Beyond the Numbers
Practical thinking on business finance, careers and the mindset behind both - written from 20 years of hands-on experience.
Before you trust an AI forecast: five checks
AI will build your forecast in thirty seconds. It won't tell you when it's wrong. Five checks to run before an AI-built forecast goes anywhere near your board.
Profitable but always broke: why your P&L lies about your bank account
Your business is profitable but the bank account tells another story. A finance consultant explains the profit-cash gap and the discipline that closes it.
You've outgrown your finance function. Hiring is the expensive answer.
'We just need more finance people' is usually wrong. Four checks that show whether your real problem is capacity or complexity - before you spend £200K on headcount.
How a finance team gets to 96% forecast accuracy (four disciplines, no new software)
Forecast accuracy is a method issue. The four disciplines that took forecasts from board joke to 96%+ accurate across £10M to £200M+ budgets.
FP&A for small business owners: what to build at £1M, £5M and £20M
Your accountant tells you what happened. FP&A tells you what happens next. What to build at each size of business - before hiring anyone.
The CFO mindset for personal money: corporate discipline at kitchen-table scale
The discipline that runs £200M budgets works identically at £2,000. Forecasting, automation and scenario thinking for your own money - for educational purposes.
The board pack diet: fewer numbers, better decisions
Forty-page board packs are an act of defence. Five KPI-design moves that make a board trust its numbers - from packs built across pharma, FMCG and financial services.
The 13-week cash flow forecast, explained for founders
What a 13-week cash flow forecast is, why 13 weeks, and how founder-led businesses run one weekly without new software. From 20 years of finance leadership.
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