Outsourced CFO · Specialty-trade and commercial contractors
Stay ahead of cash, covenants, and the bank.
Base Case CFO is a strategic finance firm for founder-led contractors, $10M to $50M. We keep you out of covenant trouble, on top of cash, and ready for the bank, the board, and an eventual sale.
For owners managing bank or loan covenants, tightening cash and working capital, or preparing for a sale in the next three to five years.
01 · The problem
Bookkeeping isn't strategic finance.
A contractor doing $10M to $50M 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 fully owns. We monitor the numbers, take ownership of what they mean, and turn them into clear decisions. An accountant keeps the records accurate. We provide the CFO-level judgment, strategy, and direction needed to move your business forward.
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.
02 · What we do
Begin with the Sprint, then a monthly engagement.
Covenant & Cash Readiness Sprint
A fixed-scope diagnostic that doubles as onboarding. We review your data, set up your reporting, build your first 13-week cash flow, test every loan covenant against your forecast, and deliver 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.
03 · The difference
Not a typical outsourced CFO.
Signed accountability
You are not handed to a junior bench. 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.
Built for contractor numbers
WIP, retainage, pay applications, and bonding lines. Contractor finances are genuinely hard, and generalist CFOs and generic software both struggle with them. This firm is built around them.
04 · The work
See what lands on your desk.
Three of the standing deliverables behind every engagement. Shown as illustrative samples with representative numbers, not client data.
The standing package is the floor, not the ceiling. We also build custom analyses around the questions you are actually facing, so you can monitor performance and weigh strategic decisions the way an institutional investor would, without the institutional overhead.
05 · Why Base Case CFO
Underwriting discipline from institutional real assets.
Base Case CFO is led by a Founder who 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 ran through capital 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.
06 · 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 $10M to $50M 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
Know where you stand before the bank does.
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, a clear assessment of where you stand, and a firsthand look at what it is like to work with us.