainable in September
- The business is not carrying its finance function in one person's head, including mine
Who you would be working with
I have eight years of FP&A behind me at a private-equity-owned software company in PropTech and FinTech, five promotions in eight years, from Junior Analyst to Director of FP&A. The work meant full P&L support for business units ranging roughly $15M to $250M (subscription and transactional, each with its own general manager), and supporting multiple units at once that together totaled about $400M, with a team of two.
What that work covered: the forecast and annual budget, monthly reporting to the CEO, COO, and CFO, board contributions, the unit economics behind pricing and go-to-market, and the "should we do this" analyses. Forecast accuracy within 2% on subscription revenue and 3.5% on transactional. Three acquisitions integrated, one divestiture supported, and a $7M investment case built at a 6x projected return.
I also built the finance team's automation stack: more than ten agents automating monthly workflows, about fifteen hours a month saved, a GM-facing dashboard replicated across business units, and a company-wide churn tracker. That is the part I bring to owner-led businesses. A finance function that only works when someone is in the room is not one I would sell.
Said plainly
I have not held a CFO or fractional CFO title. I have run full P&L support as the primary finance contact for a self-contained ~$15M business unit, and for larger units up to roughly $250M, but I have not yet been the outside fractional finance lead for an owner-led $3M to $30M business. I would rather say that here than have you find it out later. The scope in the proposal shows exactly what you would be getting.
Systems
Oracle EPM, Workday Adaptive, Power BI, Salesforce, advanced Excel, think-cell. SOX and internal audit background. Built context systems and automated finance workflows in Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Cursor, and Grok Bot.
Two ways in. Pick whichever is easier.
Some people want a short intro call. Others just want to send the project and see if I am a fit. Both are fine.
Intro call
About 30 minutes. Video or phone. Bring the question you cannot answer from your numbers. I will say if this is a fit, and if not, who to ask instead.
Email a project note
Prefer not to book a meeting? Send what you run, where the numbers live, the question you cannot answer, and what good looks like.
What happens after
- The callWhat you run on, where the numbers come from, what you cannot answer.
- A written scope and feeFixed. You sign it or you do not.
- The workThree to five weeks, asynchronous, one handoff call at the end.