Three pillars. One accountable firm.
Modern controllership, tax advisory, and fractional CFO leadership — under one roof, with one team that owns the outcome. Foundation first. Strategic elevation second. Sold separately when scope dictates; stacked together when you are ready for the full firm.
Clarity at every elevation.
Most $2M–$15M owner-led businesses pay for backward-looking compliance and never receive forward-looking visibility. We invert that arrangement. We take ownership of the close, the tax position, and the cash forecast in-house — and we bring a partnered CPA or Enrolled Agent in only where the law requires one.
The order is deliberate. We will not build a forecast on broken books, and we will say so on the first call. Every engagement moves through the same arc: a clean ledger first, a defensible tax position and forecast second, a board-ready finance leader in the room third.
Talk through your scope →
Slate to Summit. In that order.
Foundation first. Strategic elevation second. The same three-step arc on every engagement, whichever pillars you turn on.
A clean ledger, a closed month.
We take ownership of AP, AR, and month-end close. Books closed by the tenth business day, every month. Management-prepared financials your banker and your board can actually read.
A tax position you manage; a forecast you can defend.
Year-round tax planning and draft returns prepared in-house. A 13-week rolling cash forecast, updated monthly — weekly when the business demands it.
A Pulse Deck and a finance leader in the room.
A standardized monthly board-ready deliverable covering performance, cash, forecast variance, and the three decisions your leadership team needs to make this month.
Three pillars, scoped to where you are.
Start with the anchor and add pillars as the business demands them — or engage the full firm from day one.
| Pillar | Best for | Core deliverables | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modern Controllership | Owners who need books they can trust between meetings | Reconciled GL, management-prepared financials, AP / AR ownership | Monthly close by the 10th business day |
| Tax Advisory & Preparation | Owners who are done being surprised in April | Year-round planning, draft returns, sales-tax management | Quarterly planning + annual filing season |
| Fractional CFO & Advisory | Owners making capital, hiring, and growth calls | 13-week cash forecast, unit economics, the Pulse Deck | Monthly Pulse Deck + quarterly strategic review |
Modern Controllership
The foundation everything else stands on. Full-cycle bookkeeping on QuickBooks Online or Xero, with AP and AR workflows we own end-to-end and a month-end close that lands on the tenth business day — every month, no exceptions.
- Daily and weekly transaction categorization across banks, cards, and processors
- AP / AR workflow ownership — vendor scheduling and invoice follow-up
- Bank and credit-card reconciliation with accruals and adjustments
- Management-prepared P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow by the 10th
- Payroll GL posting, inventory and cost accounting where applicable
- Tech-stack integration and internal-controls design as you scale
Tax Advisory & Preparation
A tax position you manage year-round — not one you discover on April 14th. We handle the intelligence and the preparation in-house; your return is signed by our partnered CPA or Enrolled Agent, so nothing falls between the cracks.
- Year-round tax planning with quarterly checkpoints and an annual Tax Roadmap
- Entity structure analysis — LLC, S-Corp election, and C-Corp considerations
- R&D credit identification and documentation
- Multi-state sales & use tax nexus monitoring, registration, and filing
- Draft return preparation under PTIN — 1040 Sch. C, 1065, 1120S
- Final review and signature by a partnered CPA or Enrolled Agent
Fractional CFO & Strategic Advisory
A finance leader in the room — without the full-time hire. We translate your General Ledger into decisions: where the cash is going, which lines actually earn, and the three calls leadership needs to make this month.
- 13-week rolling cash forecast and runway visibility
- Unit economics by service line, job, or property — LTV, CAC, contribution margin
- Scenario and “what-if” modeling for headcount, launches, and market entry
- Capital-stack strategy and investor- or lender-ready data rooms
- Board-ready monthly Pulse Deck — our signature deliverable
- 12-month rolling financial model with quarterly deep-dives
The Pulse Deck. The only thing your board reads end-to-end.
A concise monthly brief for KPI visibility, cash position, and next decisions. A fixed template — never redesigned per client. Vertical KPIs swap by industry; everything else stays constant, delivered by the fifteenth business day.
- Performance — revenue, gross and operating margin against plan, with the so-what line on every variance over threshold.
- Cash — current position and the next 13 weeks, with variance to last month’s forecast.
- Forecast — updated 13-week rolling cash forecast and full-year outlook.
- Vertical KPIs — realization rate, NOI by property, or backlog and WIP earned, by industry.
- Three Decisions — the calls leadership needs to make this month, with the analysis behind each.
Three verticals. Deep finance fluency in each.
Every pillar is delivered with vertical-specific rigor — because the cost of getting it wrong is highest exactly where the work is most specialized.
Trust accounting that holds up.
Three-way IOLTA reconciliation every 30 days — audit-ready and documented. Clio, MyCase, or LeanLaw integration. Contingency-fee revenue recognition and partner-compensation discipline.
Discuss your firm →Portfolio clarity, entity by entity.
Multi-entity bookkeeping with property-level NOI and consolidated reporting. Cost-segregation coordination, REPS qualification documentation, and lender-ready packages.
Discuss your portfolio →A WIP your surety will accept.
Cost-code-level job costing, weekly during active phases. Defensible WIP schedules, margin-fade analysis by job and crew, and change-order tracking.
Discuss your book of work →Predictable, by design.
Every engagement is a flat monthly retainer, scoped to your volume, your vertical, and the pillars you turn on. No hourly billing for advisory work. No surprise invoices. Predictability is part of the deliverable.
You will know the number — and exactly what it buys — before anything is signed. Tell us where the business is today, and we will come back with a clear scope and a clear figure in a written proposal: five pages, maximum, no proposal theater.
Slate and Summit is the first finance partner we’ve had where I don’t worry about the books between meetings.
Stop guessing. Start deciding.
Thirty minutes with a principal. We learn the state of your books, your tax position, and your strategic visibility — and tell you honestly whether we can help. No pitch. No deck.
