Introduction
This HVAC business was generating nearly $800,000 a year and still felt like it was running paycheck to paycheck. The owner knew how to run a crew and close jobs, but not whether the business was working for him.
Vendor payments were going out late, job margins were unclear, and tax season brought a bill instead of a plan. The books existed, but no one was using them to make decisions. When the owner came to Stratovus, he was stuck and knew it.
The Starting Point
Before any financial planning could happen, the books needed to be dealt with. Two years of records had never been reconciled end to end. Accounts were inconsistent across all five bank and credit accounts. Vendor balances were unreliable. There was no clear picture of what the business owed, what it owned, or what it had earned.
The owner had been making decisions on hiring, equipment purchases, and pricing off of bank balances. At $798K in revenue, that had stopped working.
The Finance Reset: Getting the Books Right
The engagement started with a Finance Reset. Every account was reconciled across both years. Transactions were corrected, vendor balances were brought current, and a consistent close process was established so the owner works from current numbers every month. The Finance Reset closed with a financial scorecard showing where the business stood against the owner’s goals.
The Finance Reset also showed that the business had no tax planning and no job-level margin tracking.
| Outcome | Result |
|---|---|
| Books reconciled | 24 months in 5 weeks |
| Monthly close process | Established, completed within 5 business days |
| Vendor balances | Reconciled and current |
| Tax position | Visible and addressable for the first time |
| Financial scorecard | Delivered at close-out, benchmarked against owner goals |
Stratovus CFO: Building Monthly Reporting
With clean books in place, the owner moved into Stratovus CFO. The first step was building reporting he would look at every month. That meant tracking what matters for an HVAC business: labor cost per tech, margin per job, and fixed cost coverage.
A real-time dashboard was set up showing cash on hand, accounts receivable aging, margin per job, revenue per tech, labor cost per tech, and budget-to-actual variances. Monthly reviews were added to the calendar. For the first time, the owner could answer basic questions about his own business without waiting on anyone else.
| Metric Added | Impact |
|---|---|
| Real-time dashboard | Replaced gut decisions with current data |
| Cash flow visibility | Added across all job reviews |
| Labor cost per tech | Tracked and benchmarked for the first time |
| Margin per job | Visible within 48 hours of job close |
Stratovus CFO: Leading the Financial Function
The engagement covers Accounting Oversight and Reporting, Tax Readiness, and Financial Planning and Strategy. Dan leads the financial function month to month and works with Stratovus’s accounting partner to keep the books current. With input from Stratovus’s tax partner, he gives the owner tax recommendations to take to his tax preparer.
The numbers showed the owner could hire a second crew, that two service lines were priced below actual cost, and what taxes would look like this year.
| Decision | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Hiring plan | Approved addition of 2 technicians with onboarding schedule |
| Service line margins | Identified two services priced below true cost |
| Tax position | Estimated liability reduced by over $22,000 |
| Owner visibility | Monthly reviews driving active growth and hiring decisions |
Conclusion
At nearly $800,000 a year, this business had the revenue but no current picture of where it went, and the owner was making every major decision from bank balances. With the books in order and someone watching them every month, he approved a hiring plan and cut his estimated tax liability by over $22,000.
“Stratovus helped us get our finances in order and gave us the confidence to move forward. We’re not second-guessing every decision anymore.”
Owner, HVAC Contractor