CFO and FP&A reset for a multi-entity family business

A family-owned group had expanded across several operating entities while reporting remained cash-basis, entity-specific and heavily dependent on the owner. Management could see revenue growth but not contribution margin, working-capital absorption or the performance of individual locations.

The immediate question was whether the next stage of growth could be funded safely without adding another layer of owner intervention. The mandate therefore combined finance leadership, FP&A, entity-level reporting and practical operating cadence rather than a one-time model.

The central problem was not a lack of accounting data. It was that the group had no common economic language across entities. Revenue growth could be seen in the bank and tax returns, but management could not separate location performance, service-line margin, working-capital demands and owner-level cash decisions. That made expansion feel successful while leaving the family dependent on instinct for the questions that consumed the most capital.

The design therefore had to respect the operating style of a closely held company. Installing a large corporate finance structure would have added cost and bureaucracy without solving the decision problem. The better answer was a compact management architecture: one reconciled monthly pack, one rolling driver forecast, one weekly cash cadence and a clear calendar for decisions that previously sat informally with the owner.