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Questions owners actually ask about cash, lenders, multi-entity books and AI — answered in the first paragraph, by the CFOs and controllers who answer them for clients every week. RSS.
25 posts
Client advisory services for multi-entity clients: the daily deliverable
CAS grows fastest with owners of several entities, where the close is worth most and the owner is most lost. The catch is they only see your work quarterly.
Construction company cash flow problems: overbilling, underbilling and the three-entity trades owner
Contractors run out of cash while profitable: crews are paid weekly, customers pay in 45 to 90 days, retainage holds 5 to 10%, underbilled jobs read as profit.
SBA DSCR requirements from 1 October 2026: what SOP 50 10 8.1 changes
From 1 October 2026, SBA 7(a) lenders will require 1.15x coverage for expansion loans and 1.25x for acquisitions, buyouts and ESOPs, and no projections allowed.
4-wall EBITDA: the number that tells a franchisee which store is really making money
Four-wall EBITDA is one store's profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, counting only what happens inside its walls. Formula and example.
Hotel P&L by property: USALI 12th edition, breakeven occupancy and GOPPAR for an owner with three hotels
A hotel P&L under USALI runs from rooms revenue through departmental and undistributed costs to GOP. How to read it per property, with breakeven occupancy.
QuickBooks Advanced, Intuit Enterprise Suite, or a reporting layer: what a 2-to-10-entity owner actually needs
QuickBooks Advanced is $340 a month per company, no consolidation. Enterprise Suite consolidates at about $12,000 to $15,000 a year. Where a small group fits.
AI CFO, fractional CFO, bookkeeper: what each costs and does at 25 to 50 staff
A bookkeeper records what happened ($500 to $2,000 a month). A controller closes the month ($2,500 to $7,000). A fractional CFO runs $3,000 to $12,000 a month.
One company paying another's bills: how commingling between your own entities happens, what it costs, and how to clean it up
When one company you own pays another's bill, it has lent it money. Record it as due from and due to, settle monthly, and unwind a shared account at a cut-off.
Loan covenants, covenant compliance, and the reporting package your lender expects
A loan covenant is a promise to keep coverage, leverage and liquidity inside set limits and send the statements that prove it. A breach hands the bank options.
Why ChatGPT gives different answers to the same question, and why that matters for your numbers
Language models pick each word by probability, so one prompt can land on different answers. A 2025 test got 80 answers from 1,000 identical runs. How to cope.
One LLC per rental property: what it does to your books, your bank and your DSCR
One LLC per property is a liability decision with an accounting bill: a bank account, a set of books and a DSCR test per LLC, plus the portfolio view on top.
The ChatGPT and Claude QuickBooks connectors: what they read, what they can change, and how to keep it read-only
QuickBooks Online now connects to ChatGPT and Claude. The connector reads reports but can also create, edit and delete invoices. How to keep it read-only.
Global cash flow: how a bank looks at you when you own several businesses
Global cash flow adds up every business you own plus your personal income, subtracts every debt payment across all of them, and asks if the whole covers itself.
Budget vs actual: how to read a variance without an accounting degree
Budget vs actual compares what you planned with what happened, line by line, in dollars and percent. The skill is knowing which variances matter and why.
Holding company accounting in QuickBooks: parent, subsidiaries, one picture
A holding company's own books are a few entries a month. The work is one consolidated picture from several QuickBooks files for owner, lender and investors.
Is it safe to upload financial statements to ChatGPT or Claude?
It depends on the account. Consumer ChatGPT trains on chats unless you opt out; business plans and Claude's commercial products do not. A P&L is low risk.
AR aging report: what it means and which invoices to chase this week
An AR aging report lists unpaid invoices by how long they have been outstanding, in 30-day buckets. How to read it as next month's cash and this week's calls.
How to manage the finances of several businesses without a spreadsheet
Owners of several companies need total cash, profit by company after intercompany transfers, and what changed. A weekly and monthly rhythm replaces the sheet.
Why doesn't my net income match my bank balance?
Net income is what you earned; the bank balance is what you have. The gap is timing plus the payments the P&L never records. How to trace yours in ten minutes.
One QuickBooks file per LLC, or classes?
One QuickBooks Online file per EIN. Two locations inside one legal entity can share a file with classes or locations. Separate LLCs need separate files.
How much cash reserve should a business have? Count it in days
Advice says three to six months of expenses. The median small business holds 27 days. How to count your reserve in days of outflow, per company, from bank data.
Intercompany transactions, explained for owners
An intercompany transaction is money moving between two companies you own: rent, a management fee, a bill the wrong entity paid, a loan. Each must cancel out.
Debt service coverage ratio for business owners: the formula, what banks require, and how to track it monthly
DSCR is the cash a business generates divided by the principal and interest due in the same period. Banks want 1.20 to 1.25, SBA lenders about 1.10 to 1.15.
The 13-week cash flow forecast for business owners
A 13-week cash flow forecast lists the cash you expect to collect and pay each week for a quarter, from today's balance. How to build one in an hour and use it.
Can QuickBooks Online consolidate multiple companies?
No. QuickBooks Online has no built-in consolidation; every company is its own subscription. Owners with two to ten entities use one of four routes instead.