Business Advisory Services
Budgeting, cash flow forecasting, pricing, and profitability advice from an accountant who already knows your numbers.
Compliance work tells you what already happened. Advisory work is about what happens next. Once your bookkeeping is current we can use it for something more useful than filing: building a budget for the coming year, forecasting cash flow month by month, working out which jobs or product lines actually make money, and deciding whether the business can carry a new hire, a lease, or a piece of equipment.
Cash flow is the issue that ends most small businesses, and it is rarely the same thing as profitability. A Calgary contractor can be profitable on paper while running out of cash because customers pay in sixty days and payroll runs every two weeks. We build a rolling forecast so you can see the pinch points before they arrive, and we look at the levers that fix them: deposit terms, invoice timing, collections process, the size and cost of your operating line.
We also work with owners on the bigger decisions. Whether your pricing covers your true cost of delivery. Whether it is time to incorporate. What a bank will want to see before approving financing. What the business would be worth if you sold it, and what would need to change in the next three years to improve that number. These conversations happen on a schedule you set, quarterly for most clients, monthly for businesses in a growth or turnaround phase.
What's Included
- Annual budget preparation with monthly targets and variance reporting
- Rolling cash flow forecast showing when cash gets tight and why
- Job, product line, or service line profitability analysis
- Pricing and break-even review against your actual cost structure
- Scheduled advisory meetings with an agenda and written follow-up actions
FAQ
Is advisory worth it for a business my size?
It depends on the decisions in front of you. A stable business with one owner and no debt may only need compliance work. A business that is hiring, borrowing, taking on larger contracts, or losing money without knowing why gets real value from a structured look at the numbers.
How is this different from what my bookkeeper provides?
A bookkeeper records transactions accurately. Advisory work interprets them and applies them forward: forecasting, scenario modelling, and recommendations you can act on. The two roles complement each other and we usually do both.
Can you help me prepare for a bank loan application?
Yes. We prepare the financial statements, cash flow projections, and supporting analysis lenders ask for, and we review the application before it goes in. Knowing what a Canadian lender looks for in a small business file makes a measurable difference to the outcome.
Need help with Business Advisory Services?
Tell A4SB about your accounting needs and we can discuss the support that may be relevant to your situation.