Hired for a Project, Kept as the Finance Team
Kids’ learning subscription brand selling direct and to schools | FP&A project, then monthly CFO and bookkeeping | August 2026 to present
At a glance
All $102,468
between the owner’s cash sheet and ours explained, line by line; on October 1 both owners agreed to run on one 13-week forecast
$56.60, not $121.04
the corrected blended break-even cost to acquire a subscriber
$147.84 vs. $84.78
lifetime contribution per paid subscriber against the cost to acquire one, January to May
$532,002
of prepaid subscription revenue the cash-basis books had never deferred, measured subscription by subscription
The situation
The owners wanted a finance operating system: a cash forecast they trusted, and a clear answer on how much holiday inventory they could afford to commit to. At kickoff:
- two owners were each running a separate cash sheet
- prepaid plans were booked as revenue the day they were collected, with no liability for the boxes still owed
What we did
- Built a 13-week cash forecast from payables and receivables, and bridged it line by line to the owner’s own sheet
- Built a cohort and box-demand model for the owners’ August 12 leadership meeting
- Measured lifetime contribution from the full subscription and charge history, audited it by blind rebuilds to the cent, and corrected the contribution calculator for the boxes prepaid plans still owe
- Measured prepaid revenue subscription by subscription
- Rebuilt the expense audit on eight months of account-level books
- Delivered a monthly model, a dashboard, a runbook and a budget vs. actual template
What we found
- One cash number. A line-by-line bridge explained all $102,468 between the owner’s cash sheet and the reconciled 13-week forecast. $74,749 of it was operating cost, mostly merchant fees and refunds, that the owner’s sheet left out.
- Subscriber economics.
- Measured from the full subscription history, a paid subscriber brought in $147.84 of lifetime contribution, 1.74x the $84.78 paid to acquire one from January to May.
- The old math costed one box per order, though prepaid plans owe a box a month, and put break-even acquisition cost at $121.04. Measured, it was $56.60.
- We recommended lowering the ceiling on acquisition cost from $100 to $75.
- Balance sheet. The owners knew prepaid revenue wasn’t being deferred. We measured it subscription by subscription: $532,002 had never been deferred.
Results
- One forecast. One owner dropped a 2% weekly growth assumption to flat, matching our forecast, and the other retired a separate sheet. On October 1 both owners agreed to run the business on the reconciled 13-week forecast.
- A new standard. The measured 12-month contribution figure became the company’s reporting standard.
- Inventory. In line with the demand model, the owners decided on a December box order of less than half of plan.
- Retained. On October 2, 2026, the project became a monthly retainer covering the close, the 13-week forecast and budget vs. actual.
How we measured this: the figures come from the company’s account-level books, its full subscription and charge history, and a line-by-line bridge from the owner’s cash sheet to the 13-week forecast; the engagement is ongoing.
What it means
Competing forecasts mean no forecast. The fix started with one cash number both owners could check.