Accounting & Payroll
Financial Statements
Statements are read by people making decisions about you. They should be written accordingly.
Financial statements have two audiences, and they want different things.
You want to understand the business — what is working, what is drifting, where the cash went. Lenders, investors, franchisors and prospective buyers want assurance that the numbers are reliable and that you can service what you have committed to.
Statements that serve only the second audience are common. Statements that serve both are more useful and not much harder to produce.
Comparatives are what create meaning
A single month’s profit and loss statement is a number without context.
The same statement beside the prior month, the same month last year, and the budget becomes information. It tells you whether a change is a trend or noise, seasonal or structural, and whether you are ahead of or behind your own plan.
Every statement package we issue is comparative by default. Reporting a figure in isolation invites the wrong conclusion.
Segmentation
Consolidated statements are where problems hide.
A business with three locations and a healthy overall margin may have one location losing money and two subsidising it. A real estate owner with a portfolio-level return may have a property that has not covered its debt service in a year. Nothing in the consolidated view reveals either.
We set up segmentation — by location, department, property, or revenue line, whichever matches how you actually run things — so that the reporting shows you the parts as well as the whole.
Reporting to lenders
Loan agreements typically carry covenants: debt service coverage, current ratio, tangible net worth, sometimes reporting deadlines with their own consequences.
Covenant breaches are much more manageable when you see them coming a quarter out. We track the relevant ratios monthly and flag when one is trending toward its limit, which turns a default conversation into a planning conversation.
Working papers
Every balance we report is supported by a reconciliation or schedule.
This matters when an auditor arrives, when a buyer starts diligence, or when a lender asks how a number was derived. Being able to produce the support immediately, rather than reconstructing it under time pressure, is a meaningful advantage at exactly the moments it counts.
Common questions
Do you provide audited statements?
We prepare statements and supporting working papers, and we work alongside your auditor where an audit or review is required. Independence rules prevent us from auditing books we maintain.
Our lender wants a specific format. Can you produce it?
Yes. Covenant calculations, debt service coverage ratios and specific schedules are routine — tell us the requirement and we build the reporting to match.
What does "tie out" mean in practice?
That every balance on the statements is supported by a reconciliation or schedule we can produce on request. It is the difference between a report and a defensible report.
Can we see performance by location or property?
Yes, and you should. Consolidated statements hide the fact that one location is subsidising another. Segmentation is set up as part of the chart of accounts design.
Often paired with
Start the conversation
Tell us what the business is trying to do next.
An introductory call is thirty minutes and costs nothing. If we are not the right firm for what you need, we will say so and point you somewhere better.