Financial Control
I need to know where the money is going.
Visibility, control, and decisions about money, so cash stops being the thing that surprises you.
Schedule a ConversationThe pattern
What this usually looks like
Six things owners tell us in the first conversation. Open the one that sounds like this month.
Get control of the money.
Know where the money is going and what is making money. See what's coming next before cash becomes the emergency.
What would LINX fix?
Cash keeps surprising you
The bank balance is doing the job of a financial system. What is coming in, what is going out, payroll, debt, and the obligations two months from now are not visible far enough ahead to decide early.
What LINX would change
- Build a forward view of cash, week by week
- Show when the pressure hits and how big it is
- Put a weekly money review on the calendar
What better looks like: Cash decisions get made early and on purpose, instead of late and under pressure.
You can't tell what's making money
Revenue can grow while margin, labor, pricing, and overhead quietly eat the gain. Nobody can point at the job, the product, or the customer that pays.
What LINX would change
- Separate revenue growth from profit growth
- Find where margin leaks and what drives the cost
- Build a few plain measures you will use
What better looks like: You know where profit is made, where it is lost, and what to change first.
Pricing feels like a guess
Prices were inherited, copied from a competitor, or nudged up now and then, without a clear line back to labor, overhead, capacity, and the margin you need.
What LINX would change
- Work out what it truly costs you to deliver
- Set the margin the business has to earn
- Replace one-off judgment with pricing rules
What better looks like: Pricing supports the company you are trying to build, not just the work you are trying to win.
The reports come late, or they don't help
The numbers exist. They arrive too late, they change shape month to month, or they do not answer the decisions on your desk.
What LINX would change
- Clean up how the reporting is put together
- Name the few financial numbers that matter here
- Connect the bookkeeping to the decisions you make
What better looks like: Financial reporting becomes something you run the month with, not a record of a month that is already gone.
Receivables, payables, payroll, and debt don't line up
Money due in and money due out are managed in different places, so you cannot see the week where the timing turns against you.
What LINX would change
- Put receivables, payables, payroll, debt, and taxes on one timeline
- Show the squeeze before it arrives
- Name who owns each obligation coming up
What better looks like: You see cash pressure early enough to pick the least expensive way through it.
You need clarity on capital before you decide
The company may need funding. The use of the money, whether the business can handle the payments, and the expected return are not clear enough yet to defend the decision.
What LINX would change
- Get specific about what the money is for
- Test the options against real cash flow
- Send a qualified need to LINX Leverage - Funding
What better looks like: Capital becomes a decision about a specific move, not a reaction to pressure.
Takes you to LINX Leverage - Funding.
The cost
What it's costing you
Money problems are the easiest ones to price, which is why we start here when the owner is not sure the work is worth it. A margin leak is a percentage of everything you sell. A receivable that arrives 30 days late is a loan you are making to your customer at your own expense. A price that has not moved in three years while labor did is a discount you are giving without meaning to.
Put your own numbers in and see the figure before you talk to anybody.
Included
What sits inside financial control
- Bookkeeping
- Cash-flow management
- 13-week cash forecasting
- Financial reporting
- Pricing and margins
- Breakeven analysis
- Financial KPIs
- Debt and working capital
- Business funding
- Financial process improvement
Three interventions
How we fix it
01 Diagnose and Improve
Find the real constraint and set the order things get fixed in.
- We look at where the money actually goes
- What each job or product contributes
- Where margin leaves the building
- You get the constraint, priced, and the order to fix things in.
You see the real problem before you spend money on the wrong one.
02 Install Infrastructure
Put the tools, the process, and the accountability in the business.
- A cash view that looks forward
- Reporting that answers your decisions
- Pricing rules instead of one-off judgment
- A weekly money review that survives us
No binder. We install the machinery that runs the business, and your team runs it.
03 Provide Capacity
Add hands or capital without defaulting to another full-time salary.
- Bookkeeping and back-office hands when the work is real but a full-time hire is not
- LINX Leverage - Funding when capital is the legitimate constraint
- Capital should support a sound operation, not hide a broken one.
When the plan needs hands, we provide them, and capital when that is the real constraint.
Choosing
What we'd put in place
Compare
LINX Connect
Starts at $1,500 a month
LINX Performance
Starts at $10,000
LINX Leverage - People
Starts at $12 an hour
Proof
What changed for one owner
From $1.2MM Annual Losses to Profit in 15 Months
A hospitality business had piled up more than $7.0MM in losses in under seven years despite strong revenue potential. We led a full financial and operational reset that reversed a $1.2MM+ annual loss run rate and reached $107K in annualized operating profit within roughly 15 months.
A $1.2MM annual loss run rate, turned into $107K of annualized operating profit in about fifteen months.
Ways in
Learn it, or have us fix it
Not every problem needs an engagement. There are three ways to move on this one.
Start with a free tool
A worksheet, checklist, scorecard, or calculator that shows you the size of the problem before anyone sells you anything.
Browse free resourcesLearn how to fix it
A focused set of LINX lessons that teaches you or your team to run the fix yourselves. The Academy opens soon, and you can tell us which set you want first.
Explore lessonsHave LINX help
Bring us in to find the constraint, build the system, run the change, provide the people, or look at capital when that is the real limit.
Schedule a ConversationQuestions
Questions owners ask about cash
Why can a profitable business still be short on cash?
Profit is an accounting result. Cash is timing. You can post a profitable month and still be short because your customers pay in 45 days, inventory and payroll went out first, and loan principal never appears on the profit and loss the way it hits the bank. A forward cash view shows the gap weeks before it arrives. Read the full answer
What is 13-week cash forecasting, and do I need it?
It is a rolling view of money in and money out for the next 13 weeks, updated once a week. Most owners need one the moment receivables, payroll, and debt payments stop lining up. The first one takes a few hours to build and about twenty minutes a week to keep current. Read the full answer
Should I fix pricing or cut costs first?
Usually pricing. It moves margin without removing capacity, and cost cutting often removes the people or the service that produced the demand in the first place. Either way it starts with what it truly costs you to deliver, which most companies have never worked out. Read the full answer
Fit
Is LINX right for your business?
The strongest fit here is a company with real revenue whose reporting has not kept pace with it, and an owner who is running the business off the bank balance.
A strong fit
- The business has real demand and real potential
- Systems, financial controls, and leadership have not kept pace with the company
- Capacity, or the owner role itself, has not kept pace with the company
Not the right fit
- The owner wants a report but is unwilling to make changes
- The fundamental business economics do not work and there is no willingness to confront them
- The need is primarily legal, tax, clinical, or another specialty outside LINX's scope
You do not need another binder. You need better decisions, better systems, stronger ownership, and enough capacity to make the changes stick.
See who we usually work withSee also
Keep reading
- Business consulting for trades and contractors: job costing, change orders, and cash that arrives after the work does.
- Business consulting for ecommerce and DTC: what happens when the cash is sitting in inventory.
- Revenue & Growth: when the money problem turns out to be a pricing and pipeline problem.
- Why can a profitable business still be short on cash? in the answers hub.
Start the conversation
Let's find out what the money is actually doing.
A conversation, not a pitch. We'll tell you what we'd look at first, and whether we're the right people for it.
