Numbers that look backward keep you compliant. Numbers that look forward help you grow.

Bookkeeping looks backward — it records what already happened. FP&A looks forward — it tells you what’s likely to happen next and helps you plan for it. Bookkeeping answers “where did the money go last month?” FP&A answers “do we have the cash to hire two new program managers in Q3, and what happens to our runway if we do?” Most organizations need both, and they work best when the same team handles them.

A full-time CFO does FP&A as part of a broader executive role that also includes treasury, investor relations, fundraising, board management, and team leadership. Our FP&A engagement gives you the financial planning and analysis work a CFO would produce — budgets, forecasts, scenario models, board reporting — without the $250K+ salary, benefits, and recruiting effort.

For most organizations, the initial annual budget takes four to six weeks from kickoff to a board-ready document. That timeline assumes your books are reasonably current and your leadership team is available for working sessions. A 13-week cash flow forecast is typically ready in two to three weeks. Rolling forecasts and KPI dashboards are added in the following 30–60 days as we get a clearer picture of your business rhythms.

Yes. We work in QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, Blackbaud Financial Edge, and several industry-specific systems. Our FP&A models pull actuals directly from your general ledger, so your forecasts are always tied to current data rather than stale exports. If your current system can’t support the level of reporting you need, we’ll tell you — and we can help you evaluate alternatives before recommending a switch.

You don’t need to switch. Many of our FP&A clients keep their existing bookkeeper or in-house accounting team and add us for the forward-looking work. We’ll establish a clean handoff process so monthly actuals flow into our models without creating extra work for your team. That said, when bookkeeping and FP&A are managed under one engagement, you typically save time and avoid reconciliation friction at quarter- and year-end — so some clients eventually choose to consolidate. That’s your call.

FP&A engagements are priced as flat monthly fees, scoped to the deliverables you need. A typical engagement includes annual budgeting, monthly or quarterly forecast updates, a KPI dashboard, and board-ready reporting. Fees vary based on the complexity of your organization and reporting cadence. We provide a detailed scope and fixed quote after a free consultation, so there are no surprise invoices.

FP&A makes sense once your organization gets large enough that decisions carry real financial consequences. The sweet spot is where leadership needs structured forecasting and scenario planning, but a full-time CFO isn’t yet justified. Our FP&A work often runs alongside an internal finance team — supplementing rather than replacing them.