Service: Financial Planning & Strategy, Accounting Oversight, Tax Readiness & Compliance Support | Stratovus CFO Services
Client: LTL Transportation Logistics Carrier | S-corp | 28 employees | $4.7M revenue
Introduction
At $4.7M in annual revenue, this North Texas logistics carrier looked healthy from the outside. The trucks were running. The lanes were full. Drivers were getting paid. But inside the business, leadership was operating without a clear financial picture, and the cost of that was showing up in ways that are easy to miss until they aren’t.
Payroll was a weekly anxiety. Vendor payments were frequently late, which was damaging supplier relationships the business depended on. The budget was a static spreadsheet that hadn’t been updated in months. Monthly variance between plan and actuals regularly exceeded $120,000, and no one had a system for understanding why.
The business didn’t have a revenue problem. It had a visibility problem. At this revenue level and with 28 employees depending on consistent payroll, that distinction matters.
The Situation
LTL carriers operate on thin margins with high fixed costs and unpredictable revenue cycles. Freight delays, fuel volatility, driver availability, and payment timing from brokers and shippers create a cash flow environment that punishes businesses running without forward-looking financial controls.
When Stratovus came in, three problems were driving the instability:
Cash balances fluctuated week to week with no reliable forecast in place. Leadership couldn’t tell, with any confidence, whether there would be enough to cover payroll the following Friday. Decisions were being made reactively rather than from a plan.
Vendor payment cycles were running 39 days on average. Late payments were triggering supplier friction, cutting off access to priority service and favorable terms on parts and expedited repairs. For a carrier, that kind of supplier relationship damage compounds quickly.
The budget hadn’t been maintained as a living document. Forecast variance exceeding $120,000 per month wasn’t being reviewed or understood. The gap between what leadership expected and what was actually happening financially had no mechanism for correction.
Phase One: Building Financial Controls That Actually Work
The first order of work was replacing reactive cash management with a system the business could run from. Dan built a 13-week rolling cash forecast updated weekly, accounting for every inflow and outflow including payroll, fuel surcharges, broker payment cycles, and lane-specific costs.
A mandatory payroll cash threshold of $95,000 was established, ensuring that regardless of what else was happening in the business, payroll was never at risk. Vendor payables were prioritized by urgency and strategic importance, enabling the business to get ahead of payment cycles and begin repairing supplier relationships.
A real-time dashboard was built showing cash on hand, accounts receivable aging, fuel efficiency by vehicle, revenue per lane, and budget-to-actual variances. Monthly leadership reviews were added to the calendar. For the first time, the ownership group had a financial picture that was current, complete, and tied to the decisions they were making every week.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll cash cushion | Unpredictable | Minimum $95,000 maintained every payroll week |
| Vendor days outstanding | 39 days | 25 days |
| Forecast variance (plan vs. actuals) | Over $120,000/mo | Under $22,000/mo |
| Financial dashboard | None | Real-time, reviewed monthly with leadership |
Phase Two: From Controls to Strategy
Once the financial controls were in place and the business was running from a current, accurate picture, the engagement shifted to the forward-looking work that Financial Planning and Strategy is built for.
Monthly leadership meetings moved from reactive to structured. Reviews covered forecast-to-actual performance, lane profitability, driver cost per mile, and fuel efficiency benchmarks. The ownership group went from wondering whether they could make payroll to making active decisions about hiring drivers, locking fuel contracts, and evaluating lane expansion.
Stratovus’s accounting partner maintained the books and supported the monthly close process. Stratovus’s tax partner coordinated with the carrier’s tax preparer on quarterly estimates and year-end positioning, ensuring the tax picture stayed current as revenue and expenses shifted throughout the year.
The questions that had been sitting unanswered started getting answered. Which lanes are actually profitable after fuel and driver costs? The numbers identified two underperforming routes. Can we afford to add drivers ahead of a volume increase? The forecast said yes, with a specific timing window. What does the tax position look like at current revenue? No longer a year-end surprise.
| Decision | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Driver hiring plan | Approved with timing tied to cash forecast thresholds |
| Fuel contract evaluation | Fixed contract locked, reducing monthly fuel cost variance by $1,900 |
| Lane profitability | Two underperforming routes identified and repriced |
| Vendor relationships | Restored, with early payment discounts generating $8,700 in savings over six months |
| Tax position | Coordinated quarterly, no year-end surprises |
Conclusion
A logistics business at $4.7M in revenue with 28 employees and unpredictable cash flow isn’t a small problem. It’s a leadership problem, specifically the absence of financial leadership that keeps the business operating from a current, accurate picture instead of last month’s bank statement.
When that leadership is in place, the decisions change. Payroll stops being a weekly anxiety. Vendors get paid on time. Lane strategy is driven by actual margin data. And the ownership group can focus on running the business rather than managing the uncertainty of not knowing where it stands.
“I’ve spent most of my career focused on operations, drivers, equipment, customers, and keeping freight moving. Finance was always something we looked at after the fact, and eventually that catches up with you. Working with Dan helped us get control of the business in a way that was practical and easy to use. He brought structure to the financial side without overcomplicating it, and that gave us a lot more confidence in the decisions we were making. He understood our business quickly, and that made a real difference.”
Let’s talk about what changes when your numbers are finally working for you.