Terms used in CFO Foundry

Clients invoiced in the current fiscal year.

Defined on Clients, retention and pipeline

An adjustment that raises EBITDA, for a cost that ends with the sale or does not recur.

Defined on Adjusted EBITDA and the quality of earnings

Reported EBITDA plus the add-backs and less the deductions: the earnings the business carries on its own.

Defined on Adjusted EBITDA and the quality of earnings; also on The monthly profit and loss statement

The part of a receivable that is not expected to be collected, decided invoice by invoice.

Defined on Receivables and payables, by age

Leavers over the average headcount of the same window, annualised, over the last twelve months.

Defined on Headcount, attrition and tenure

Net cash plus the undrawn part of the credit lines.

Defined on Cash flow and liquidity; also on Management dashboards, one per reader

Total assets less liabilities and equity. Zero when the balance sheet balances.

Defined on The balance sheet, down to the account; also on Mapping your chart of accounts to one standard

The hourly rate below which a billed hour loses money.

Defined on Departments and internal hourly rates

A driver figure a budget sets for itself, such as billable FTE or utilisation, stored in the budget alone.

Defined on The budget, measured against every close

A budget for one entity and year under a name: a draft until it is locked, then fixed. A change is a new version.

Defined on The budget, measured against every close

The revenue the team could bill with its capacity fully sold.

Defined on Cash forecast and EBITDA forecast

Opening cash divided by the average weekly outflow, with no inflows: how many weeks the cash would last.

Defined on Cash forecast and EBITDA forecast

The company's own list of accounts, as kept in its accounting system.

Defined on Mapping your chart of accounts to one standard

A workbook listing every generated file of an entity or the group, with links.

Defined on Excel workbooks for the management accounts

A department's revenue less its own direct costs, before overhead.

Defined on Departments and internal hourly rates

What an hour of the delivery team's capacity costs, with the overhead it carries.

Defined on Departments and internal hourly rates

A reader's first page, built from sections of panels the report already has, each as on its home view.

Defined on Report logins: a sealed copy for every reader

The folder structure that holds the company's source files and the generated workbooks.

Defined on Excel workbooks for the management accounts

The days since the due date. An item not yet due is current.

Defined on Receivables and payables, by age

The FTE of the delivery departments as a share of all FTE.

Defined on Headcount, attrition and tenure

A whole design under a name. Six ship with CFO Foundry, and a company can save its own.

Defined on Reports in your own colours and font

One named setting of a design, such as the accent colour, the card surface or the font. A design is the set of tokens that differ from the built-in one.

Defined on Reports in your own colours and font

Every line, and where the module has them, every account.

Defined on Excel workbooks for the management accounts

A cash forecast built from expected receipts and payments, each on its date.

Defined on Cash forecast and EBITDA forecast

Days payables outstanding: how many days of purchases the open payables represent.

Defined on Net working capital and the peg; also on Receivables and payables, by age

A figure the projection is built from, such as utilisation or cost per FTE, measured from the history or stated by a person.

Defined on Drivers, projection and statements

Days sales outstanding: how many days of revenue the open receivables represent.

Defined on Net working capital and the peg; also on Receivables and payables, by age

How many reminders a receivable has received.

Defined on Receivables and payables, by age

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.

Defined on The monthly profit and loss statement

Taking intercompany revenue and costs out of the group figures, so the group shows only business with third parties.

Defined on Several companies, one group report

The value of the business before cash and debt: here, adjusted EBITDA of the last twelve months times the multiple.

Defined on From adjusted EBITDA to equity value

One legal company in the group: one set of books, one currency, one trial balance.

Defined on Several companies, one group report

What the owners receive: enterprise value plus net cash, adjusted for the working capital deviation.

Defined on From adjusted EBITDA to equity value

An entity's standing rate, used for a month with no rate entered.

Defined on Several companies, one group report

Full-time equivalent: headcount weighted by each person's working time.

Defined on Headcount, attrition and tenure

The actual to date plus the forecast's remaining months, against the full-year budget.

Defined on The budget, measured against every close

Revenue less external services and subcontractors.

Defined on The monthly profit and loss statement

Net revenue retention without expansion: what is kept, at most 100%.

Defined on Clients, retention and pipeline

The currency the group report is stated in.

Defined on Several companies, one group report

A cash flow statement that starts from net income and works back to cash through the changes in the balance sheet.

Defined on Cash flow and liquidity

Transactions and balances between companies of the same group.

Defined on Several companies, one group report; also on The balance sheet, down to the account

Internal rate of return: the annual return that MOIC implies over the hold period.

Defined on From adjusted EBITDA to equity value

A what-if on the Projection page, applied to the drivers and saved nowhere.

Defined on Drivers, projection and statements

Last twelve months, counted back from the latest month reported.

Defined on The monthly profit and loss statement; also on Net working capital and the peg

The share of checklist items that hold a file, per entity and for the group.

Defined on The data room and its checklist

What a billed hour earns above the break-even rate.

Defined on Departments and internal hourly rates

The years of service of the person in the middle, with half the staff above and half below.

Defined on Headcount, attrition and tenure

Multiple on invested capital: the sponsor's equity at exit divided by the equity it put in.

Defined on From adjusted EBITDA to equity value

Month over month: the change on the month before.

Defined on Management dashboards, one per reader

The eight cards at the top of the dashboard, for the latest month reported.

Defined on Management dashboards, one per reader

Cash at bank less financial liabilities. A negative figure is net debt.

Defined on Cash flow and liquidity

Financial debt less cash and cash equivalents. A negative figure is net cash.

Defined on From adjusted EBITDA to equity value; also on The balance sheet, down to the account

This year's revenue from last year's clients, as a share of what they paid last year.

Defined on Clients, retention and pipeline

The accounts the mapping treats as working capital, assets less liabilities: the cash the operations tie up.

Defined on Net working capital and the peg

Invoices issued or received that are not yet fully paid, one row per document.

Defined on Receivables and payables, by age

The cash the operations brought in: net income corrected for non-cash items and the change in working capital.

Defined on Cash flow and liquidity

The net cost of the departments that sell no hours, such as management, finance and HR.

Defined on Departments and internal hourly rates

The weighted pipeline of a month as a share of that month's capacity revenue.

Defined on Cash forecast and EBITDA forecast

A dated fact about the future, such as a hire, a cost from a month or a one-off payment, applied from its date.

Defined on Cash forecast and EBITDA forecast

Prior year, over the same months as the year to date.

Defined on The monthly profit and loss statement

The analysis of how far reported earnings reflect the lasting earning power of a business, with the evidence for each normalisation.

Defined on Adjusted EBITDA and the quality of earnings

A person set up to open the reports, with a name, a password, a dashboard and the views and entities granted.

Defined on Report logins: a sealed copy for every reader

What a billed hour actually brought in.

Defined on Drivers, projection and statements

The hours that could realistically be sold to clients.

Defined on Headcount, attrition and tenure

A budget made after its year had started, and labelled as such.

Defined on The budget, measured against every close

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, as the P&L states them.

Defined on Adjusted EBITDA and the quality of earnings

The priority each item carries: 16 required, 20 recommended and 7 optional.

Defined on The data room and its checklist

Revenue growth on the same months of the prior year plus the EBITDA margin, both year to date.

Defined on Management dashboards, one per reader

A named set of driver changes, re-run through the projection and both forecasts.

Defined on Drivers, projection and statements

One reader's encrypted copy of a report inside the report file, holding only what was granted to them.

Defined on Report logins: a sealed copy for every reader

A row of a custom dashboard: an optional title over one to four slots, each slot one panel.

Defined on Report logins: a sealed copy for every reader

The one structure of P&L lines and balance sheet categories every entity maps into.

Defined on Mapping your chart of accounts to one standard; also on The balance sheet, down to the account

The headline rows of a module by month, with its charts.

Defined on Excel workbooks for the management accounts

A projection in which the P&L, the balance sheet and the cash flow are linked, so that cash results from the other two.

Defined on Drivers, projection and statements

The ten largest clients' share of the fiscal year's invoiced revenue.

Defined on Clients, retention and pipeline

Receivables less payables, the same balances DSO and DPO measure, expressed in days of revenue.

Defined on Net working capital and the peg

Red, amber and green for negative, caution and positive, the same in every report and every design.

Defined on Reports in your own colours and font

Working capital, cash, debt or excluded: what a balance sheet account counts as in a sale.

Defined on Mapping your chart of accounts to one standard

The list of every account with its balance, exported from the accounting system each month.

Defined on The balance sheet, down to the account

The share of the delivery departments' sellable time that is billed.

Defined on Management dashboards, one per reader; also on Headcount, attrition and tenure

The steps from budget EBITDA to actual EBITDA, adding up to the whole difference.

Defined on The budget, measured against every close

The organised set of documents a buyer reviews in due diligence.

Defined on The data room and its checklist

Each deal's amount times its probability of being won.

Defined on Clients, retention and pipeline

Working capital at completion less its normal level, the average of the trailing months.

Defined on From adjusted EBITDA to equity value

The normal level of net working capital agreed in a sale, against which the balance at closing is settled.

Defined on Net working capital and the peg

Year to date: from the start of the fiscal year to the month shown.

Defined on Management dashboards, one per reader