Your first consultation

The first consultation is where most of the work happens. It is a working session, usually sixty to ninety minutes, in which we build your budget or forecast from your own figures. You do not need to prepare a presentation — you need to bring the records you already keep.

What to bring

Bring what you have; missing items are normal for a first session and we will name them together. None of the following is required to start:

• Your last three months of bank statements — the rawest version you can export, even a PDF is fine.
• A list of fixed costs: rent, wages, utilities, software subscriptions, loan repayments. Rough numbers are better than no numbers.
• Your invoicing record for the last three months — who you billed, when, and when each invoice was actually paid.
• Any budget you already tried to write, even one that stopped working. It tells us where your assumptions broke.
• One sentence on the question you most want answered. Examples: "Can I afford to hire a second cook in February?" or "Why is there never cash at the end of the month even though we are profitable?"

What happens in the session

1. We read your numbers together — revenue pattern first, then fixed costs, then the lines that move around. You explain; we ask.
2. We build the one-page budget live, in a spreadsheet you keep. You see every assumption as it is entered.
3. We extend it into a 13-week cash-flow forecast, marking the weeks where the invoicing-to-payment gap is widest.
4. We agree what to watch in the first month — usually three or four lines that decide whether the budget holds.

What you leave with

• A one-page budget spreadsheet, structured around your real cost lines, that you can edit.
• A 13-week cash-flow forecast in the same file, with the tight weeks flagged.
• A short written note — three to five points — on the assumptions most likely to be wrong and how to check them.
• An open email channel for the follow-up questions that come up in the first weeks.

What you do not leave with

You do not leave with a guarantee, a payment plan, or a long-term contract. If the session shows that your question needs a licensed auditor, a tax accountant, or a regulated adviser, we will say so and point you to one — that referral is part of the session, not an extra.