Greater Chicago & the Midwest
Strategic Financial Decision Support for Growing Businesses
See the financial impact of important decisions before you make them.
We help privately held and PE-backed businesses evaluate growth initiatives, hiring, pricing, capital investments, expansion, acquisitions, and other strategic decisions using practical financial modeling, scenario analysis, and management insight.
- Scenario & sensitivity analysis
- Business case modeling
- ROI, payback & break-even
- Executive decision summaries
Designed for growing businesses generally between $10M and $100M in annual revenue. Serving businesses throughout Greater Chicago and the Midwest.
The core problem
The Most Important Decisions Usually Happen Before the Numbers Do
Historical reporting explains what has already happened. Most important business decisions require a forward-looking financial view—and internal finance teams are usually consumed by accounting, close, and reporting.
The value of FP&A is not only explaining results. It is helping management evaluate choices before capital is committed.
Five strategic questions
Can Your Finance Function Answer These Questions Quickly?
What is the financial impact of this decision?
What assumptions must be true for the investment to succeed?
What happens if the assumptions are wrong?
How much cash and capital will the decision require?
What alternative creates the strongest financial outcome?
Good decision support helps management understand both the expected return and the conditions required to achieve it.
Warning signs
Signs Your Business Needs Stronger Decision Support
Major decisions are made primarily from intuition.
Financial analysis is requested after management has already chosen a direction.
Strategic models take days or weeks to prepare.
Different teams use different financial assumptions.
Hiring decisions are not connected to revenue or capacity requirements.
Pricing changes are evaluated without understanding volume sensitivity.
Capital expenditures are approved without ROI or payback analysis.
Management has difficulty comparing competing investments.
Growth initiatives are not connected to cash requirements.
Scenario analysis requires rebuilding spreadsheets manually.
Finance is too consumed with accounting and reporting to support strategic projects.
Management cannot clearly identify the assumptions driving expected returns.
If several of these conditions exist, the company may have a decision-support gap rather than simply a modeling gap.
What it means
Financial Analysis Built Around the Decision
Strategic decision support begins with the business question rather than the spreadsheet.
Decision
What decision is management considering?
Drivers
What operational and financial assumptions determine the outcome?
Scenarios
How do different assumptions change the result?
Economics
What happens to revenue, EBITDA, cash, and return?
Action
What should management consider before proceeding?
The objective is not to create the most complicated model. It is to give management a clearer view of the tradeoffs.
Hiring & workforce
Understand the Economics Before Adding Fixed Cost
Hiring is one of the most common—and most consequential—strategic decisions in a growing business.
Questions we help answer
- When is the position actually needed?
- What revenue supports the hire?
- What is the fully loaded cost?
- How long until the investment reaches break-even?
- What happens if revenue growth is slower than expected?
- Can existing capacity absorb additional demand?
Typical analysis
- Headcount cost
- Benefits
- Commissions
- Hiring timing
- Revenue capacity
- Productivity
- Utilization
- Break-even
- Cash impact
Every hiring decision creates both an operating commitment and a financial commitment.
Pricing decisions
Evaluate Price, Volume, and Margin Together
A pricing decision involves more than the percentage increase—it changes volume, mix, contribution margin, and ultimately EBITDA.
Questions we help answer
- What margin improvement does the proposed increase create?
- How much volume could decline before the price increase becomes unfavorable?
- Which customers are most sensitive to pricing?
- Which accounts are currently below minimum margin?
- What cost inflation must be recovered?
How the impact flows
- Price Change
- Volume Response
- Revenue
- Contribution Margin
- EBITDA
A pricing decision should consider both the margin gained and the volume potentially at risk.
Related: Profitability Analysis for customer, product, and account-level margin visibility.
Capital investment
Make Capital Decisions With a Clear View of Return and Cash
Common investments
- Equipment
- Automation
- Technology
- Vehicles
- Facilities
- Production capacity
- Energy efficiency
- New locations
Typical analysis
- Upfront investment
- Incremental revenue
- Cost savings
- Operating costs
- Working capital
- Useful life
- Payback period
- ROI
- NPV where appropriate
- Cash requirements
- Financing impact
The lowest-cost option is not always the best investment, and the highest-return option may not always fit the company’s liquidity capacity.
Growth & expansion
Understand What Growth Requires Before Committing to It
Growth frequently requires investment—people, capacity, inventory, and working capital—before the revenue is realized.
Decisions we support
- New territory
- New location
- Product launch
- Additional sales team
- Capacity expansion
- New service line
- Geographic expansion
What management should understand
- What is the break-even revenue?
- How long until profitability?
- How much cash is required?
- What happens if ramp-up takes six months longer?
- What management milestones indicate whether the investment is working?
From opportunity to return
- Growth Opportunity
- Required Investment
- Revenue Ramp
- Margin
- Working Capital
- Cash
- Return
Make vs. buy
Evaluate the Full Economics of Internal vs. External Options
What the analysis includes
- Labor
- Management overhead
- Fixed cost
- Variable cost
- Quality
- Capacity
- Implementation costs
- Contract terms
- Scalability
- Risk
Common applications
- Manufacturing
- Administrative processes
- Technology
- Logistics
- Professional services
- Back-office functions
The decision should evaluate both financial economics and operational tradeoffs.
Scenario planning
Understand What Could Happen—Not Just What You Expect to Happen
Upside Case
What happens if key assumptions outperform—demand, pricing, ramp speed, or cost control?
Base Case
Management's current expected outcome, built on the assumptions leadership believes are most likely.
Downside Case
What happens if demand, margin, timing, or costs underperform relative to plan?
Typical outputs
- Revenue
- EBITDA
- Cash
- Liquidity
- Headcount
- Debt capacity
- Return
A decision becomes more valuable when management understands the range of possible outcomes—not just the expected case.
Sensitivity analysis
Identify the Assumptions That Matter Most
Sensitivity analysis asks a simple question in many directions: how does the return change if one assumption moves?
What we flex
- Price changes
- Volume changes
- Labor costs rise
- Customer retention declines
- Implementation is delayed
- Interest rates change
- Investment costs increase
Illustrative price / volume sensitivity
| EBITDA impact | -10% volume | -5% volume | Plan | +5% volume | +10% volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -3% price | Low | Low | Low | Mid | Mid |
| Plan price | Low | Mid | Mid | Mid | High |
| +3% price | Mid | Mid | High | High | High |
Illustrative only. Actual matrices are built from your drivers and economics.
Sensitivity analysis helps management focus attention on the assumptions that have the greatest financial impact.
Break-even analysis
Know What Has to Be True for the Decision to Work
Break-even analysis translates an investment into the operating threshold it must clear.
Revenue required for a new location
Units required for equipment investment
Customers required for a new service
Volume required to support additional headcount
Price required to maintain target margin
Management should understand the operating threshold at which an investment begins creating economic value.
Acquisitions
Evaluate Acquisitions Through the Full Financial Picture
Strategic decision support can assist management with acquisition modeling before and after a transaction.
Analysis
- Purchase price
- Financing
- Debt service
- Synergies
- Integration costs
- Working capital
- Revenue growth
- EBITDA
- Cash flow
- Returns
- Downside scenarios
Outputs
- Acquisition model
- Debt capacity
- Purchase-price sensitivity
- Return analysis
- Cash requirements
- Integration forecast
Financial modeling supports management’s evaluation of a transaction but does not replace legal, tax, accounting, valuation, or transaction advisory diligence.
Cost & margin
Evaluate Cost Actions Without Losing Sight of the Business
Cost reduction should be evaluated in context—some spending protects growth, and some savings do not recur.
Questions we help answer
- Which costs are truly discretionary?
- Which costs support future growth?
- What is the financial return of eliminating an expense?
- Does a reduction create operational risk?
- Which savings are recurring versus one-time?
Eliminate
Low-value spending.
Optimize
Processes or resources that can become more efficient.
Protect
Capabilities required to sustain growth or customer value.
The objective is not simply lower spending. It is better allocation of resources.
Business cases
Turn Strategic Ideas Into Quantified Business Cases
Strategic initiatives should carry a clear financial structure that management and owners can review consistently.
Objective
What are we trying to accomplish?
Investment
What must the company commit?
Benefits
What financial or operating improvements are expected?
Timing
When will benefits occur?
Risks
What assumptions could change the outcome?
Return
What economic value could be created?
Potential deliverables
- Executive summary
- Financial model
- Scenario analysis
- Return calculation
- Implementation milestones
- KPI tracking
Decision framework
A Consistent Framework for Better Decisions
Define the Decision
Clarify the exact management question.
Identify the Drivers
Determine the operational assumptions that matter.
Model the Economics
Quantify revenue, costs, EBITDA, cash, and return.
Stress-Test the Assumptions
Evaluate downside and upside scenarios.
Support the Decision
Summarize tradeoffs, risks, and management options.
Finance should clarify the economics of the decision while management retains responsibility for choosing the path forward.
Deliverables
Strategic Decision Support Deliverables
Where it fits
Strategic Decision Support Is Where FP&A Creates Its Greatest Value
Reporting
What happened?
Analysis
Why did it happen?
Forecasting
What is likely to happen?
Scenario Planning
What could happen?
Decision Support
What should management consider doing?
The evolution from reporting to decision support is what transforms finance from a reporting function into a business partner.
Engagement models
Use Strategic Finance Support When and How You Need It
Project-Based Support
Best for a specific decision such as:
- Investment
- Acquisition
- Pricing initiative
- Expansion
- Cost restructuring
Fractional FP&A Support
Best when management regularly needs:
- Scenario analysis
- Strategic modeling
- Executive decision support
- Business cases
- Management partnership
See Fractional FP&A and Interim FP&A Leadership.
Strategic decision support can be delivered as a focused project or as part of an ongoing fractional FP&A relationship.
Fit
Decision Support for Growing Private Businesses
Typical client profile
- $10M–$100M revenue
- Privately held or PE-backed
- Existing accounting team
- Limited dedicated FP&A capacity
- Significant growth or investment decisions
- Increasing financial complexity
- CEO, CFO, or Controller seeking analytical support
Timing
When Should You Bring in Strategic Finance Support?
Management is evaluating a major investment.
Company is considering hiring or expansion.
Pricing strategy is changing.
CEO needs an independent financial perspective.
CFO or Controller lacks analytical capacity.
Business is considering an acquisition.
Company faces multiple competing capital priorities.
PE ownership requires stronger return analysis.
Existing models cannot answer strategic questions quickly.
Management wants to test downside scenarios before committing.
External support should strengthen management’s decision process—not replace management judgment.
Greater Chicago
Strategic Finance Support Across Greater Chicago
We support privately held businesses in Chicago and the surrounding business communities, combining remote analysis with on-site executive collaboration where appropriate. Broader Midwest support is also available.
- Chicago
- Naperville
- Oak Brook
- Downers Grove
- Lisle
- Schaumburg
- Aurora
- Bolingbrook
- Northbrook
- Deerfield
FAQ
Strategic Decision Support Questions
What is strategic financial decision support?
It uses financial modeling, scenario analysis, and business insight to help management evaluate important decisions before committing resources—clarifying the economics, alternatives, assumptions, and risks behind a choice.
How is this different from financial forecasting?
Forecasting establishes a view of expected future financial performance. Strategic decision support evaluates how specific management actions could change that outlook.
What decisions can you help analyze?
Hiring, pricing, capital investment, expansion, outsourcing, cost structure, acquisitions, financing, and other strategic initiatives.
Do you make the final recommendation?
The analysis identifies financial implications, alternatives, assumptions, and risks. Management retains responsibility for the business decision.
Can you build a model for a single decision?
Yes. Strategic finance engagements can be project-based and scoped to one decision.
Can strategic decision support be part of fractional FP&A?
Yes. It is often one of the highest-value components of an ongoing fractional FP&A relationship.
Can you help evaluate acquisitions?
Yes, through financial modeling, scenarios, financing, cash-flow analysis, and integration planning within the agreed scope. Legal, tax, valuation, and formal transaction diligence may require separate specialists.
Do we need sophisticated software?
No. The analytical approach should be appropriate for the decision and the complexity of the company.
Diagnostic
How Strong Is Your Company's Decision-Support Capability?
The FP&A Maturity Assessment evaluates scenario planning and decision support along with nine other dimensions of your finance function.
- Financial reporting
- Budgeting
- Forecasting
- Cash flow
- Revenue planning
- Profitability
- KPIs
- Systems
- Finance partnership
Next step
Make Important Decisions With a Clearer View of the Financial Impact.
Evaluate growth, hiring, pricing, investments, acquisitions, and other strategic choices with practical financial modeling and scenario analysis designed around the decisions management needs to make.
Serving privately held and PE-backed businesses throughout Greater Chicago and the Midwest.