Kishen Patel
Kishen is a specialist Fractional CFO for UK founders. Leveraging his ICAEW training and Investment Banking background, he fixes messy finances and builds the KPI frameworks required for high-growth scaling and exit readiness.
Table of Contents
Most UK SMEs don’t fail because the product is bad. They fail because the founder is flying blind. If you’re making decisions based on ‘gut feel’ while your cash runway is a mystery, the first 30 days with a Fractional CFO isn’t just a tidy-up – it’s a rescue mission. At Consult EFC, we turn the lights on, identify the leaks, and hand you the steering wheel.
A fractional CFO is senior finance leadership on a part-time basis. You get CFO-grade thinking and structure, without hiring a full-time executive before the business is ready. At Consult EFC, the first 30 days aren’t about big decks or grand plans. They’re about fixing foundations so you can operate with calm, clarity, and control.
This first month focuses on four themes that matter to founders and leadership teams: cash, reporting, controls, and priorities. By day 30, you should expect fewer surprises, a clear view of runway, and a practical plan the team can actually deliver.
| Timeframe | What gets fixed first | What you gain |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 7 | Cash visibility and quick protection | Breathing space and fewer cash shocks |
| Days 8 to 14 | Reporting you can trust | Decisions based on facts, not guesswork |
| Days 15 to 21 | Practical controls | Problems stop repeating |
| Days 22 to 30 | Clear priorities and a 90-day plan | Focus, owners, dates, targets |
Days 1 to 7: Stop the cash leaks and get a clear view of runway
Cash comes first because it buys time. Time to win sales, fix margins, recruit well, and negotiate properly. Without time, every choice becomes a panic move, and panic is expensive.
In week one, Consult EFC focuses on speed and accuracy. That means pulling the minimum set of numbers needed to make decisions today, not rebuilding the entire finance function before anything improves. Many businesses already have the information, it’s just spread across bank apps, inboxes, and spreadsheets, with no single view.
Cash triage: the 6 numbers we pull on day one
These six numbers create an instant snapshot of how tight things are, and what needs action first:
- Bank balances (today, not last month): across every account, including any savings, client money, or loan accounts.
- Weekly burn: what leaves the bank in an average week, separated into payroll, suppliers, and “everything else”.
- Top 20 customer balances (accounts receivable): who owes you money, how much, and how old it is. If the aged debtors report is out of date, we rebuild it from invoices and receipts quickly.
- Top 20 supplier balances (accounts payable): what you owe, what’s overdue, and which suppliers can pause service.
- Payroll timing: pay dates, employer taxes, pension contributions, and any bonuses or commissions due soon.
- Tax and VAT liabilities: what’s owed, when it’s due, and whether the numbers match filings and ledgers.
Common gaps show up fast: unclear supplier terms, missing purchase orders, disputed invoices sitting idle, and debtor reports that don’t match the ledger. Once the numbers are clean enough, they drive immediate choices, like which bills must be paid to keep operating, and which collections calls happen first.
Immediate actions to protect cash this week
Week one is about quick protection, not perfection. The best actions are the ones a busy founder can keep doing after the CFO call ends.
Typical moves include:
Tighten credit control: same-day invoicing becomes the rule, not the exception. If work is done, the invoice goes out today. If terms are vague, they get clarified on the next quote.
Chase overdue debt with a clear script: polite, firm, and consistent. For example, “I’m calling to agree the payment date for invoice X, can you confirm it will be paid by Friday?” It’s not a chat, it’s a commitment.
Pause non-essential spend: not “stop everything”, but stop the quiet drains. Subscriptions, tools nobody uses, duplicate software, and recurring services that grew over time.
Renegotiate payment terms: many suppliers will accept part payment now and a schedule for the rest if you call early. Silence damages trust, early contact protects it.
Set simple approval limits: even a basic rule helps, like “no spend over £500 without approval”. This prevents death by a thousand small purchases.
Check pricing and discount leakage: founders often discount under pressure, then forget to bring pricing back. In week one, we look for deals that don’t cover delivery cost.
Consult EFC keeps these actions realistic. The goal is a repeatable routine, not a burst of heroics that fades after ten days.
Days 8 to 14: Fix reporting so decisions stop relying on guesswork
Once cash is under watch, week two builds a reporting rhythm that leaders can trust. Many teams avoid monthly numbers because they arrive late and start arguments. The fix is to make reporting simple, on time, and linked to the decisions you actually make.
This is also where cash and reporting meet. If profit is reported badly, cash planning becomes a guess. If debtor numbers are wrong, you chase the wrong people. A clean reporting base removes noise.
Clean up the bookkeeping basics without slowing the business
Week two doesn’t mean a full finance overhaul. It means “good enough” controls so the numbers stop lying.
Key checks usually include:
- Chart of accounts: tidy enough that costs land in the right place. If everything is in “misc”, you can’t manage it.
- Bank feeds and reconciliations: the bank balance in the system must match the bank. If it doesn’t, nothing else can be trusted.
- Cut-off: sales and costs recorded in the correct period, so month-end isn’t a fantasy.
- VAT codes: wrong codes create painful surprises later, and they’re avoidable.
- Duplicate suppliers and customers: common in growing firms, and they distort reporting and ageing.
- Month-end discipline: a short close checklist, so the same errors don’t repeat.
Most important, there must be one source of truth. If the board deck uses one set of numbers, sales uses another, and the accountant uses a third, leadership ends up debating data instead of fixing the business.
The first management pack: simple, useful, and on time
The first management pack should answer, “Are we making money, where is it going, and what happens next?” It doesn’t need fancy formatting. It needs clarity.
A solid first pack in week two usually includes:
Profit and loss (P&L) with plain-language commentary: what moved, why it moved, and whether it’s a one-off or a trend.
Balance sheet highlights: not every line item, just the parts that drive risk and cash (debtors, creditors, taxes, loans).
Cash movement summary: opening cash, key inflows, key outflows, closing cash. No mystery.
Debtor and creditor ageing: who is late, who is large, who is about to become a problem.
Key KPIs: gross margin, net margin, cash runway, debtor days, and any trading KPIs that link pipeline to cash (where relevant).
Consult EFC then sets a short meeting cadence, often weekly at first. Each action gets an owner and a date. Without owners, reporting becomes theatre.
Days 15 to 21: Put in controls that prevent repeats (without red tape)
Controls have a bad name because people picture slow approvals and paperwork. In practice, good controls are simple rules that stop the same issue happening again. They protect cash, reduce mistakes, and remove awkward conversations later.
In week three, Consult EFC focuses on lightweight policies and clear roles, built for a small team where people wear multiple hats.
Tighten how money leaves the business
This is purchase-to-pay, kept practical.
Common fixes include:
Spend limits and approval: clear thresholds, plus who approves what. This stops “I thought you agreed” moments.
Supplier onboarding checks: bank details verified, correct legal name, and agreed terms recorded. This reduces fraud risk and prevents payment delays.
Payment run schedule: rather than paying ad hoc every day, payments happen on set days. It improves cash planning and reduces stress.
Separation of duties where possible: even in a small business, try to avoid one person setting up suppliers, approving bills, and releasing payments. If headcount is tight, the control can be review-based rather than a full split.
Cards, expenses, and subscriptions: named cardholders, clear expense rules, and a monthly review of recurring costs.
These aren’t “big company” controls. They are common sense, written down, and followed.
Reduce risk in how money comes in
Cash collection improves when the process is clear from the start.
Key quote-to-cash controls include:
Payment terms on proposals: terms should be visible and agreed before work starts, not argued after the invoice goes out.
Deposits and billing milestones: for projects, cash should come in as work is delivered, not months later. Milestones reduce funding strain.
Clear invoicing rules: what triggers an invoice, who raises it, and what must be included (PO numbers, contact details, correct entity).
Credit notes approval: refunds and credits should be authorised, or margin leaks quietly.
A simple collections process: consistent follow-up, a clear escalation path, and notes logged so the team doesn’t restart the same conversation each time.
Week three is also where customer concentration risk gets surfaced. If one customer accounts for a large share of income, cash planning must assume delays and renegotiations.
Days 22 to 30: Agree priorities and build a 90-day plan you can actually run
After three weeks, you have real data and early fixes in place. Now the question is simple: what matters most in the next 90 days?
Consult EFC turns findings into a focused plan with trade-offs. If everything is urgent, nothing is. A good plan has fewer goals, with clear outcomes.
Set the top priorities, and park the rest
A straightforward way to choose priorities is to score each item on four factors:
- Impact on cash
- Urgency
- Effort
- Risk
High impact, high urgency items come first. High effort, low impact items get parked.
Common 90-day priorities include pricing review, a staffing plan aligned to runway, a debtor days target, supplier term changes, VAT planning, and a tidy-up of the finance system to reduce errors. The real skill is saying no for a while, even to “good” ideas, so the business can build momentum.
What you should have by day 30 with Consult EFC
By the end of the first month, you should have a clear set of deliverables you can point to:
- A weekly cash forecast (simple, updated, owned)
- Cash rules, including approval limits and a payment cadence
- The first management pack, delivered on time
- Reconciled core accounts (bank, key control balances, VAT position)
- Basic controls for purchasing, expenses, subscriptions, and credit notes
- A 90-day action plan with owners, dates, and measurable targets
Success should feel practical. Fewer “surprise” bills, faster decisions, and confidence that the numbers reflect reality.
Conclusion
The first 30 days with a fractional CFO at Consult EFC follow a clear order: cash first, then reporting, then controls, then priorities. That sequence reduces stress and creates space to grow with intent, whether you’re preparing for funding, scaling delivery, or planning an exit.
If your business needs a reset, start with a focused review of cash and reporting. Once those are stable, everything else becomes easier to run, and easier to improve. The best time to get control is before you’re forced into it.
