Billable days, unpaid invoices, a payroll that never moves. Run it by the week.
A consulting firm sells its people’s days and is paid for them weeks later. The owner or managing partner answers the same questions every week: does the cash cover the next payrolls, is the day rate still paying for the consultant, which clients have not paid, and who among the partners owns the number. CeoDash answers them from the files you already have, and the first figures show in minutes. Fully connected takes about a day.
The partners sell, the partners deliver, and nobody watches the account
In a firm of thirty or a hundred consultants the people who win the work are the people doing it. Selling stops when delivery peaks, the pipeline empties a quarter later, and the cash shortfall arrives a quarter after that — long after anyone could have acted.
A day rate set in a good year
The day rate on a framework agreement or a long engagement was negotiated once. Consultant salaries were reviewed since, and so were travel and subcontractor costs. The rate still reads well on the proposal; the margin behind it has moved.
Expenses and subcontractors paid out, recharged later
Travel, subcontracted specialists and research are paid when they happen and recharged on the next invoice, which the client pays on its own terms. Large engagements turn the firm into the client’s short-term lender without anyone agreeing to it.
Four questions a consulting firm’s owner answers every week
Three are live today. The third needs timesheets, and we say where they live.
Does the cash cover the next two payrolls?
A rolling 13-week cash forecast from your opening cash, your budget or last closed months, and the real timing of what clients owe you and what you owe. It names the week the gap opens and says whether it closes on fees already invoiced, or only if the proposals out with clients are signed and paid on time.
Is the day rate still paying for the consultant?
Gross margin and its trend from your own books, month by month, so a salary round or a rise in subcontractor costs shows in the month it lands rather than when the year closes. Ask the AI CFO in words why margin moved and the answer names the figures it used and their source.
How much work does the firm need to keep everyone busy?
Utilisation and margin per engagement are computed from timesheets, and timesheets live in your time-tracking or practice tool. CeoDash does not replace that tool and does not guess hours from the ledger. From the books it shows what has to be invoiced, and by when, to cover the people you carry.
Who owns which number among the partners?
A KPI cascade from the firm’s target down to a named partner or practice lead, with the ownership visible. A target that lands on a seat nobody fills surfaces as an open role rather than a gap discovered at the year-end review.
The fastest cash in a consulting firm is the fee already earned
Before a partner spends a week chasing new work to close a gap, it is worth knowing whether the gap closes on invoices the firm has already sent.
The forecast makes that distinction for you. A gap that closes on money already owed is a short list of invoices to chase, in the order the next payroll needs them. A gap that only closes if proposals sign is a pipeline problem, and it needs partners selling now rather than after the current engagement ends. When invoices arrive with their due dates, CeoDash ages them by how late they are, so the client who pays every invoice a month after its terms is a name, not a pattern you half remember. If the same gap keeps returning, the cause is usually the day rate rather than the calendar.
Start with a file, connect later
Uploading a CSV or Excel export is free and needs no card. Connect your tools when you want the numbers to refresh without a file. Every name below is live.
- Financial CSV
- Bank statement
- PostgreSQL (read-only)
- Google Calendar
- Gmail
- Manual Google export
- Jira
- Linear
- Manual task import
- Roster upload
- HubSpot
- Client list (CSV)
- Pipeline / Deals CSV
We already track time in a practice tool. What does CeoDash add?
The money side the practice tool does not show: whether payroll is covered in the weeks ahead, which unpaid invoices that depends on, and how margin is moving. Hours and staffing stay in tools such as Scoro, Productive or Kantata. CeoDash sits beside them rather than replacing them.
Can CeoDash show which engagements make money?
Not from the ledger alone. Margin per engagement needs the hours each consultant booked to it, and those live in your timesheets. CeoDash shows the firm’s margin from your books and how it moves month by month, and does not quote an engagement-level figure it cannot trace to a source.
Our partners want a monthly pack. Can CeoDash produce it?
Yes. The board pack is generated from the same live numbers — cash, margin, the weeks ahead — and can be shared with partners, a lender or an outside adviser through a read-only link you revoke at any time. Nobody needs an account to read it.
How long until we see our own numbers?
Upload the files you already have — a CSV or Excel export from your accounting system, or a bank statement — and the first figures show in minutes. It is free and needs no card. A full connection, so the numbers refresh without a file, takes about a day.
Is CeoDash a fit for a firm of a few dozen consultants?
It is built for owners of companies of roughly thirty to three hundred people who run without a full-time finance director. If that is your firm, the cash forecast and the board pack replace the spreadsheet someone rebuilds every month.
- Guide: seeing the cash gap between payroll and client payments before it opens →
- The four decisions every owner-operator answers, whatever the business →
- What CeoDash reads, and what stays in your other tools →
- Pricing — free with uploads, and what each plan adds →
- Verify us in two weeks on your own numbers →
- Paid in project stages? The engineering firms page →
Know which week the fees arrive after the payroll — and what closes it.
Upload the files you already have and the first figures show in minutes. Nothing to build, and no card to start.
No card · Free CSV and Excel uploads · No per-connector charge