Where a build can start.

Seven places a build can start: a budget that takes three rounds to agree, input costs that have jumped, a new owner or a new finance director, a product cost nobody trusts, a planning process nobody signs, commercial analytics that are messy or missing, or a five-year plan the budget ignores. Many businesses need more than one of these, and plenty of what we build fits none of them.

Budgeting, forecasting and board reporting

For every company, and for groups with several companies and currencies.

• “The budget is rebuilt three times before the three statements agree, and the forecast is never compared with what happened.” →

  A budget built from targets, cost-centre spending, people, capital projects, financing and tax, with the P&L, balance sheet and cash flow held together, and each cost-centre owner submitting their part for approval. Then a rolling forecast, updated each month from the S&OP plan, with its accuracy measured.

• “Every month the forecast moves, and nobody can tell me why.” →

  Where the year will land, with the walk from the budget to the landing, and a rolling eighteen-month forecast with the actuals blended in.

When input costs jump

For any company that buys an input whose price can jump and sells at prices it sets: manufacturers, brand owners, and distributors or retailers facing a supplier's increase.

• “Energy and materials have moved since the budget was costed. What does each product cost now, where will the year land, and how much should we pass on?” →

  The budget, the price lists and the customer contracts were all set at the old costs. The work starts with what each product costs now and what each customer and category earns after every deduction, then how much of the increase to pass on, to whom and when, what that will cost in lost volume, and what actually reaches net sales once rebates are paid.

A new owner or a new finance director

For a goods business with a new owner or a new finance director, or one just carved out of a larger group, whose board and lenders want its figures within 100 days.

• “The business has a new owner, or I have just taken over finance. The board and the lenders want a budget, cash week by week and a five-year plan they can hold us to.” →

  What the business really earns comes first, then a budget from the signed S&OP plan with thirteen weeks of cash beside it, then the five-year plan in three scenarios, all on the same figures.

Product cost and production analytics

For companies that make what they sell, in their own plants or through contract manufacturers. The software works from what your systems already record: stock movements, production orders, recipes and the costs of each cost centre.

• “What did that product actually cost to make? Nobody can say.” →

  A standard cost set last January, a cost of goods figure nobody can break open, and a margin the plant doesn't believe.

• “We're moving the plant and I need to know which products should be made where.” →

  Lines that could go to either site, and a decision that sets your cost base for years. The software models your plants and lines, prices each option on your own costs with its one-off costs and payback, and finds the lowest-cost network.

• “R&D has a new recipe, and sales wants a price by Monday.” →

  Build the recipe from priced ingredients and packaging, choose the plant and line, and see the full unit cost, compared with every other plant that could make it and with the products it would sit beside.

The S&OP process

For any company that plans supply against demand: a manufacturer planning its lines, people and purchases, a distributor planning stock, a retailer planning replenishment.

• “The S&OP meeting is where the forecast gets argued about, and the plan never gets signed.” →

  Demand has one number, supply has another, and operations run on whichever they heard last. A monthly cycle that ends in a signed plan, with every change recorded, settles it.

• “The forecast is wrong every quarter in the same direction, and nobody can tell me whether the planners are adding anything.” →

  A statistical forecast locked before anyone changes it, every planner's change recorded with a reason, and the difference measured after the month, so you can see product by product and market by market whether the changes helped.

• “The bank wants working capital down by year end, and every planner tells me their stock is the stock we need.” →

  Stock targets by product class, excess and obsolete stock shown on their own, and a what-if that shows how much cash a lower target frees and which products it would put at risk.

• “Next month's plan looks fine on paper, and we don't know if we have the people to run it.” →

  The crew each line needs on each shift, by skill, against the people rostered; the gaps, what closing each one costs, and a hiring plan by skill and month.

• “A big customer wants far more next month. Can we deliver it?” →

  How much can be delivered, and by when, answered on the spot. When supply is short, the software allocates it by customer priority, fair share or margin, and flags any contract it would breach.

Commercial analytics and profitability

For every company that sells goods, whether it makes them, distributes them or sells them in its own shops.

• “Net sales up, gross profit down, and nobody can tell me why.” →

  Commercial says it's mix, operations says it's cost, and finance has three spreadsheets. The software shows what moved and why, by customer, product and market, in figures that add up to the total change.

• “Our biggest customer keeps growing, and I suspect we lose money on every case we sell them.” →

  Profit by customer after every discount, rebate and piece of trade spend, and after the cost of delivering and marketing to them. The customers whose discounts cost more than they bring in are ranked by the profit at risk.

• “We spend a fortune on promotions and can't tell which ones pay.” →

  Promoted sales beside base sales, margin by depth of discount, and the customers who take promotional money while their volume falls. Before a promotion runs, the return it should bring after its cost, from the extra volume you expect.

• “Finance, sales and operations each report a different net sales number.” →

  It looks like a reporting problem, but it is a problem of definitions: what gross sales includes, which deductions sit on the invoice and which come later, what counts as a customer. Every build starts by agreeing those with your people and writing them down.

Strategy and the long-range plan

For the board and the management team, when the plan has to reach beyond next year.

• “Our five-year plan is a spreadsheet nobody can update, and next year's budget ignores it.” →

  A plan over several years in downside, base and upside, with a P&L, balance sheet and cash flow for each, the initiatives that reach it, and year one setting the budget's targets.

And more

Plenty of what we build sits outside these five areas: new product launches, purchasing, brand strategy, or the report somebody rebuilds by hand every month.

• “We launch new products every year, and nobody checks whether they earned what the business case promised.” →

  A launch pipeline from idea to launch, with a checklist for marketing, R&D, supply, finance, sales and regulatory at each stage; first-year volumes in the demand plan before the product code exists; and a review of year-one sales and margin against the plan.

• “We found out a supplier was in trouble when the line stopped.” →

  A purchase plan within lead times, order sizes and supplier capacity; a scorecard for every supplier, on time and in full, with its lead-time swings and risk; and a list of the materials that depend on a single risky supplier.

• “We have a lot of brands, and no clear view of which ones to back.” →

  A health check for every brand against its category and last year, ending in a plain verdict: is the problem volume or profit, and does it lie in price, trade terms or cost? Then initiatives sized in gross profit and carried into a five-year plan.

• “We sell software to manufacturers and consumer-goods companies, and our pilots stall because nobody on our side knows how their business really runs.” →

  For software and AI vendors. We join your team as forward-deployed engineers: we work out with you which use cases your customers will pay for, build them, and check what your product produces against how their business really runs. We know how these companies run across every key process, from production, procurement and finance to sales, planning and human resources.