The Finance Playbook
Your first 90 days to finance clarity
Whether I'm brought into a business or an owner is taking a hard look at their own numbers, the first 90 days follow the same arc: understand what's really happening, steady the ship, tighten the engine, then build for growth. This is the playbook I use.
Week 1 · Assess
Understand what's really happening
Before changing anything, get a true picture of the money and where it gets stuck.
- Get read access to everything: the accounting system, the bank, payroll, the sales pipeline, and the last 12 months of management accounts.
- Map the cash cycle end to end - from winning work, to delivering it, to invoicing, to actually being paid - and find where cash sits still.
- Pull the core numbers: cash in the bank, monthly burn, runway, revenue, gross margin, debtor and creditor days, and work in progress.
- Read the P&L and balance sheet for trends, one-offs and anything that doesn't reconcile.
- Name the risks: client concentration, late payers, thin margins, and any looming tax, VAT or payroll.
- Talk to the people who touch the money - bookkeeping, billing, credit control and delivery leads. Ask where it hurts.
Outcome: a one-page picture of the business - cash position, runway, the three biggest risks and the three biggest opportunities.
Days 1–30 · Stabilise
Get control and numbers you can trust
Reliable, current numbers and no nasty surprises around the corner.
- Get the bookkeeping current and reconciled, clear the backlog, and agree a monthly close timetable.
- Build a rolling 13-week cash flow forecast and update it every week.
- Tighten credit control: chase what's overdue, set clear terms, and stop quietly funding clients.
- Get a grip on spend: review every subscription and supplier, and cut what isn't earning its place.
- Make sure tax, VAT, PAYE and pension are known, provisioned for, and paid on time.
- Fix billing hygiene: invoice promptly and correctly, and bill the work that's been sitting unbilled.
Outcome: a dependable monthly close, a live cash forecast, and a shorter gap between doing the work and getting paid.
Days 31–60 · Optimise
Tighten the engine
Protect margin and take the friction out of how finance runs.
- Build or refresh a rate card that covers the true cost of each role plus overhead and profit - so pricing stops being a guess.
- Review project profitability: what you quoted versus what it actually cost, and where scope creep and unbilled time leak margin.
- Measure utilisation - billable versus non-billable hours - and set healthy, honest targets.
- Set payment terms on purpose: deposits, staged milestones, and shorter terms wherever you can.
- Automate the repetitive - bank feeds, invoicing, approvals, reporting - and remove double entry.
- Tidy the chart of accounts and reporting so the numbers are comparable and actually useful for decisions.
Outcome: stronger gross margin, less leakage, and a finance process that's faster and cheaper to run.
Days 61–90 · Grow
Build for what's next
Turn clean numbers into decisions, and set the business up to grow profitably.
- Put a monthly management pack in front of the owner: cash, runway, margin, utilisation, WIP and pipeline - the numbers that move the business.
- Build a rolling forecast and a simple budget, and connect them to the sales pipeline.
- Model growth scenarios - a hire, a price change, a new service line - to see the effect on cash and profit before committing.
- Agree a handful of KPIs and review them every month, so finance becomes a decision partner, not just a scorekeeper.
- Plan the cash to fund growth: reserves, facilities and timing.
- Document the processes so it all runs without heroics.
Outcome: an owner who knows their numbers, a finance function that informs strategy, and a clear, funded path to grow.
Beyond the 90 days
Build a predictable pipeline
Clean numbers keep you alive; a predictable pipeline is what makes you grow. Here's how I'd build and read one - through a finance lens, not a spreadsheet full of hope.
Make demand a system, not a scramble
A predictable pipeline starts before any of the numbers - with a repeatable way to create prospects, so new business isn't feast or famine. Build a few reliable channels you show up on consistently: referrals you actually ask for, past clients you re-contact, visibility through content, and the odd partnership. Capture every lead in a simple CRM, work a follow-up cadence so nothing slips, and track the activity - conversations and proposals each week - because that's what quietly fills the pipeline weeks later.
One pipeline, one place
Every live opportunity in a single view - each with a value, a stage, a probability and an expected close date. You can't manage what you can't see.
Measure it against your costs
Know your monthly cost base and revenue target. A healthy pipeline covers that target several times over, once you factor in your real win rate.
Forecast, don't hope
Expected revenue is value times probability, mapped to the month it should land. Now the pipeline forecasts cash, not wishful thinking.
Chase profit, not just revenue
Go after the right clients - good fit, healthy margin, sensible terms. A pipeline full of cheap, slow-paying work is a cash trap dressed up as growth.
Watch where deals leak
Track win rate by stage and by source, and see where deals stall or die. Fix the leak before you pour in more leads.
Match wins to capacity and cash
Don't sell what you can't deliver, and time wins to your cash needs. Review the pipeline every month, right next to cash, margin and utilisation.
Run this in your business
Want the playbook run for you?
I can lead this end to end, or coach your team through it. Let's talk about where your finances are today.