The Decision-Clarifying Diagnostic
A fixed-scope review of reporting, controls, and workflow for owner-led professional services firms deciding whether to make a finance or operations hire, restructure, or change systems. Findings delivered in writing, on an agreed timeline.
Who it is for
The diagnostic is for the owner or managing partner of an owner-led professional services firm: an accounting or advisory firm, or another firm whose work runs on documentation and approvals.
When it fits
Something is visibly wrong, and the fix is not obvious. The monthly report arrives late, or arrives on time and is not trusted. Approvals wait on one person, and reconciliations finish after the report needs them.
If you run operations or finance and are reading this for the owner, it is written for you too.
The decisions it informs
- Hiring a controller or another finance or operations lead
- Restructuring who does what in the close and billing cycle
- Changing the systems your reporting runs on
- Changing who owns reporting and approvals
You make the decision. The diagnostic gives you the evidence and an ordered recommendation to make it with.
What we examine
We read the records your team already keeps, such as close calendars, reconciliations, and approval trails, and compare them with how the work actually happens. Where it helps, we also talk with the people who do the work.
- Month-end close calendar and reporting timeline
- Reconciliations and how exceptions are handled
- Ownership, approvals, and sign-off paths
- Documentation and handoffs between people and systems
- The decision you are weighing and the options on the table
Your quote sets out the scope in writing, so you know what will be examined before work begins.
What you receive
Three written deliverables, read in order. Each answers one question and cites the evidence behind it. They are written so that people who did not commission the work, such as your partners or outside advisors, can follow them.
Structural Assessment
The question it answers: What is actually happening today?
What it looks like
A written account of how reporting, approvals, and handoffs run today, set out as numbered findings. Each finding cites the records behind it, and an exception log at the end lists each observation with its source.
How you use it
It gives everyone the same facts to start from. Partners and advisors can check each finding against the record it cites before anyone proposes a fix.
Constraint Map
The question it answers: Where does the work stall, and why?
What it looks like
A chain that starts with the symptom you can see, such as a late management report, and works back one link at a time to the cause behind it. Each link names its evidence.
How you use it
Hold any proposed fix up against it, whether that is a finance hire, a new system, or a change in who signs off. If the fix does not reach the cause, the map shows that before you commit to it.
Decision Brief
The question it answers: What should happen first?
What it looks like
The decision in front of you, stated in one line, then an ordered answer: what to do now, what to defer, and what to avoid. Each item states its tradeoff and cites the findings or evidence behind it. The brief closes with the open questions that remain for you and a point at which to revisit the decision.
How you use it
Make the decision with it and brief the people it affects. At the revisit point, come back to it and check that the first steps held.
The example work shows each deliverable in full, prepared for fictional firms using synthetic data.
See example workHow an engagement works
- You submit a request and describe what is prompting it.
- We review your request.
- You receive a written quote and engagement terms.
- Work starts only after your written acceptance.
- You receive a request for the information needed.
- Findings are delivered in writing, on the timeline set in your quote.
- If it helps, we walk through the findings with you and your team.
A call happens only when it is needed to confirm scope. Answers on fees, scope, and process are on the Questions page.
Weighing a finance hire, a restructure, or a system change?
You receive a written quote before any work begins.
Request a diagnostic