Management Accounting, Financial Modeling and CFO Services

The analytical substance behind valuation and transactions.

What this is about

Foresight and transparency

Management accounting is the continuous view of the business, financial modeling the calculation behind it, CFO services the tasks a finance director would otherwise carry. What connects the three is a single standard: to put forward figures that withstand scrutiny – your own, a bank's and a buyer's.

What comes out of it outlasts the individual report. Ahead of a sale it is exit readiness, meaning a reporting function that survives a due diligence without last-minute scrambling. After a transaction it is the reliable tracking of the agreed earn-out figures. And with no transaction in view at all, it is a picture of business performance, liquidity and bottlenecks current enough to act on.

Two forms

Controlling as a Service or project mandate

Our mandates come in two forms. They differ in duration, not in method and not in care.

Controlling as a Service

We take on the finance function permanently as an external unit. The report and the rolling forecast are produced on a monthly cycle and talked through with management each time. The budget is set once a year. For a company that cannot keep a position of its own busy, this route leads to figures of a quality that would otherwise require a team.

Project mandate

We take up a special issue, work through it and hand over the result. A model for a financing round, a review of a projection put in front of you, an Independent Business Review for your bank. The scope is agreed up front, and so is the date the result is due. Your team then works with it, or we keep it up to date.

Showcase

comparit GmbH

2023–2026 · Controlling as a Service

comparit operates the leading platform for comparing insurance and financial products, based in Hamburg. Fischer | Konrad provides its financial controlling and KPI reporting, prepared entirely externally: the consolidated set of data, the monthly report comparing actuals against budget along with the rolling forecast, the discussion with management, ad-hoc analyses as required, support for the annual financial statements and ongoing coordination with the tax advisor.

Based in: Hamburg
Cycle: monthly
Access: Power BI

What we deliver

What ends up on the table

Which of these a mandate covers depends on the occasion. The methodology is the same in every case.

Integrated financial projection

P&L, balance sheet and cashflow calculated in one model rather than three alongside each other. This is the form a valuation and a due diligence can rest on.

Detailed model

For a single business unit or an investment scenario, calculated down to the level at which the decision is actually taken.

Monthly reporting

The report on a fixed cycle, with actuals against budget and the forecast against budget. Alongside it, dashboards and ad-hoc analyses. Available in Power BI without anyone having to assemble it first.

Plausibility checks on financial projections

A projection that comes from the company itself is, to an outsider, an assertion to begin with. We check it against the company's own track record, against the capacity that would have to sit behind it, and against market data for the sector.

Independent Business Review

The same work for a different reader. Our client remains the company, but the report will be read by the bank or the shareholder who asked for it. The trigger is often a financing decision or a breached covenant in the loan agreement.

An Independent Business Review is not regulated by statute and is therefore free in its scope. It is neither a restructuring opinion under IDW S 6 nor a financial due diligence. What it covers is agreed case by case, together with its addressee.

These are the same tools and the same methodology we use in business valuation under IDW S1 and in business sales . The financial model is not a standalone deliverable but the analytical substance behind both.

Where the figures come from

Internal company data, enriched with market data and research

From the company

ledger data from the financial accounts
payroll journals and personnel master data
ERP and inventory management data
time tracking
customer data and order book
financial statements for prior years
projections prepared in-house

From outside

market and industry studies, purchased selectively
official statistics from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) and comparable databases
price and cost indices for the inputs that matter to the business
wage and collective bargaining trends in the sector
interest rate data from the Deutsche Bundesbank
exchange data: valuation-date prices, futures, EURIBOR rates

Both are examples rather than closed lists. Which sources a mandate needs is settled during the stocktake.

The internal figures say where the business stands. The external ones say what is moving in its market. Only together do they yield planning premises that amount to more than an extrapolation of the past: what the inputs will cost next year, how wages develop, what the market will bear in volume. Which external series are needed for that depends on the individual business and not on a standard list.

How we go about it

From raw data to the monthly report

Seeing what is there

It starts with a stocktake around two questions: what exists, and which of it we need. Depending on the situation that happens during a visit to the company, often over two days, or through a list we work through together on Teams. The list of requirements is drawn up afterwards, not before. The source system is secondary – whether the figures come from DATEV, from SAP or from an in-house application changes the route to them, not the work on them.
Consolidating and structuring

The sources rarely fit together on their own. Accounting, payroll and time tracking sit in separate systems, in different formats and with diverging period cut-offs. That work happens at our end and not at yours. What remains is one consolidated set of data that every step which follows builds on.
Reporting and reviewing

From that base comes the monthly report: actuals set against budget, and the rolling forecast, likewise against budget. The budget itself is set once a year and not revised month by month. The figures are not sent out by email but talked through with management. The reporting stays available at any time in Power BI, with consolidation and planning built behind it in Lucanet.
What the mandate also covers

Individual dashboards and reports in Power BI and Excel, including in a form that can be put in front of an investor. Ad-hoc analyses when a question comes up that the report does not answer. Support for the annual financial statements. Ongoing monitoring of the bookkeeping and coordination with your tax advisor.

Tools

The same calculation looks different depending on who reads it. The ongoing reporting sits in Power BI, because there it is available at any time and does not have to be assembled first. What goes into a meeting comes as PowerPoint or as PDF. Anyone who wants to carry on calculating gets Excel.

What you receive

Power BI Excel PowerPoint PDF

What we work with behind it

Lucanet Power Query DAX Power Automate Microsoft Fabric

Frequently asked questions

Answers on management accounting

What does Controlling as a Service mean?

The finance function is delivered permanently from outside rather than built up in-house. We consolidate the data sources, bring them together and produce the monthly reporting from them: actuals against budget and the rolling forecast, coordinated with management. For a company that cannot keep a controlling position of its own busy, this is the form in which it still arrives at reliable figures.

What do we need to provide before you can start?

Nothing, to begin with. It starts with a stocktake in which we record what data exists and which of it we need – during a visit to the company, or through a list we work through together on Teams. The list of requirements is drawn up afterwards, not before, and it is limited to what is genuinely needed.

How long until the first monthly report?

One month after the start, provided the company and its tax advisor are prepared. Where the data situation is unclear it can take considerably longer, because internal structuring and clean-up work may be needed first. That is not time lost: without it, the reporting rests on figures that will not withstand scrutiny.

From what company size does a mandate make sense?

There is no fixed threshold. The effort of building one consolidated set of data and updating it every month, however, depends only indirectly on the size of the company – it arises in much the same form for a small unit. For very small companies it therefore rarely stands in proportion to the benefit. Whether the effort is worth it in your case can be settled in an initial conversation.

Do we need Lucanet, or does Excel do?

Lucanet is not a must. We choose the tool to suit the mandate. Lucanet takes on consolidation and planning, Power BI the ongoing reporting, Excel the calculation that is not worth industrialising.

Do you work with our tax advisor?

Yes, that can be part of the mandate. We monitor the bookkeeping on an ongoing basis and coordinate with your tax advisor rather than setting up a second set of accounts alongside. For the annual financial statements we take on the work that has to come out of management accounting.

What is an Independent Business Review?

A neutral assessment of a company's economic position and of its projections, prepared for a third party – usually for a bank, a shareholder or an investor. It is normally commissioned and paid for by the company itself: the bank requires it, the borrower places the engagement. Our client is therefore the company the report is about. The trigger is often a financing decision or a breached covenant in the loan agreement.

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