Fractional CFO
A budget is a set of decisions made in advance
The problem
Budgets are often built as last year plus a percentage, then abandoned by March when reality diverges.
Why it matters
A driver-based budget tells you which assumption broke, not just that the number missed. That difference is what makes it useful in month seven.
How to know if you have this
- The budget is last year plus a growth percentage
- Nobody reviews budget-to-actual monthly
- Departments were not involved in setting it
- The budget and the cash forecast disagree
How Advisory Motion solves it
- 01Build from drivers — volume, price, capacity, headcount — not from totals
- 02Reconcile the budget to the cash forecast so both stay true
- 03Review budget-to-actual monthly with named owners
- 04Re-forecast rather than pretend the original still applies
Illustrative example
The assumption, not the number
A revenue miss traced to one driver: quotes issued per week. Fixing that input was actionable in a way that a variance report never would have been.
Illustrative composite · not a client identification
Where this connects