Services
Decision Support & Profitability
The big decisions in a project firm — what to price, when to hire, which work to take — deserve more than gut feel. Get CFO-level judgment on the decisions that move your margin.
The problem: the biggest decisions are made on the least evidence
Think about how the most consequential decisions in a project firm actually get made. A pricing decision on a competitive bid, worked up in a rush, margins shaved to win. A hiring decision made because the pipeline feels busy. A pursuit accepted because revenue is revenue — discovered six months later to be the firm's lowest-margin project of the year. A practice area launched on enthusiasm and closed on economics.
These are the decisions that determine whether a firm is profitable. And they are usually made with the least structured analysis of anything in the business — a few back-of-the-envelope numbers, a confident partner, and the pressure of the moment. The accounting tells you the outcome afterward. Nobody helps you think it through beforehand.
This is the gap a CFO is supposed to fill in a larger company: the person who sits beside the decision-maker, tests the assumptions, prices the risk, and asks the uncomfortable question before the commitment is made. Most firms of 10 to 250 people don't have that person — and a generalist outsourced finance firm, fluent in month-end closes but not in backlog, bench cost, or project margin, isn't equipped to be one.
Decision support is that function, built specifically for project economics. Not a report you read, but an advisor in the room: someone who knows what your margins actually are, what your people actually cost, and what the numbers say about the choice in front of you.
What you get
Practical, decision-ready financial analysis and an advisor who shows up for the moments that matter.
Pricing and bid support
Bottom-up pricing built from real labor cost, overhead, and target margin — not from what the last bid cost plus a guess. Know your floor, know your walk-away, and stop donating margin to win work.
Project go/no-go analysis
A structured look at pursuits and new work: expected margin, staffing requirements, cash timing, client concentration, and opportunity cost. Some of the most profitable decisions a firm makes are the projects it declines.
Hiring and capacity timing
When does the backlog justify the hire — and when does the bench need to be worked off first? Staffing analysis that connects hiring decisions to forecasted utilization and margin, so growth is deliberate.
Monthly profitability cadence meeting
A standing session with leadership focused on one question: where is the margin, and what's moving it? Project profitability, staffing economics, and pricing outcomes — reviewed consistently, acted on promptly.
Typical cadence: monthly, or on call
Two ways to engage, depending on how decisions flow through your firm:
Monthly profitability cadence
A recurring working session with leadership: project profitability, pricing outcomes, staffing economics, and the decisions queued up for the month. Steady, structured, and cumulative — the firm's financial judgment gets sharper over time.
On-call decision support
Direct access when a real decision is in front of you: a bid to price, a hire to time, a pursuit to evaluate, a commitment to weigh. You bring the decision; we bring the analysis and the candor.
Who it's for
This service is for project-based firms of 10 to 250 people whose decisions have real financial stakes — which is to say, all of them, but especially firms where pricing pressure is real, growth is on the table, or margins have been softer than the effort seems to justify. If you make consequential calls on projects, people, and pricing and wish someone with financial judgment were in the room, this is that person.
Outcomes
- Disciplined growth: hiring, new practice areas, and new offices happen because the economics support them — not because the moment feels right.
- Margin protection: pricing from cost and strategy rather than reflex stops the slow erosion that competitive bids and thin pursuits quietly produce.
- Better no's: a structured go/no-go discipline means declining the work that would have cost you money — often the highest-margin decision of the year.
- Calmer leadership: when decisions are analyzed before they're made, there's less second-guessing after. Confidence comes from having done the work.
Frequently asked questions
Is this like having a part-time CFO?
It is the closest equivalent — a finance advisor who knows your firm, your numbers, and your project economics, and who sits in the decisions that matter. It is more focused than a generalist fractional CFO, though: everything centers on project-firm profitability — pricing, staffing, and margin — rather than broad finance administration.
What kinds of decisions do you actually help with?
Pricing and bid strategy, go/no-go on pursuits, hiring and capacity timing, adding a practice area or office, taking on debt or a credit line, partner compensation and distributions, and any project or staffing decision where the financial stakes are real. If the question involves money and judgment, it is in scope.
Can you just be on call when something comes up?
Yes — for firms that don't need a monthly cadence, on-call decision support is available. You get a set number of advisory hours and direct access when a decision is in front of you. Most firms find the monthly cadence pays for itself, but the on-call option is there.
Related services
Decision support draws on everything else in the finance function.
Forecasting & Financial Planning
Ground every decision in a rolling 12-month plan anchored in backlog, staffing, and margin.
Cash Flow & Financial Visibility
Know the cash consequences of big decisions with a rolling 13-week cash forecast.
Performance Reporting & KPIs
See how past decisions played out with a monthly management pack and KPI dashboard.
Run your projects with financial confidence.
Talk to a finance advisor who speaks project economics — backlog, bench, WIP, and margin — not just accounting.