Expertise

Five things I do well

This is not a list of everything I can do — it is a list of what is worth coming to me for.

Business valuation

Three methods calculated independently and reconciled into one number, with an explicit bridge from enterprise value to equity value.

When it makes sense

Sale or purchase of shares, investor entry, buy-out of a partner, succession, a dispute over value.

What you get

A spreadsheet model that recalculates when assumptions change, plus a document explaining every adjustment and its basis.

Discounted cash flow over five years, with terminal value and a sensitivity test on the cost of capital
Market approach on transaction multiples, with a discount for lack of marketability
Asset approach — adjusted net assets, including a liquidation variant
Enterprise value to equity bridge: net debt, one-off items, surplus cash
Method weights chosen to fit the company, not set to equal shares out of habit

I establish which part of the business earns and which part is being funded out of it. The answer usually surprises the board.

When it makes sense

Revenue grows while profit stands still. A suspicion that some clients cost more than they bring. Before deciding to close a business line.

What you get

A workbook that drills from a reported line down to the accounting entry, plus a management report with one conclusion per page.

Segment reporting reconciled to the profit and loss account to the last unit
Margin by client and by project, with shared cost allocated through an explicit key
Sensitivity test on the allocation key — does the conclusion survive a different split
Ratio analysis with a rating and a clear statement of which module drags the result down
Growth without result: where the margin visible in the price list disappears

When the question is “will we make it to the end of the quarter”, annual averages are useless. I count in weeks.

When it makes sense

Loss of liquidity, payment gridlock, a shareholder conflict, restructuring, a conversation with a bank or an investor.

What you get

A weekly dashboard plus a short note on how many weeks each decision buys.

Thirteen-week cash forecast, with inflows and outflows week by week
Payables queue settled first in, first out, with the amount at risk of being deferred
A safety threshold instead of zero — weeks to the wall, not weeks to an empty account
Scenarios: what deferring payment buys, what factoring buys, what cutting a cost buys
A panel refreshed weekly, so the board and the accounting team look at the same number

I build what the accounting system does not have: models, panels and scripts that turn a ledger export into a decision.

When it makes sense

The spreadsheet is no longer enough, the monthly report takes a week, and every version of the number is different.

What you get

A working tool with instructions, not a presentation about how it could look.

Automated reading of statements filed with the register — a dozen companies compared by one method
Management panels and presentations generated from data, not assembled by hand
Time records translated into client cost and departmental margin
Quality checks built into the tool — a document that checks itself
Documentation and a register of pitfalls, so the tool outlives my involvement

Statements, ledgers and time records are read by machines; conclusions and accountability stay with a person.

When it makes sense

Month-end takes weeks, the same report is assembled by hand, data sits in three systems and every version of a number is different.

What you get

A working pipeline with documentation and a register of pitfalls — a tool that outlives its author — plus a short team training.

Registry filings in XML loaded and analysed automatically — a dozen companies with one method
Rule-based ledger checks: around a hundred rules and several hundred tests that catch errors before month-end
Management report and presentation generated from the model — no retyping of numbers
Language models where the work is reading documents; arithmetic always in code, never in the model
An explicit boundary: normalisation adjustments, method weights and the conclusion are never delegated to the machine

A valuation stands on three legs. A conversation about value that touches none of them is a conversation about nothing.

Order matters here: working capital hangs under cash flow, not under cost of capital. It ties up cash; it does not change the discount rate.

Write two sentences about what it is. I will tell you whether it is my kind of work and roughly how long it takes.