You Can’t Make Smart Moves with Bad Numbers
By John Charette, CPA, CMA – Owner & Your CFO at Phoenix CFO Solutions
Your reports say one thing. Your gut says another. You’re looking at your P&L and wondering why it doesn’t match what’s actually happening in your business. The numbers feel off. The trends don’t make sense. You’re not confident in the data—so you hesitate. You put off decisions. Or worse, you make the wrong ones.
This is what happens when your finances aren’t trustworthy. And it’s more common than you think. Whether it’s sloppy bookkeeping, delayed reporting, or a chart of accounts that doesn’t reflect how your business actually runs, the result is the same: you're flying blind.
You can’t run a serious business if you can’t trust your numbers. Not when you’re trying to grow, hire, price right, or make big decisions. And you definitely can’t build confidence with lenders, investors, or your team if your numbers are always fuzzy.
This isn’t about perfection—it’s about clarity. And the first step to fixing it is admitting that your current setup isn’t giving you what you need.
What It Feels Like When the Numbers Are Solid
When your numbers are right, you feel it. They match your reality. They’re delivered early in the month—accurate, clean, and easy to understand. They don’t just show what happened—they explain why it happened.
You know your gross margin, your net margin, and what’s driving both. You see trends in real time, not in hindsight. You can look at your reports and know exactly which team, client, or product is pulling its weight—and which one’s dragging things down.
It’s not just peace of mind. It’s power. With clean, consistent reporting, you start making sharper moves. You spot issues before they snowball. You double down on what works. You price with confidence. You hire at the right time—not out of panic.
Most important? You stop wasting energy second-guessing yourself. The numbers have your back.
Why Most Business Owners Are Operating on Bad Data
Here’s what I see over and over again: the numbers are late, wrong, or useless.
Maybe you’ve got a bookkeeper who’s just “getting it done,” but the categories don’t mean anything. Expenses are scattered across vague buckets like “miscellaneous” or “other.” Your COA is a Frankenstein of old accounts from three years ago. And your reports show you something—but nothing actionable.
Maybe your reports show profit, but your bank account says otherwise. Or your balance sheet has weird unexplained balances that just keep rolling over month after month. Or your payroll is coded wrong. Or your revenue’s not even being recognized in the right period.
When this happens, it erodes your confidence. Every time you look at your financials, you leave with more questions than answers. So you stop relying on them. You fall back on instinct, hustle, and hope. And eventually, that stops working too.
How I Fix It at Phoenix CFO Solutions
When I come into a business as your fractional CFO, my first job is to rebuild trust in the numbers. That starts with cleaning up the foundation. We go deep into your chart of accounts and rebuild it so it actually reflects how your business operates. No more junk categories, no more guesswork.
From there, I establish a monthly close process that works—fast, clean, and consistent. That means your books close in the first few days of the month, not halfway through the next one. You get your reports on time, and they make sense.
Then we start layering in structure. Accrual-based reporting, margin tracking, department-level performance, rolling forecasts. You’ll see where the money’s going, where it’s coming from, and where you’re making—or losing—profit.
And I don’t just send you reports and disappear. I walk you through them. I help you understand what the numbers are saying, what decisions to make next, and how to keep the whole system running lean and strong.
This is how you move from reactive to proactive. This is how you start using your financials like a CEO—not like someone trying to survive tax season.
The Bottom Line: Don’t Build a Business on Broken Numbers
You can’t grow what you don’t understand—and you can’t understand your business if your financials are lying to you.
If you’re done second-guessing your numbers, it’s time to build a system you can actually trust. Clean books, clear reports, real-time data, and strategic support. That’s what I deliver at Phoenix CFO Solutions.
Let’s take a hard look at how your current financials are built—and rebuild them the right way. Because waiting another quarter to “figure it out” is just another quarter lost.
Book a free consultation today. You needed clean, reliable numbers yesterday.
The next best time is right now.