Wholesale distribution CFO services
A fractional CFO for founder-led distributors.
Saorsa embeds in your business on retainer and covers the strategy side of the numbers — the days between paying the supplier and collecting from the customer, the margin by customer and line, the line of credit — and works through them with you every week.
Tell us what you move and who you move it for. Duncan replies within one business day.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.
What gets built in the first 90 days
Four problems every founder-led distributor knows by heart
The supplier invoice goes out before the customer's payment comes in, and four problems live in that stretch.
Paying in 30, collecting in 60, warehousing in between
The supplier invoice is due net-30. Your customer pays net-60. The pallets sit in the warehouse for however long they sit, and freight goes out on both ends. Those thirty days plus the shelf time are funded by your line, before a new dollar of sales pays you back. So every order you win asks for cash first. Days, not dollars, decide how big the line has to be, and most distributors have never counted the days.
Thin margin makes every mistake big
Gross margin is a few points, spread across thousands of lines. Inbound freight, a rebate you owe a customer, returns, and a price sheet nobody updated since the last supplier increase all take a little each. None of it shows on one invoice. So the account that looks biggest by sales can be the one losing money once freight and rebates come off, and nobody sees it until the year closes.
Dead stock is capital you already spent
Someone places a safety-stock order for a line that then gets discontinued, or a customer leaves and takes the demand with them. The pallets stay. Turns fall, the warehouse fills with SKUs that do not move, and the supplier invoice for them was paid long ago. That cash is not in the account; it is on the shelf. So the line of credit is tied up in pallets, and the next buy waits on it.
A lender who reads the borrowing base better than you do
Every month the borrowing base certificate lists eligible receivables, aged inventory, and the advance rate against each. Receivables past the aging cutoff drop out as ineligible, and old inventory counts for less. The size of your line is set by that page. If nobody on your side manages those numbers between certificates, the lender sees a shrinking base before you do, and the availability you counted on is not there when the next supplier invoice comes due.
Fit check
Who this is for. Who it isn't.
This work is for a distributor that carries inventory and funds the wait between paying the supplier and collecting from the customer. The lists below say who it is not for.
For
- Stocking wholesale distributors
- Importers and master distributors
- Industrial, building-products, food, beverage, parts, and specialty distributors
- Distributors with a private-label line
- Founder-led, roughly $2–20MM in revenue
Not for
- Retailers
- Brokers and drop-shippers who carry no inventory
- Brands that make or contract-make their own product
- Software and services
If the product is your own brand, see the consumer brands page.
If you make it, see the manufacturing page.
How the work runs
An embedded partner on retainer, not a report vendor
By day 90 you have a model built on your AR, AP, and inventory days, a margin view by customer and line, a monthly borrowing-base and covenant view, and a weekly session with us. You get a partner inside the business on retainer, and not a stack of reports.
A long-term financial model you actually use
The model runs on your AR days, AP days, inventory days, and seasonality. Before you sign with a new supplier, take on a big customer, or open a second warehouse, you see what it does to the line, month by month. The model is scenario-based, so you can test a slower-paying customer or a longer supplier lead time against the cash you have.
A customer- and line-level margin view
We work from the books your bookkeeper already keeps and cost each customer and product line after freight and rebates. The account that loses money gets named. Pricing gets a floor, so a quote cannot go out below it. And the rebate you are not earning gets chased. Then the price sheet, the terms, or the account itself is yours to change with the numbers in front of you.
Borrowing-base reporting and a bank package when one is needed
When the bank needs a package, we build the certificate reporting, the covenant calculation, and the downside case the lender underwrites against. For a renewal or an increase, we argue the case in the lender's language. Between requests, the same view keeps running every month. Placement is not our business: the lender decides, and we neither lend nor broker.
A weekly working cadence with you
Each week you sit down with us on whichever decision is next: the terms a supplier is asking for, the second warehouse, the truck, the acquisition. Bring the open question and we work it through the model together, so the decision is made with the numbers in front of you. Weekly matters because a supplier term or a big order does not wait for the month-end close.
Bank-side proof
The same gap between paying and collecting, and a bank package that held.
The agricultural trading platform is a brokerage and logistics business with the same AR, AP, and inventory gap. Losses in one segment, slow collections from counterparties, and little forecast visibility had put its lender relationship under strain. Saorsa built a three-statement monthly model, helped the team exit the losing segment, and prepared bank-ready reporting and a risk reduction memo with a path to compliance. The credit facility renewed with lender confidence restored.
Duncan is a minority partner in Crosslinked Components, which sells through a dealer network: wholesale terms, dealer programs, reorders. His contribution is on the finance side, a working capital model and scenario-based forecasting. Across two years, the partnership took revenue up 3.7x and profit up 7.8x.
See the bank-side case study$1.2MM
Line of credit paid down through tighter AR, AP, and inventory
+$500K
Year-over-year profitability improvement
Renewed
Credit facility, with lender confidence restored
Relevant reading
Start with the reading.
If you would rather read before you write, these pieces from our Insights letter cover working capital, margin, and the bank.
Start here
Name the gap and get a straight read from Duncan.
Duncan reads every submission himself and replies within one business day, with a plain answer on the part of the numbers that is squeezing you. Where we do not fit, he tells you and sends you to the page that does.
- The person who answers is Duncan, not a queue, and it happens within a business day.
- A plain take on the gap you named: the days between the supplier invoice and the customer's payment, the margin by customer, or the line.
- If your business is not a fit, you hear that too, with a pointer to the page that is.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.
Start a conversation
FAQ
Questions distributors ask before the first call
Short answers on cost, margin, the bank, and buying a competitor, before you write to us.
What does this cost compared to a full-time CFO?
Put a full-time CFO on payroll and you carry a mid-six-figure salary plus benefits. Yet at $2–20MM a distributor rarely has forty hours a week of CFO work. It has a short list of decisions: the terms on the next supplier, the size of the line, the customer whose price needs a floor. We charge a monthly retainer well below a hire, scoped to the model, the margin view, the bank work, and the weekly session.
We already have a bookkeeper and a CPA. Isn't this redundant?
Keep both. Your bookkeeper records the supplier invoice, the customer payment, and the freight bill. Your CPA handles the return and the compliance side. We are not accountants, and we do not touch the books or the taxes. Neither of them models the decision in front of you, such as a second warehouse or a bigger customer on net-60, and neither builds the package the lender underwrites against. We sit next to both, not in place of either.
Our gross margin is thin. Is there anything to work with?
Yes. Thin margin means small leaks matter, and there are several. We cost margin by customer and by product line, after freight, rebates, and terms. Then we set a price floor so a quote cannot slip under it. The biggest customer is often the least profitable once those costs are counted, and you find that out from the numbers rather than from the year-end.
The bank wants a borrowing base certificate every month. Can you take that over?
Yes, on the reporting and the calculation. We build the borrowing base reporting and the calculation each month, review it with you, and you sign the certificate. The work also shows you which receivables are ineligible and which inventory is aging before the certificate does. When the line comes up for renewal, we prepare the package, including the covenant view and the downside case. Lending and brokering are not what we do, so the decision stays with the lender. No success fees.
We are looking at buying a competitor. Is that something you do?
Yes, it is part of the practice. Corporate development covers a valuation view of the target, the deal model, the financing structure, and the integration cash plan, meaning what the combined warehouses, receivables, and inventory do to the line in the months after close. We do not broker the deal. We help you decide what it is worth to you and whether the cash can carry it.
Ask for a straight read on the gap between the supplier and the customer.
Send the supplier invoice, the customer account, or the bank question that is on your desk.
Go to the formPrefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.