A Financial Planning and Analysis Guide
If you want to learn more about financial metrics, you can read the full guide for free right here on my website. The sample company in the guide is fictional.
See also my fractional Controller plans.
Put the guide to work on your business
A clear read on your cash, profitability and financial health, built from your own books.
Walk-throughs and follow-up reports are available: see Ongoing Controller PlansBusiness Numbers Report
The report is financial analysis using metrics and ratios, and does not include tax preparation or tax advice.
“Your financial reports can generate a graph, but they can’t pinpoint why your direct costs spiked or if your bookkeeper accidentally duplicated revenue in receivables and as a cash deposit (a common mistake).”
Ongoing Controller Plans
Launch rates stay locked in for one year.
Project-Based Work/Additional Hours
For a one-time project, such as reviewing your books and walking you through your Business Numbers Report. Or if you have a plan, add hours beyond your plan for high seasons. Subject to availability.
See also: Business Numbers Report add-on
What your controller hours can cover
Mix and match any of these on any plan. Before we begin, we meet to agree on a statement of work for your business.
Month-End Close
- Review your bookkeeper’s entries for accuracy, and confirm they’re coded to the right customer, vendor, class, department or location
- Confirm balance sheet accounts tie to bank statements, loans and supporting records, and handle reconciliations your bookkeeper doesn’t cover
- Review owner equity, draws and pay, and recommend improvements
Additional Reports
- Customized Program-level metric reports
- Build cash flow forecasts
- Prepare annual budgets, and update them as plans change
- Compare actual results to budget, and explain the differences
Process Improvements
- Revise your chart of accounts
- Automate and customize your financial reports
- Recommend new policies and procedures
- Clean up the general ledger if processing errors are found
You Tell Me
Need something that isn’t listed? If it’s accounting or finance related, let’s discuss how to build it into your statement of work. I don’t prepare tax returns, but I can prepare the reports your tax preparer needs, making sure your books are reconciled.
Location
I work remotely with clients across the U.S., using your cloud accounting system (such as QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, MIP or NetSuite) and secure file sharing. We can stay in touch by email or meet by video call, whichever you prefer.
Program-level metrics and trends over time
The Business Numbers Report gives you a clear snapshot of your business. When you want to dig further by program (product, location or department), your controller hours can go toward deeper analysis built for your business.
Metrics by program or service line
For example, your Labor Efficiency Ratio (LER) broken out by program, so you can see where your labor spending pays off and where it doesn’t.
Trend graphs of your key metrics
Your metrics charted over time, so you can see which direction things are heading, not just where they stand this month.
Business Numbers Report add-on: A profit and loss statement by program, complete with profitability ratios, can be added to any Business Numbers Report as a standalone setup project at $90/hour.
Once the initial setup is complete, your profit and loss by program is included free in all future reports. To set up more analysis on an ongoing basis, choose a controller plan.
How the ongoing plans work
Start small, upgrade when you need to
Unsure how many hours you need? Choose a lower plan to start. You can move up a tier by paying the difference, depending on availability at the time.
Paid upfront, time reserved for you
Plans are paid at the start of each service period, which reserves your dedicated time on my calendar.
Hours are allocated monthly
Unused hours don’t roll over, but if hours are left mid-month I’ll reach out to suggest high-value projects, like forecast modeling or system cleanup.
Month to month, no long-term contract
Plans run on a rolling monthly cycle, and you can stop anytime. Since each month is paid upfront, your plan simply runs through the end of the month you’ve paid for.
Testimonials
We have found Heather Waters’ FP&A Guide extremely useful. While our former accountants provided us with regular financial reports, they generally did not spend much time reviewing the information or helping us analyze it. The FP&A Guide demonstrates that Heather understands small and medium-sized business owners often do not have extensive financial education in their backgrounds, so interpreting numbers wisely and making good financial decisions can be a challenge. Using the FP&A Guide, along with talking through business questions with Heather regularly, helped us understand where we were making costly mistakes, and led to better decisions and outcomes. Heather is a great resource to help grow your business, and she is smart, efficient and kind, a true pleasure to work with. Highly recommend.
15+ years running accounting departments and consulting for complex nonprofits, now for small businesses
I’m a Financial Controller who learned by doing, advancing from bookkeeper roles to the Controller level. I’ve overseen month-end close, fixed data errors, prepared for annual audits, and cleaned up general ledgers for nonprofit organizations with $21M to $45M budgets.
Nonprofit accounting demands rigid compliance, restricted funds, and complex allocation rules. I built my FP&A workbook from scratch to bring that same discipline to small businesses, and I explain metrics without unnecessary jargon.
Using a different system? With six-plus years of consulting across different setups, I pick up new systems quickly.
Led GL conversions and implementations including MIP to Intacct, QBO to Intacct, and QBO to Microsoft Dynamics GP.
For details on my clients and full-time work experience, see my LinkedIn profile.
Let’s talk about your books
Open the short form below to get started with an ongoing plan or project-based work, or to order a standalone Business Numbers Report. Nothing is billed until we’ve talked.
Your financial data stays confidential. Your books and reports are shared only with you. My Standard Client Terms (PDF) explain exactly how I protect it.
See a sample: Here’s an example of the Business Numbers Report PDF you’ll receive once your report is complete (sample PDF). The FP&A Guide isn’t included, since you can read it on this website anytime. The report follows a standard format; deeper, customized analysis is available through the controller plans.