Outsourced CFO · Specialty-trade and commercial contractors
The outsourced CFO for contractors under pressure.
Base Case CFO serves founder-led contractors, $8M to $40M, that are lender-facing or under cash pressure. Senior judgment, signed and accountable.
For owners managing bank or loan covenants, tightening cash and working capital, or preparing for a sale in the next three to five years.
The problem
Bookkeeping isn't strategic finance.
A contractor doing $8M to $40M has a bank line with a covenant the owner half-understands, cash that swings with retainage and pay applications, and margins that erode mid-project. Reporting arrives late and looks backward. The next covenant test, the next bonding renewal, and the eventual sale will all be decided by numbers nobody in the building fully owns.
A covenant that stays half-understood until it is nearly breached.
Cash that swings with retainage, pay applications, and change orders.
Project margins that slip between the bid and the close-out.
A lender whose questions are getting sharper.
What we do
Begin with the Sprint, then a monthly engagement.
Covenant & Cash Readiness Sprint
A fixed-scope diagnostic that becomes your onboarding: data-quality review, operating-system install, your first 13-week cash flow, a covenant baseline tested forward, and a findings memo with a clear recommendation.
Growth CFO
The full monthly engagement: covenant protection, credibility with your lender and board, a rolling 13-week cash flow, clear reporting, and a monthly decision call. The value is in the judgment and the protection, not the reports.
Strategic CFO
For covenanted, sponsor-backed, or sale-prep companies. Everything in Growth, plus board and lender reporting cadence, scenario and capital planning, and support through diligence.
Standalone projects, 13-week cash flow builds, annual budgets, and board or lender packages are available on request.
How we work
Senior judgment, with software behind it.
Signed accountability
The Founder owns the forecast, the covenant strategy, and the call, and signs the numbers that go to your bank and your board.
Scenario discipline
Every plan is built three ways: base case, bear case, bull case. Size the downside first, then decide.
We diagnose before committing
We diagnose before we commit, scope the work to a fixed fee, and convert to a monthly retainer only when the path is clear.
Track record
Underwriting discipline from institutional real assets.
The Founder of Base Case CFO has spent a career on the capital side of the table, originating, underwriting, and executing the kind of capital-structure decisions contractors face on a smaller scale. That work has covered more than $24B of real estate underwritten and nearly $700M of equity deployed, in structures carrying senior debt, leverage, and lender covenants. It began in acquisitions and asset management at a publicly traded REIT and continued through co-founding a private equity firm. The questions do not change with the size of the deal: how much debt is prudent, what the lender will require, and what happens if the base case does not hold.
The through-line is the discipline this firm is named for. Size the downside, protect the capital, and make the decision the numbers support.
Fit
Who this is for.
For you if
- You run a specialty-trade or commercial contracting business (mechanical, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, site or civil).
- Revenue is roughly $8M to $40M and the business is founder-led.
- At least one is true: a bank covenant, tightening cash or working capital, or a sale in the next three to five years.
Not the right fit if
- Revenue is under $5M, or the books are not yet in order.
- You are comparing against $200-per-month software.
- You need audit, tax filing, or investment-banking services.
Start here
Weigh a covenant breach against the cost of a full-time CFO.
A breach can mean repricing, default, or a forced sale. A full-time CFO runs $250,000 to $400,000 all in. The Sprint is a fixed fee and a clear assessment of where you stand.