Senior finance leadership, without the full-time hire.
For owner-led businesses doing about $1M to $25M a year that have outgrown a bookkeeper and cannot justify a full-time CFO. Twenty years in finance leadership, including AIG and Kemper, now applied to your books, your margins and your next decision.
Prices are on this page. Every engagement starts with a call to confirm the fit.
The business is growing. The numbers are not keeping up.
Revenue goes up, the team is busy, the calendar is full. And still, when someone asks what last quarter's margin was, the answer is a guess. The books close late or not at all. Cash gets tight for reasons nobody can name until the CPA explains them in April.
None of this means the business is weak. It means finance has not kept pace with it. Adding a report, a tool or a hire does not fix that. Someone reading the numbers with you, every month, does.
- You hear about a cash problem when it is already a cash problem.
- Margin by line of business, job or producer is a guess.
- The books close weeks late, so every decision runs on last quarter.
- Your CPA sends a cleanup invoice every spring.
- Prices are set by what the competition charges, and you hope the gap covers it.
- You are the last person in the business to get paid.
I have spent twenty years inside the numbers. Here is what I keep seeing.
I ran finance for AIG's consumer insurance business across 17 countries in Latin America, led FP&A and transformation at Kemper, and earlier worked at Lehman Brothers, PwC, PepsiCo and Pernod Ricard. In those companies the numbers arrived on time, reconciled, with someone accountable for them. Decisions were made on current figures.
Since 2018 I have done the same work for owner-led businesses through Consultgenix, and the pattern repeats. The business works: customers keep coming, staff are busy, revenue goes up. What is missing is anyone reading the numbers alongside the owner. So prices come from the competition's rate card, margin news arrives from the CPA once a year, and every hire starts with a look at the bank balance.
That is the gap this practice fills. Books closed by the 12th and reviewed line by line. A cash view that reaches thirteen weeks out. Pricing, hiring and growth decisions made with someone who knows your numbers and will tell you plainly what they say. For independent insurance agencies in Florida, I also handle the pieces that trip up generic bookkeepers: carrier commission statements, premium trust accounts and producer splits.
If any of this sounds like your business, the next step is a 30-minute call. Bring the question that is bothering you. I will tell you whether I can help, what it would cost, and if I am not the right fit, who might be.
P.S. The books do not have to be in order before we talk. A messy file is useful on a first call: it shows me exactly where the month is leaking.
Built for owners who
Run a real business and want the numbers to show it.
Not a fit: businesses that want a bookkeeper to pay bills and run payroll, need same-day answers on everything, or plan to stay on desktop QuickBooks or spreadsheets.
- Run an independent P&C insurance agency in Florida with 1 to 15 staff and want books closed by the 12th, trust account reconciled, producer splits tied out.
- Run an owner-led service business doing $1M to $25M and have outgrown the bookkeeper but cannot justify a full-time CFO.
- Lead a PE-backed or family-owned company with a transaction, a capital decision or an annual plan on the table and no finance lead to prepare it.
- Want to stop guessing on pricing, hiring and growth and start deciding with current numbers.
- Are looking at AI or automation for finance and want the workflow assessed before buying the tool.
Four ways to work together. One call first.
Fixed monthly fees, billed on the first. You keep your own QuickBooks Online subscription and bank feeds, so your data never sits in someone else's system. Every price here is real; the call decides which tier fits.
Books
- Up to 2 bank and card accounts
- Under 150 transactions a month
- P&L, balance sheet and reconciliations
- Email support during the close
Books plus Review
- Up to 5 accounts, under 400 transactions
- Payroll entries and sales tax prep
- One-page commentary on what changed and why
- 30-minute monthly review call
Books plus Controller
- Receivables and payables managed
- Location and line-of-business tracking
- 13-week cash forecast
- Quarterly planning session
Fractional CFO
- Pricing, hiring, cash and growth decisions
- Monthly review with a finance partner who knows your numbers
- Board- and lender-ready reporting
- On call when something does not look right
Insurance agency add-on, $250 a month, covers carrier commission and premium trust reconciliation. Onboarding $750, once. Catch-up for books that are behind, $300 per extra month, scoped before monthly service starts. Three-month minimum, then month to month with 30 days' notice. Corporate finance, transaction support and AI workflow assessments are fixed-fee projects, scoped and priced in writing after the call.
Clear numbers, on the 12th, every month.
A package you can read in ten minutes: profit and loss by line of business, balance sheet, cash on hand in weeks, what you paid yourself, and a one-page note on what changed and why. On the Review tier and above, a 30-minute call to walk through what the numbers mean for the next decision.
For agencies, the package also ties commission revenue to carrier statements, reconciles the premium trust account and shows producer payouts against the same statements the revenue came from.
The five jobs of a finance function.
Every finance function, from a two-person agency to a $900M insurer, has the same five jobs. Most owner-led businesses are missing two or three of them. The first call finds out which.
- CloseNumbers you trustBooks reconciled, reviewed and delivered on a date you can plan around, not three weeks after the month ends.
- CashThirteen weeks outA rolling view of receipts and disbursements, so a shortfall is a plan with weeks of notice, not a Friday surprise.
- ForecastThe year as a planA budget you reforecast each quarter, so every hire and every spend commitment is made knowing what it does to year-end cash.
- ReportTen minutes, not ten tabsA one-page view of the five to eight numbers you decide on, written for an owner, not an auditor.
- SystemsOne source of truthAccounting, bank feeds and reporting connected, with automation that runs without babysitting. AI assessed on the workflow, not bought on the demo.
Four steps from first call to clean numbers.
Talk
A 30-minute call. Bring the question that is bothering you, not a clean file. You leave knowing whether I can help and roughly what it costs.
Scope
A written scope, fixed fee and start date within two business days. No hourly billing, no surprises on the invoice.
Onboard
Read-only access to QuickBooks and bank feeds, catch-up work if the books are behind, and a chart of accounts built around how you make decisions.
Run
Books by the 12th, a review call on what changed, and decisions made with current numbers. Quarterly, we look ahead instead of back.
Bring the decision you need to make.
The call is free and the advice on it is real. Not every call leads to an engagement, and that is fine.
Work directly with the person who signs off on your numbers.
Consultgenix is led by Derrek Space, a finance executive with twenty years across insurance, healthcare, consumer goods and financial services, an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Connecticut, and Intuit QuickBooks Online certifications at Level 1 and Level 2. Work is done by Derrek or a team he trains and reviews. Nothing goes out without his sign-off.
About Derrek Career, writing and credentials at derrekspace.com →
Questions before you book
Do you file our taxes?
No. You keep your CPA. You get a clean, reconciled file your CPA can work from without a cleanup invoice, and I answer their questions directly during tax season.
Our books are months behind. Can we still start?
Yes. Catch-up is scoped and priced before monthly service begins, at $300 per extra month, so you know the full cost up front.
How long is the commitment?
Three months, then month to month with 30 days' notice. You keep your own QuickBooks Online subscription and bank connections, so leaving is simple if you ever want to.
Do you only work with insurance agencies?
No. Agencies are the specialty. Owner-led service businesses with similar needs are welcome, and advisory work covers the industries I have run finance in: insurance, healthcare, consumer goods and financial services.
Do you work with businesses outside Florida?
Yes. The work is remote first. Clients in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach can meet in person when it helps.
Do you work in Spanish?
Yes. English, Spanish and French, with you, your staff and your CPA. Se habla español.
Bring your numbers. Leave with a next step.
A 30-minute call to find out whether this is a fit. No preparation needed, and the books do not have to be clean first.
Or email [email protected]
Notes from Derrek
Finance, strategy and leadership for operators, a few times a month on Substack. Practical, no fluff.