In a crisis, sequence decides: first make liquidity visible, then create room to act, then restructure. We provide the financial leadership that carries this operationally and delivers the data base for the restructuring concept.
Earnings have deteriorated, cash is getting tight, or a bank demands a restructuring concept before it extends lines. Often, exactly what is needed now is missing: a robust weekly cash forecast, an integrated plan and a clean three-year history.
Time pressure is high, the number of counterparties grows – banks, credit insurers, shareholders – and management is tied up in running the business.
The interim CFO first takes over cash management: a rolling weekly forecast on the direct method, prioritisation of payments, continuous testing for illiquidity and imminent illiquidity. That is the stage without which everything else is moot.
Then the data base for the restructuring concept: an integrated plan of profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow, reconciled balances, documented one-off and special effects. The opinion itself is written by an auditor or a specialised adviser – but the numbers come from the company, and the better they stand, the shorter and cheaper the opinion becomes.
Plus the communication with banks, credit insurers and shareholders, which in a crisis decides the room to act.
Cash on a weekly basis, open liabilities by due date, credit lines and collateral, review of the grounds for filing for insolvency. Without this picture every measure is a guess.
Rolling 13-week forecast with weekly variance analysis, prioritisation of payments, approach to lenders.
Integrated plan of earnings, balance sheet and cash, documented schedule of one-off and special effects, clean three-year history – the data base for the opinion.
Support for the measures, ongoing reporting to banks and shareholders, documentation for the successor.
Suitable profiles usually within 24 hours. In a crisis this is where availability separates itself from promises.
No. The opinion comes from the auditor or a specialised adviser. We provide the data base without which it cannot be written.
Making cash visible on a weekly basis. Without a robust 13-week forecast you can neither talk to banks nor assess the company's ability to continue.
The interim CFO runs the finance function and is accountable for it. The insolvency-law duties remain with the managing directors; the documentation they need is produced in the finance function.
Day rates between EUR 1,400 and 2,500. In crisis mandates the weekly utilisation is usually higher than normal.
The service: Interim CFO. Day rates by role are on the pricing page.
Terms in the glossary: Restructuring, Restructuring opinion under IDW S 6 and 13-week cash flow forecast.
Related situation: 13-week cash flow forecast. In depth in the article 13-week cash flow forecast: structure, template and the typical mistakes.
All triggers for an interim CFO engagement at a glance: triggers overview.