CFO guides for companies under pressure
Long-form, practical guides on the situations that bring most companies to a CFO: a covenant test you might miss, a lender asking for forbearance terms, cash that runs short, or a restructuring decision.
Bank Covenant Compliance: A CFO's Guide
How covenants are tested, how to forecast headroom, and what to do before a breach rather than after.
Read the guideA CFO's guide to PE portfolio value creation
When a sponsor buys your company, the mandate changes overnight. PE portfolio value creation is the CFO's job now: converting the thesis in the investment committee memo into EBITDA, cash, and a clean exit. This guide covers what the sponsor actually expects, the levers that move enterprise value, and the reporting discipline that keeps you off the board's problem list.
Read the guideA CFO's guide to cash and working capital
Profit is an opinion; cash is a fact. Managing cash and working capital is the discipline of turning that fact in your favor — shortening the time between paying for something and getting paid for it. This guide walks through the cash conversion cycle, where capital gets trapped, how to prioritize vendors when money is tight, and how the 13-week forecast ties it all together.
Read the guideForbearance Agreement Checklist: What to Read, What to Negotiate
When you trip a covenant or miss a payment, a forbearance agreement is usually the first document your lender puts in front of you. It is not a rescue; it is a standstill with conditions, and most of those conditions are negotiable if you know what you are looking at. This checklist walks through every major clause, what the bank is actually protecting, and where you have room to push back.
Read the guideChief Restructuring Officer vs Fractional CFO
When a company is under pressure from its lenders, two roles come up constantly, and they are easy to confuse. Understanding chief restructuring officer vs fractional CFO — what each one actually controls, what it costs, and the point at which one becomes the other — is the difference between over-hiring for a covenant hiccup and under-hiring for a genuine solvency crisis. Both roles are legitimate; they simply fit different depths of trouble.
Read the guideOut-of-Court Restructuring vs Chapter 11
A distressed middle-market company usually has two broad paths to fix an unsustainable balance sheet: an out-of-court restructuring negotiated privately with its lenders and creditors, or a Chapter 11 filing that reorganizes the business under court supervision. Choosing between them is one of the most consequential decisions a stressed company makes, and it turns on a handful of tradeoffs — cost, speed, control, disclosure, and how many parties have to say yes. This is an educational overview, not legal advice; work the specifics with restructuring counsel.
Read the guideBook a working session.
A 20-minute call, a clear read on your numbers, and a straight answer on whether a fractional CFO is the right call right now.