Ten working days from messy data to a pack you trust

The method is a cycle, not a workshop with slides. We find out what you need to see, test whether the data can support it, build, hand over, then run the month on a published calendar. Dates move only when the inputs do.

The five-step cycle

Discovery call

We ask what decision is waiting on a number, who currently compiles the month, and which systems hold revenue, cash and people cost. We want the last two monthly packs even if they disagree with each other, a trial balance or P&L export, and a plain list of legal entities and currencies. We also ask who will own the pack on your side after handover — a name in the diary, not “the finance folder”. The call is thirty minutes. You leave with a one-page note on sprint versus retainer, and a request list for the audit. We leave with enough to price a scope rather than a guess.

Data audit

Before a model is promised we test whether the month can be rebuilt from source. Completeness means every bank account, wallet and entity in the story actually appears in the files. Duplicates are the silent tax on marketplace exports. Currency rates must be named — month-end, daily average, or the rate in the ledger — or SGD reporting will drift. Period cut-offs decide whether a late invoice belongs to this month or the next; we write the rule down. You receive a short audit note: what is ready, what is missing, and how that changes the calendar. That note is the last moment to resize the sprint.

Build sprint

We assemble the model and the pack against the format agreed on the call. Definitions are locked: what counts as revenue, what sits in contribution, how headcount cost is rolled up. Two rounds of edits are inside the sprint so the file already speaks in your channel names and your board’s vocabulary. We do not save a third round for “when there is time”; if a third is needed, it is a change to scope and we say so. During the sprint you will see a working draft, not a reveal at the end. The sprint is typically two to three weeks of desk time after the audit is clean.

Handover

A live session walks through how the pack is refreshed, where each figure is sourced, and which cells you may edit without breaking the trail. We record the session and leave a short instruction — a page, not a manual — covering the monthly sequence and the two or three traps we already hit in the build. Access is documented: who can see the working file, who can change mappings. After handover you should be able to produce a draft without us in the room. If a retainer follows, this is also when the monthly calendar is written into both diaries.

Monthly rhythm

Once the pack is live the month has a shape. Days 1 to 3 are collection: bank, ledger, billing, ads, payroll. Day 4 is the internal draft, when we still have time to chase a missing export. Day 5 is release — the pack as a dated file, not a moving tab. Day 8 is the review: variances, the one or two questions the figures raise, and any adjustment to the next forecast. Ad-hoc board questions sit outside this spine and are answered from the same model, usually inside two working days. The calendar is published at the start of the retainer so nobody is surprised by the date.

What we need from you

Access and files

Read access to the ledger (Xero, QuickBooks or NetSuite) or a complete export
Bank and payment-processor exports for every account in the story
Billing or commerce export that explains revenue by channel
Headcount or payroll summary, even if it is a simple sheet
Last two management packs, however imperfect
A named owner on your side for questions during the sprint

We do not need a perfect close to start

A late ledger slows the first month; it does not block the audit. We would rather see the messy files than wait for a version somebody “will clean up on Friday”. The audit is how we learn what “clean” would even mean for your stack.

Calendar of a month

1–3

Collection

Feeds land, cut-offs are applied, and missing files are chased while there is still week left.

Internal draft

The pack is whole enough to criticise. Oddities are listed, not hidden in a plug.

5 + 8

Release and review

Day 5 ships the dated file. Day 8 is the conversation: variance, forecast, next action.

Quality checks before anything ships

Tie to the bank

Cash in the pack must reconcile to the bank and processor statements for the same cut-off. If it does not, the pack does not go out. A “timing difference” is named and dated, not used as a blanket.

Cut-off and recoverability

Every material line can be rebuilt from a source file. We keep a short trail so a challenged figure can be recovered in the meeting, not “looked up later”. A second person on the desk reads the pack before release.

If data is a mess

Sometimes the audit shows that entities are mixed, currencies are applied by habit, or three months of marketplace reports are missing. We do not pretend a five-day close is available in that state. The audit note will say which gaps change the calendar, which can be patched with a one-off mapping, and which belong to your accountant before analytics can be honest. Pricing and dates are confirmed only after that note. A longer build is still a build — it is simply a different scope, written down, rather than a quiet slide in week four.

Walk the cycle on a call

Bring the last pack and the question it could not answer. We will map it onto discovery, audit and a first date.

Book a 30-minute review

See the buy options

Sprint, monthly retainer or quarterly board cycle — all priced in SGD before work starts. Open pricing.