Fractional-CFO contributor group
The Aziell CFO Desk is a collective byline for posts covering driver-based planning, capital-stack optimization, and operating-level scenario work. Posts under this byline draw on the day-to-day practice of fractional CFOs serving multi-location operators; every post is reviewed by at least one practicing CFO and one member of Aziell's product team before it ships. Individual contributor names appear on posts they specifically authored when that contributor is a public voice.
Your budget workbook looks cheap. It isn’t. Between version drift, formula errors, and stale actuals, most multi-location operators burn a mid-five-figure sum every year keeping a spreadsheet alive.
Every quarter, some portco is inside a covenant cushion that looked comfortable at close and is now thin. Finding out two weeks after the reporting date is not an operating problem — it is a preventable fund-IRR problem. Here is how to fix it.
Driver-based budgeting replaces guesswork with math. Here is the complete framework we use with multi-location service operators, from picking the three drivers that actually matter to keeping the model honest.
Most pre-close models over-invest in top-line growth assumptions and under-invest in branch-level variance, covenant stress-tests, and working-capital rhythm. Here is what to model instead.
Most value creation plans fail because they document aspirations, not drivers. Here is the VCP structure that actually moves EBITDA across a multi-location portfolio — and integrates directly into quarterly board packs.
SBA 7(a) loans are oxygen. They are also, often, the single largest source of silent enterprise-value leakage in a multi-location business. Here is how to spot the leak and fix it.
Most scenario plans are useless because they perturb the wrong variables. Here is the framework that focuses on the three levers multi-location operators can actually pull — and how to model each.