Resources

Strategic Financial Decision-Making

Ryan Forrestal

Dealer or Direct: What Each Channel Actually Earns a Boat Builder

Selling direct can earn a boat builder more per boat, because the builder keeps the dealer margin. But direct sales also add selling, warranty, and carrying costs, and they rarely fill every build slot. So the better channel depends on what each boat nets after every cost, and on how many slots you can fill. […]

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Ryan Forrestal

Inventory Turns, Absorption, and the Overhead Your Plant Isn’t Charging

Manufacturing overhead absorption is how a plant assigns fixed overhead, such as rent, equipment depreciation, and supervision, to the units it makes. A predetermined rate, built on normal capacity, therefore spreads the fixed cost across expected output. But when actual output falls short, the unabsorbed overhead does not belong in inventory. Instead, it hits the […]

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Ryan Forrestal

Nine Logistics KPIs an Owner Should See Every Monday

Moving companies and logistics companies run the same engine: trucks, crews or drivers, fuel, routes, a promise to the customer, and cash that arrives after the work. Because of that, the same trucking and logistics KPIs work for both. Therefore, nine numbers, reviewed every Monday, tell either owner where to look. So this post shows […]

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Ryan Forrestal

How to Build a Small Business Budget You’ll Actually Use Every Month

A small business budget is a month-by-month plan for revenue, costs, and cash, so you can compare it to actual results every month. Build it in five steps: first, start from last year’s real numbers; then set revenue by month, budget direct costs as a percent of revenue, add fixed overhead, and finally check the […]

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Ryan Forrestal

Preparing a Business for Sale: What Buyers Look at in Your Financials

Preparing a business for sale means making your financials something a stranger can trust. So buyers check three years of consistent statements, whether earnings are real and repeatable, how much cash the business needs, and how much depends on you. But we advise starting at least a year before you want to sell. So this […]

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Ryan Forrestal

HVAC Profit Margin Shrinking? Four Causes and How to Fix Them

When an HVAC company grows revenue 30 percent and the HVAC profit margin still shrinks, the cause is almost always one of four things. Pricing didn’t keep pace with costs. Growth landed in a lower-margin service line. The shop added crews faster than the schedule could use them. Or overhead grew ahead of the revenue […]

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Ryan Forrestal

Job Costing for Movers: Cost Per Move, Cost Per Truck, Cost Per Crew Hour

Job costing for movers means working out what each move actually cost to run, then comparing that number to what you charged. Three inputs drive it: cost per crew hour, cost per truck hour, and materials per job. Most movers price from a market rate or a competitor’s quote. So some jobs quietly lose money […]

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Ryan Forrestal

Manufacturing CFO Services: What a Fractional CFO Does in a $5M–$25M Plant

Manufacturing CFO services for a $5M to $25M plant focus on three things a standard bookkeeping setup rarely gets right. Does the plant cost products accurately enough to price with confidence? Does fixed overhead actually make it into unit cost as volume changes? And does someone manage cash tied up in inventory and receivables deliberately, […]

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Ryan Forrestal

What Should Labor Cost Be as a Percentage of Revenue in Home Services?

Labor cost percentage for a home services business commonly lands somewhere in the high teens to mid-thirties percent of revenue. That wide range isn’t a mistake. It depends on whether you’re measuring direct field labor alone or a fully loaded figure. It also depends on your specific service mix. The number matters less than knowing […]

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Ryan Forrestal

Customer Deposits Are Not Revenue: The Mistake That Overstates Every Boat Builder’s P&L

Customer deposits are not revenue. They’re a liability. The boat builder still owes the customer a finished boat, or the money back, until the work is actually done. Recording a deposit as revenue the day it hits the bank is the single most common mistake we see in boat builders’ books. It’s a mistake that […]

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Ryan Forrestal

Fractional CFO for Boat Builders: WIP, Deposits and Delivery Timing

A fractional CFO for a boat builder does one thing generic bookkeeping almost never gets right. They separate what A fractional CFO for a boat builder does one thing generic bookkeeping almost never gets right. They separate what the builder has actually earned on a long, deposit-funded build from cash that’s just sitting in the […]

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