Turnaround CFO services
A turnaround CFO for founder-led businesses under lender pressure.
Out of compliance on the line, cash tighter than the books suggest, or a division that keeps losing money? Saorsa diagnoses the position, builds a risk reduction plan your lender can read, presents it with you, and stays embedded every week until the plan is done.
Tell us what the bank is asking 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 signs the business needs a turnaround CFO
Most turnarounds do not start with one bad month. They start with a problem the reporting cycle was too slow to catch.
The covenant breach came as a surprise
The bank says the line is out of compliance, and it is the first time anyone inside the business has seen the number. That happens when reporting runs quarterly and nobody keeps a forward model. By the time the statements are closed, the breach is months old and the lender has already formed a view. The first job is to see the position the way the bank sees it, and then to see it earlier than the bank does.
The cash is worse than the books say
Revenue you earned but have not billed, costs that land next quarter, and construction paid from working capital instead of term debt all hide in the gap between the books and the bank account. In one case, about $325K of rail freight sat unbilled while a division lost money, so the true cash position surfaced late. A turnaround plan built on the wrong starting number fails on the first payment it misses.
One division keeps losing, and the rest of the business pays for it
A division bought or started for good reasons can turn into the part that funds its losses with everyone else's cash. Founders hold on because of the history, the people, or the hope of a better year. Meanwhile the core business carries the overhead and the line carries the losses. A turnaround CFO puts the numbers side by side, so the decision to fix, sell, or close is made on facts, in weeks rather than seasons.
The lender is losing patience
Once a credit officer stops trusting the numbers, every request takes longer and every answer gets a harder look. Covenants tighten, the borrowing base is read more strictly, and the conversation drifts toward the workout group. What brings a lender back is a credible plan with a committed date, owner commitments tied to that plan, and reporting that bridges every variance line by line, including the ones that miss.
Fit check
Who this is for. Who it isn't.
This work is for a founder-led business with a core worth saving and a cash or lender problem that will not go away on its own.
For
- Founder-led and owner-operated businesses, roughly $2–20MM in revenue
- Companies out of compliance, or close to it, on a line of credit or term loan
- Owners prepared to make hard calls, including closing a division or putting in capital
- Businesses with a profitable core under a losing segment, a cash squeeze, or both
Not for
- Situations that need bankruptcy or restructuring counsel; that is a legal matter, and we will tell you so
- Owners who want a report to hand the bank and no change in how the business runs
- Businesses with no profitable core to protect
How the work runs
An embedded partner on retainer, not a report vendor
By day 90 you have a clear diagnosis, a plan in front of your lender, a weekly scorecard, and a monthly reforecast. You get a partner inside the business every week until the plan is done, not a report and a goodbye.
Diagnosis and a risk reduction plan
We start with the real position: cash, collateral, covenants, and the losses the statements have not caught up with yet. Then we build the plan with you, with a committed cure date. In the grain trading case it had five parts: close the losing division, cut $270K of annual cost, put in $300K of owner capital, sell non-core assets, and bridge the collateral gap.
The lender presentation
We put the plan in front of the bank with you, in the lender's terms: collateral coverage, revolver utilization, the covenant path, and a downside case. Owner commitments are tied to a documented compliance plan, so the bank sees what it is getting. In the case study, the plan reached the lender within roughly eight weeks. We neither lend nor broker; the decision stays with the bank.
A weekly working-capital scorecard
AR days, AP days, and inventory days, reviewed every week instead of every quarter. Small changes compound fast in a turnaround. At the grain trader, AR days fell from 18 to 11.6, AP days rose from 22 to 28.5, and inventory days fell from 20 to 15.7. Working capital moved from 16 days to negative 1.2 days, the largest single driver of the result.
Monthly reforecasts and honest variance reporting
A three-statement model, reforecast every month, with every variance bridged line by line for the lender: the P&L, revolver utilization, and collateral. Misses get reported with the same rigor as wins. A plan that only reports good news loses the bank's trust the first time it slips, and a turnaround runs on that trust.
Bank-side proof
From covenant breach to zero revolver draw in nine months.
A founder-led grain trading and logistics platform moving more than $30MM of grain a year was out of compliance on its revolving line in September 2025. A farm division was tracking toward a $635K loss, partly hidden by unbilled rail freight, and reporting ran quarterly. Saorsa diagnosed the position, presented a five-part plan to the lender within roughly eight weeks, and stayed embedded through execution.
The plan forecast $1.07MM of revolver draw at the June 2026 cure date. The actual draw was zero. EBITDA came in 115% above plan, collateral coverage finished $247K ahead of plan on a cost basis, and compliance was restored on the committed timeline. The bank approved a $400K bridge facility as part of the plan, and the company never drew on it.
Read the full turnaround case study$1.07MM → $0
Revolver draw at the cure date, plan vs. actual
+115%
EBITDA vs. plan over nine months
16 → (1.2)
Working capital days on the balance sheet
Start here
Tell us where things stand with the bank.
Duncan reads every submission himself and replies within one business day, with a plain read on the position and what a plan could look like.
- The person who answers is Duncan, not a queue, and it happens within a business day.
- A plain take on the position: the cash, the covenant, and the time you have.
- If the situation needs restructuring counsel instead of a CFO, you hear that too.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.
Start a conversation
FAQ
Questions owners ask before calling a turnaround CFO
Short answers on timing, the bank, cost, and what happens when the plan misses.
What does a turnaround CFO do that our controller or CPA does not?
Your controller closes the books and your CPA handles tax and compliance. Both look at what already happened. A turnaround CFO works forward: what the cash will be in eight weeks, what the covenant will read at the next test, and which decisions change those numbers. We also build the plan, present it to the lender with you, and run the weekly cadence that keeps it on track. We are not accountants, and we work next to both, not in place of either.
What does this cost compared to an interim CFO?
A full-time or interim CFO costs a mid-six-figure salary plus benefits, and the search can take months. A turnaround cannot wait that long. We work on a monthly retainer well below a hire, scoped to the diagnosis, the plan, the lender work, and the weekly sessions. We are paid for advisory work, not on the outcome of a financing, and we do not lend or broker.
How fast can a plan be in front of the bank?
It depends on the state of the books, but the goal is weeks, not quarters. In the grain trading case, the five-part plan was presented to the lender within roughly eight weeks of the engagement starting, and the decision to close the losing division was made within weeks of the diagnosis. Speed matters, because the lender's view hardens every month the business has no plan on the table.
Do we have to close a division or sell assets?
Not always. The plan follows the numbers. Sometimes a losing segment can be fixed, and sometimes closing it is the fastest way to protect the core. When assets are sold, timing matters too: in the case study, equipment sales ran behind plan on purpose, because selling into a soft market at distressed prices would have cost more than waiting. Operating results paid for that patience. You make the call, with the numbers in front of you.
What happens if the plan misses?
Parts of it will. In the case study, expenses ran 8.3% over plan, equipment sales lagged, and a $133K receivable went to litigation. Each one was reported to the bank with the same rigor as the wins, and the receivable was excluded from collateral instead of being counted on. A lender who sees misses reported early keeps trusting the numbers. A lender who finds them later stops trusting all of them.
Get a straight read before the next covenant test.
Send the bank letter, the borrowing base, or the cash question that is on your desk.
Go to the formPrefer to talk? Call or text Duncan: (510) 626-0509.