Most businesses at this size are past the point where the books can close whenever somebody gets to them, and well short of the point where a full finance department makes sense. Finance support produces the agreed deliverables on the same dates every month for a fixed monthly fee, so that the numbers are available when a decision has to be made.
Finance support is priced by the annual revenue of the business and how much of the finance function you want carried. The three engagements are a close and report engagement, the same work with budgeting, cash forecasting and lender reporting added, and a full finance office covering consolidation, controls, audit support, systems and payroll preparation. The monthly fee and scope are agreed before work begins.
Your month closes late, or it closes whenever somebody has time, and you are making decisions on numbers you already know are stale.
You have a bookkeeper who keeps the records, and nobody who turns those records into something you can act on.
A lender, a board or an investor now expects reporting on a schedule and in a format, and producing it takes two weeks of somebody's life every time it is asked for.
You are the person doing the finance work, and it is the part of the week that pushes everything else back.
Finance work inside a growing company usually fails in the same order, because the records come first and get done, the close comes second and slips, and the interpretation comes last and never happens at all.
The result is familiar. The bookkeeping is roughly current. The month closes somewhere between the third and the sixth week after it ended, if it closes at all. Nobody reconciles the balance sheet properly, so errors sit there for quarters. The owner knows the bank balance and has no view of the thirteen weeks in front of it. When a lender or a buyer asks a question, the answer takes a fortnight to assemble and arrives with caveats attached.
What comes out of these engagements is a finance function that runs to a calendar. The month closes on a fixed date against a documented checklist, with every balance sheet account reconciled and the supporting schedule attached to it, because a close that nobody can evidence is a close that falls apart the first time somebody tests it. The reporting pack then arrives on the same date each month with written commentary explaining what moved and why. Cash is forecast weekly and rolled forward every week, so the question of whether payroll and the tax payment and the equipment deposit can all happen in the same month has an answer before the month starts.
Where a transaction comes later, whether that is a sale, a refinancing or an acquisition, the records are already in the shape a diligence team expects to be handed, which removes most of the work that normally gets done in a panic at the start of a process.
The same standard applies at every tier.
Monthly fees depend on annual revenue and the responsibilities you need covered.
| Engagement | Under $5M revenue | $5M to $25M revenue | $25M and above revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close and Report, per month | $3,950 | $6,500 | $10,500 |
| Close, Report and Plan, per month | $5,950 | $9,500 | $15,500 |
| Full Finance Office, per month | $8,950 | $14,500 | $19,999 |
Businesses above twenty five million in revenue are scoped individually. Fees are monthly, with a three month minimum and month to month after that.
From $3,950 per month
The month closes on a fixed date, every account is reconciled, and you get a pack you can act on.
From $5,950 per month
You get all of that, and the budget, the cash forecast and the lender reporting come with it.
From $8,950 per month
The whole finance function runs here, including consolidation, controls, audit support and payroll preparation.
Close and Report fits a business where the month has to close properly and on a date. Every balance sheet account is reconciled with its supporting schedule in the file, the management reporting pack carries written commentary on what moved, and a weekly flash report goes out. The bookkeeping is carried inside the engagement as well, so the records and the close sit with the same team and under the same review.
Close, Report and Plan is for a business that has to be run forward. It adds a budget built by department with somebody owning each line, monthly variance analysis explained in writing, and a rolling thirteen week cash forecast. Reporting comes in the format a lender or a board requires, with covenant headroom tracked alongside it.
Full Finance Office suits a business that needs the finance function to exist in full, because the group runs several entities that need consolidating, the chart of accounts was never designed for the business it now serves, an audit is coming, the systems need replacing or payroll has to be run and reconciled properly. It also carries internal controls documented in a control matrix and the audit schedules prepared before the auditor asks.
| Deliverable | Component | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly close | Close calendar and checklist | A documented calendar and checklist with a fixed close date each month |
| Monthly close | Balance sheet reconciliations | Every balance sheet account reconciled with the supporting schedule attached |
| Reporting | Management reporting pack | Profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow with written commentary |
| Reporting | Weekly flash report | Weekly cash, sales and the two or three numbers you watch most closely |
| Working capital | Receivables and payables management | Aging review, collection follow-up and payment runs prepared for your release, with escalation |
| Bookkeeping | Transaction processing | Day to day bookkeeping across bank, receivables, payables and payroll entries |
| Deliverable | Component | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Everything in Close and Report | All items above | Carried in full |
| Budget | Annual budget build | Built bottom-up by department with named ownership and sign-off |
| Reporting | Budget against actual | Monthly variance and flux analysis with written explanations above the agreed threshold |
| Cash | Rolling thirteen week cash flow | A weekly cash forecast rolled forward every week with treasury reporting |
| Reporting | Lender and board reporting | Reporting in the format the lender and the board require |
| Compliance | Covenant tracking | Covenant calculations with headroom and a forward look |
| Deliverable | Component | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Everything in Close, Report and Plan | All items above | Carried in full |
| Consolidation | Multi-entity consolidation | Group consolidation with intercompany eliminated and currency handled |
| Chart of accounts | Design and migration | A chart of accounts designed for the business and migrated with history mapped |
| Controls | Control design and documentation | A control matrix carrying the control, the owner, the frequency and the evidence for each one |
| Audit | Audit schedules and auditor liaison | The prepared-by-client schedules built for your review and the auditor's requests handled |
| Systems | Selection and implementation | System selection, implementation and the data migration behind it |
| Payroll | Payroll | Payroll prepared for your approval and reconciled to the general ledger |
| Reporting | Quarterly business review pack | A quarterly pack covering performance, forecast and the decisions needing attention |
The engagement letter carries the fee, the agreed scope and the information request, and the first task is getting access to the accounting system, the bank and card records, payroll and the receivables and payables detail.
Before anything changes, the current position gets reviewed, which means the state of the balance sheet, what reconciles and what does not, how the close currently runs and what the reporting actually shows, and you receive that review in writing with the items that need fixing listed and sized.
The items from that review get worked through, the chart of accounts gets corrected where it is in the way, and the close calendar is set with the fixed monthly close date and the delivery dates for each pack agreed with you.
The first month closes to the calendar, with every reconciliation in the file and the reporting pack delivered with commentary, and the walkthrough call on that first pack covers what the numbers say and what should change in the second month.
From there the month closes on its date, the weekly flash arrives on its day, and the budget, cash forecast and lender or board reporting run on their own schedules where the engagement includes them.
Every quarter the engagement itself gets reviewed with you, covering whether the scope still matches the business, what has changed, and anything that should move up or down a tier.
They usually stay. Bookkeeping and the finance function are different jobs, and the common arrangement is that your bookkeeper continues to keep the records while this engagement takes the close, the reconciliations, the reporting and the interpretation. Where that is the arrangement, the bookkeeping line comes out of the scope and the fee reflects it.
They stay as well, and this engagement is what makes their work easier. Tax preparation and audit sit with them, and what this engagement provides is the closed books, the reconciliations and the prepared schedules those providers need, which is the part that normally arrives late and incomplete.
To start we need access to the accounting system, and read-only bank and credit card access for reconciliation. We also need the prior year financial statements and tax returns, payroll access or payroll reports, and the receivables and payables detail. Send the contracts and leases, the debt agreements, and the current close process where one is documented.
Audit, review and compilation engagements. Any opinion or assurance on financial statements. 409A valuations and certified appraisals. ESOP valuations. Fair value measurement under ASC 805 and ASC 820. Fairness opinions. Tax return preparation and tax opinions. Securities placement, investor solicitation, and any transaction-contingent or success fee.
TEOL Capital is not a broker-dealer, an investment adviser, a placement agent or a finder. Engagements are preparation and support work. TEOL does not place securities, solicit investors or make investor introductions, and takes no success, contingency or placement fee.
The fees published here are indicative, set against the scope described on each page, and a final quote is confirmed in writing before any engagement letter is issued. Nothing published here is an offer, and no engagement begins until a letter is signed by both sides. Work outside the stated scope is identified and quoted before it begins. Full payment or a 50% deposit on engagements under $10,000, and 50% at start with 50% at delivery above that. Turnaround is quoted on receipt of a complete information request and is a target rather than a term of the engagement. Fees are reviewed quarterly, and an engagement letter issued at a published fee holds that fee regardless of any later review. Work is prepared for the client named in the engagement letter and for that client's own use. Anyone else who receives it does so for information and cannot rely on it. Management accounts, consolidations and financial statements we prepare are built from the records management maintains and remain management's responsibility. We do not guarantee any particular outcome, including a sale, a financing, a valuation conclusion or a price. Our liability on any engagement is limited to the fees paid for that engagement.