Business efficiency and process review: Before you fix anything, find the cause.
A finance lens and a systems lens on the same business, in one engagement. Six areas scored out of 100, every problem ranked and costed in your own staff hours. A fixed price, a document you keep, and no obligation to hire us for the fixes.
What lands on your desk
A document, not a chat.
Everything below is in every report. There is no version of this where you get a verbal summary and a follow-up email.
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p. 1
01
The scored report
An overall score out of 100 and one for each of the six areas, on the same five bands every client is measured against.
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p. 9
02
Every opportunity, ranked
Each one rated on impact, frequency, pain and feasibility, with the ratings shown so you can disagree with them.
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p. 12
03
Recommended fixes
What to do, in what order, and what it takes. Whether or not we are the ones who do it.
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every page
04
Staff hours, counted
Time currently spent on each process, and how much is potentially recoverable. Estimates from your own numbers, not guarantees.
written so someone else
could act on it without us
What we score
Six areas. Thirty-six questions.
Finance and systems in the same pass. Pick an area to see two of the questions we ask about it.
Financial management
Margin by customer and product, cash visibility, budget against actual.
- Q1 Can you produce gross margin by product line without rebuilding it in a spreadsheet?
- Q4 How many working days after month-end are the management accounts signed off?
Operations
Whether the process is written down, followed, and survives a resignation.
- Q7 When a customer order arrives, how many systems is it entered into before it ships?
- Q10 How often does a stock count materially disagree with the system?
Technology
Your website and the systems behind it: what you own, what you use, and where spreadsheets fill the gaps.
- Q13 How fast does your website load on a phone, and who can update it without calling a developer?
- Q16 Which two systems do people most often copy data between by hand?
Automation
Every point where a human retypes something a system already knows.
- Q19 How many hours a month go into entering supplier invoices?
- Q22 Which recurring task would break first if your volume doubled?
Data and reporting
How long the numbers take, and whether anyone argues with them.
- Q25 Who can answer a new question with data without asking someone else?
- Q28 How long does the board pack take to build, and how current is it when it lands?
Risk and controls
Approvals, segregation of duties, and what one mistake would cost.
- Q31 Who can approve a payment, and who checks that they did?
- Q34 If your longest-serving operations person left tomorrow, what stops?
How it runs
Six steps. About four to five hours of yours.
Most of the work is ours. Here is exactly where we need your team, and for how long.
- 01 Day 1
Intake call
We learn the business, agree scope and send the document list.
Your time 45 min
- 02 Week 1
Questionnaire
Thirty-six questions across the six areas, answered by you or your finance lead.
Your time 40 min
- 03 Weeks 1–2
Documents and systems
Read-only access. We look at how the work actually moves, not how it is meant to.
Your time Mostly ours
- 04 Week 2
Stakeholder interviews
The people who do the work, one at a time, in plain language.
Your time 3–5 people, 30 min each
- 05 Week 3
Report written and scored
Scored on the five bands, every opportunity rated, workings shown.
Your time None
- 06 Weeks 3–4
Roadmap presentation
We walk your team through it. You keep the document.
Your time 60 min, your team
that’s it. Time estimates are being confirmed with our first clients.
Independent by design
We also sell the fixes. Here's the deal.
You should know this before you read a single recommendation, not after.
- 1 We are not a reseller and not in any vendor’s partner channel. No software, platform or hosting plan we recommend earns us a commission.
- 2 If the best person to do a fix is someone else, the report says so, by name if you want it.
- 3 Where we could do the fix ourselves, we say so and price it separately. The diagnostic never depends on it.
- 4 The report is yours. Take it to your existing provider, or to nobody.
Scope
What the diagnostic doesn't cover.
So nobody is surprised later.
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Not included: Tax advice
We can recompute and check tax positions, but advice and lodgement stay with your accountant.
Who does itYour accountant or tax agent
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Not included: Statutory audit
This is a management review, not an assurance engagement.
Who does itYour external auditor
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Not included: Bookkeeping
The diagnostic reviews how the books are kept. If you want us to keep them afterwards, we can, quoted separately.
Who does itYour bookkeeper, or us afterwards
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Not included: Guaranteed savings
We estimate recoverable hours and show the workings. We do not promise a number.
Who does itNobody, honestly
Pricing
Fixed price. Known before we start.
Launch pricing for our first clients: rates rise as our client list grows. Scope moves with headcount, systems and sites; we expect most businesses of 10 to 50 people to fit the base rate.
For scale: four people each retyping for five hours a week costs about $57,000 a year at $55 an hour. Work out yours
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Snapshot
Where is the money going?
from $390 USD
The same six areas, scored on the same bands, with your biggest opportunities ranked. Enough to see where the money is going, and whether the full diagnostic is worth doing.
- Six areas scored out of 100
- Top opportunities, ranked
- Credited in full if you upgrade within 30 days
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Full Diagnostic
The whole picture, ranked
from $1,800 USD
All 36 questions, a documents and systems review, stakeholder interviews, the full scored report and a roadmap presentation to your team.
- Every opportunity, costed in staff hours
- Workings shown for every rating
- Roadmap presentation, 60 minutes
- Three to four weeks end to end
- 51–100 people: usually from USD 2,800
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Fix it
When you want it done
Quoted per fix
Website rebuilds, dashboards, audit readiness, controls and reporting work. Priced once the diagnostic says what is worth fixing.
- Biggest win first
- Or hand the roadmap to anyone
- No reseller commissions
FAQs
The ones people actually ask.
Something else? Send us a message, or email hello@fd-consulting.example.
Contact usWhat do you need from us?
Read-only access to your finance and operations systems, your last three months of management reporting, and about three hours spread across your team. We send the full list after the intake call.
How long does it take?
Three to four weeks end to end for the Full Diagnostic, from intake call to roadmap presentation. The Snapshot is shorter. Exact turnaround is being confirmed.
Is this an audit?
No. It is a business and process review, not a statutory audit: no assurance opinion and no sign-off. Our finance practice brings Big Four audit experience, so the work has that rigour, but the result is advice, not an opinion.
Will you guarantee what we will save?
No. We estimate the staff time a process takes today and how much is potentially recoverable, and we show the workings. Anyone guaranteeing a number before they have seen your business is guessing.
We are about to rebuild the website or buy new software. Is this too late?
It is the best time. The report tells you which problems a rebuild or a new system would actually solve and which it would not, before you commit. It is written to be handed to anyone.
Where does our data go?
We work inside your systems or a secure, access-controlled workspace, with named, logged access under NDA. The detail, including jurisdictions and deletion, is on the data handling page.
Know the number before you spend.
Tell us what is going on. We listen, then tell you honestly whether a Snapshot, a Full Diagnostic or nothing at all makes sense.