Do You Actually Know Where Your Business Stands?
The CFO Assessment turns your books into a starting line — a Survival Score, a clear read on how the business is actually run, and the first 90 days of a roadmap. Not a report card. A way forward.
What the Assessment Gives You
Two questions every owner should be able to answer on demand. The Assessment answers both — with evidence.
The Numbers
Are the numbers sound?
Your financials run through an auditable-ratios engine — liquidity, solvency, efficiency, and an Altman Z″-based Survival Score that places you in a band from caution to very strong. Every number is traceable to a source line; nothing is a black box. In one real engagement, a business moved from 2.30 to 4.90 — caution into a very strong band — over a single fiscal year.
The Discipline
Is the business run like one?
Clean numbers are only half of it. The other half is whether the owner has the habits and controls a Chief Financial Officer would insist on — daily cash discipline, real approval gates, written policies, and a clear read on risk. We walk that with you, and score where you stand.
The Operating Discipline Review
A number can look fine while the business is one missed control away from trouble. The Assessment marks where you stand on each — Red, Yellow, or Green — and the roadmap sequences the gaps.
Cash & finances — daily
Do you, or someone accountable, check the bank balance and cash position every day — not once a month? Is there a rhythm where the numbers actually get looked at, not just filed?
Approvals & authority
Do payments and commitments get approved within a defined service-level agreement, so nothing stalls and nothing slips through unreviewed? Is there a delegation of authority — specific dollar thresholds and specific people at each level — written down, not improvised?
Written policies & controls
Are the core financial policies written — spending limits, expense rules, who signs what — so the business doesn’t depend on one person’s memory? Is there separation between who spends, who approves, and who reconciles?
Governance, risk & compliance
Has a compliance and risk assessment been done — tax, payroll, licensing, data, contracts — so you know your exposure before a regulator or a lawsuit does? Do you know which risks are accepted, which are mitigated, and which are simply unseen?
Tax posture
Are your tax returns filed and current — business and, where it matters, personal — with no open years, lapsed extensions, or estimated payments behind? Has anyone requested your tax transcripts? A transcript pull is often the first sign of an audit, a lender or underwriter checking you out, or identity theft — do you know if one has happened, and why? And if a bank, a buyer, or the IRS asked tomorrow, could you produce clean copies of your last filed returns?
Insurance
Has your insurance been reviewed against how the business actually looks today — liability, property, cyber, key-person — not the policy you bought three years ago at a different size?
Vendors & contracts
Do you review your vendor and customer contracts — renewal dates, auto-renew traps, price escalators, termination terms — so you’re not locked in or surprised? Is someone accountable for the recurring spend that quietly grows?
Backup, continuity & owner pay
Are your books and systems backed up — and has anyone tested that they can be restored, not just that a backup runs? If the person who knows how everything works were out for a month, could the business keep operating? And is owner pay handled with discipline — a consistent draw or salary — rather than pulling cash ad hoc, so the books tell the truth about what the business earns?
Greens are strengths to keep. Yellows and Reds become the roadmap — sequenced, so you fix what matters first.
What You Walk Away With
The Assessment is the on-ramp, not the destination. You leave with three things.
A Survival Score
With the ratios behind it — every figure traceable to your books.
A Discipline Scorecard
Red, Yellow, Green across all ten operating areas — from daily cash to owner comp.
A 90-Day Roadmap
The first moves, in priority order. A starting line, not a verdict.
Advising a business owner who needs this? Handing them the CFO Assessment is how you become the advisor they don’t make a move without. See how partners work with us →