Forecast cash. Hit plan. Defend every number in the board pack.
Fractional Financial Planning & Analysis for UK founders running £1m–£50m revenue. ICAEW-Chartered, ex-Big-Four — we build the three-way model, 13-week cash forecast and investor-grade KPI stack your business outgrew the day it stopped being a spreadsheet.
Built on the systems you already use
Your accountant tells you what happened.
FP&A tells you what's about to.
Most £1m–£30m UK businesses scale past the point their spreadsheet stack can support — and pay for it in missed forecasts, covenant scares and bad hiring decisions. These are the five pains we see in almost every diagnostic.
Cash visibility ends at month-end
You know last month's bank balance, but no one can answer "where will we be in 13 weeks if Q4 slips 15%?". That's a liquidity risk, not a reporting gap.
The forecast is a static PDF
Built once a year, broken by Q2, ignored by Q3. A rolling forecast that re-bases monthly is the only kind that survives contact with reality.
KPIs don't tie to the P&L
Sales reports an ARR number. Finance reports a revenue number. They never reconcile. Investors notice. Boards notice. Buyers notice in due diligence.
No one owns the model
Three versions of "FY26_FINAL_v7_KP.xlsx" exist. Two contradict each other. None has a working balance sheet. The model has stopped being an asset.
Board packs are backwards-looking
Forty slides of last-quarter actuals, zero pages on the next 12 months. Your board can't help you steer if you're only showing them the rear-view mirror.
Decisions are made on instinct
Hiring, pricing, capex, debt — all on gut. Every one of those is a £50k+ decision and deserves a scenario, not a Slack thread.
Everything an institutional finance function would build — on a fractional fee.
A complete planning, forecasting and reporting stack — designed to investor and lender standards, embedded in your existing systems, owned by us until your team is ready to take it over.
1 · Three-way model
Integrated P&L, balance sheet and cash flow. Driver-based revenue, headcount build, working capital, debt schedule. FAST/SMART standards.
2 · 13-week cash forecast
Direct method, debtor-by-debtor, creditor-by-creditor. Re-based weekly. Catches the covenant or payroll squeeze 8 weeks before it lands.
3 · Budget & rolling re-forecast
Annual budget built bottom-up with department owners, then a monthly re-forecast cycle so the plan stays alive — not a January PDF.
4 · Scenario & sensitivity
Best / base / worst on every meaningful lever — pricing, churn, hiring, FX, raw materials. Quantifies risk in £ and weeks of runway.
5 · Board pack & KPIs
A 10-page monthly pack that explains the variance, the forward view and the decisions you need from the board. KPI dashboard live in Fathom or Power BI.
6 · Unit economics & SaaS metrics
ARR, NRR, GRR, gross margin, magic number, CAC payback, LTV/CAC, Rule of 40, burn multiple, cohort retention — reconciled to the ledger.
A finance stack you could hand to a buyer tomorrow.
Every Consult EFC engagement leaves you with a documented, version-controlled, transferable set of assets. If we ever step away, your in-house team — or a future full-time CFO — picks up exactly where we left off.
See it on a 20-min call →- →Three-way integrated model
P&L, balance sheet, cash flow — reconciling to the penny. - →Rolling 13-week cash forecast
Direct method, refreshed weekly, mapped to your ledger. - →Live KPI dashboard
Fathom, Syft, Power BI or Google Sheets — your stack, our build. - →Monthly board pack template
Pre-formatted, fully linked, designed to investor standards. - →Scenario library
Best / base / worst on the 6–8 levers that matter most. - →Operating manual
Documented close → re-forecast → board cycle, ready to hand over.
From "where's our forecast?" to a live board pack in six weeks.
A structured onboarding so you see value inside week two, not month six.
Diagnostic
Trial balance, contracts, existing forecasts, data flows from ledger + CRM + billing.
Build the model
Three-way integrated model. Driver-based revenue, headcount, working capital, debt.
Cash & KPIs
13-week direct cash forecast plus the SaaS/sector KPI layer reconciled to the ledger.
Board pack & dashboard
Monthly pack + live dashboard in Fathom / Power BI / Sheets.
Embed & train
Lock the close → re-forecast → board cycle. Train your team. Document everything.
Retainer-based. Fixed scope. No surprise invoices.
Three ways to engage Consult EFC — pick the depth that matches your stage and we'll quote a fixed monthly retainer.
Phase 1 · Build
FP&A foundation
Six-week sprint to deliver the three-way model, 13-week cash forecast, board pack and dashboard. Fixed fee, fixed scope, fully documented.
Best for founders standing FP&A up for the first time.
Phase 2 · Run
Monthly FP&A retainer
We run the cycle: close review, variance analysis, rolling re-forecast, board pack, KPI dashboard refresh, ad-hoc scenario work. 1–4 days per month.
Best for £3m–£30m businesses without a full-time FP&A lead.
Phase 3 · Lead
Fractional CFO
FP&A plus strategy, fundraising, banking, board representation and commercial deal support. 4–8 days per month. Often expands from a Phase 2 retainer.
Best when the next 12 months include a raise, acquisition or exit.
Fees are scoped on a 20-minute call and confirmed in a one-page proposal within one working day.
"Most founders don't need a bigger finance team — they need a model that tells them what's coming, a board pack that earns the room's attention, and a cash forecast that lets them sleep. That's the entire job."
Kish Patel ACA · Founder, Consult EFC
FP&A questions UK founders actually ask.
What does FP&A actually do for a UK SME?
FP&A turns your accounting data into forward-looking decisions. Instead of only knowing what happened last month, you know what your cash, profit and KPIs will be in 13 weeks and 12 months under best / base / worst case — and which lever to pull when reality diverges from plan.
When should a founder hire an FP&A advisor?
Usually between £1m and £30m of revenue — when spreadsheets break, the board gets harder, or a funding round, acquisition or exit is on the 12-month horizon. Before a full-time FP&A hire (£90k–£140k all-in) is justified.
What is a three-way financial model?
An integrated model where the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow statement are all linked by formulae — every assumption flows through all three statements and the balance sheet always reconciles. It is the minimum standard for investor, lender and board credibility.
Why is a 13-week cash flow forecast the standard?
Thirteen weeks is long enough to see covenant breaches, payroll squeezes and tax payments coming; short enough to be accurate at a debtor / creditor level. It is the single most useful artefact an FP&A function produces for a founder.
Do you replace our bookkeeper or accountant?
No. We sit above your bookkeeper, accountant and Xero/QuickBooks stack. They do the historical close; we own the forward-looking financial plan, board reporting and KPI architecture.
Will you integrate with Xero, QuickBooks or NetSuite?
Yes. We connect Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage, NetSuite and most billing/CRM tools (Stripe, HubSpot, Salesforce, Chargebee) using Fathom, Syft, Power BI or a custom Sheets/Excel pipeline depending on the stack you already run.
Do you specialise in SaaS metrics?
Yes — ARR, NRR, GRR, gross margin, magic number, CAC payback, LTV/CAC, Rule of 40, cohort retention and burn multiple are part of every SaaS engagement. We also handle B2B services, e-commerce, manufacturing and PE-backed roll-ups.
Will the model survive due diligence?
Yes — our models are built to FAST / SMART standards and have been stress-tested in live transactions with Big Four, mid-market debt funds and PE acquirers. Same construction standards we used inside transaction services.
How much does fractional FP&A cost?
Retainer-based and scoped to your stage. We don't publish prices because the right answer depends on revenue, data quality and reporting cadence — request a quote through the form and you'll get a fixed proposal within one working day.
What's the difference between FP&A and a Fractional CFO?
FP&A is the planning, modelling and reporting craft. A fractional CFO adds strategy, fundraising, banking relationships and board representation. Most Consult EFC engagements start with FP&A and expand into fractional CFO.
Can you prepare us for a funding round or exit?
Yes. The same three-way model and KPI architecture we build for management is the foundation of an investor data pack, lender information memorandum or vendor due diligence file — so the FP&A work compounds when you go to market.
How quickly can we start?
Typical kickoff is 1–2 weeks from signed proposal. Urgent cash, board or fundraising deadlines can be accommodated faster — mention the date in the form.
Stop running the business on a spreadsheet you don't trust.
Twenty minutes with a Chartered Accountant. A clear view of what you'd build, what it would cost, and whether we're the right firm for it. Honest answer either way.
Book your FP&A strategy callICAEW Chartered · Ex-Big-Four Transaction Advisory · Independent · UK-wide