The Groundwork DoneThe Judgement YoursTraceable to Its Source
Six of them, two ways of thinking, one answer.
The ask that sounds like your Monday.
A number is only as good as the audit trail behind it.
Adjusted EBITDA was last quarter, 11% ahead of the same quarter last year.
Change one of the four and the figure, the memo and the deck move together, and the trail stays attached.
PRESS THE FIGURE
YOU’RE ALWAYS IN THE LOOP
Your team does not guess. It stops on the questions only you can answer, and the loop stays open until you have.
ASK YOUR TEAMAPEX, FY25
Two companies file as Apex. Which one do you mean?
Entity
No EBITDA is filed for FY25. Upload the statements, or leave it out?
Missing data
Press any stage. The figure becomes what it was, with the reason it moved underneath.
$38.4mADJUSTED EBITDA, Q3
14 OCT, 09:21Legal settlement and restructuring identified as one-offs. $2.3m added back.
A time, a name and a source on every change. That is what your auditor asks for.
ANY STAGE, ANY TIME
The same ask, three quarters running. What you have to give them shrinks every time, because they already know your firm.
FIRST QUARTERTHREE DAYS
Refresh the model.
You give them the model, the peer set and which assumptions are yours to set.
SECOND QUARTERONE DAY
Refresh the model.
Nothing new to give. They come back to the two assumptions you changed last time and ask whether they still hold.
THIS QUARTERA MORNING
Refresh the model.
Nothing to give. They open on last quarter's assumptions, keep the ones that held, and bring you the one that did not.
The same standard. Less of your week.
Thirty minutes, a team, and a question you already have.
OFFICE OF THE CFO