Our Approach
We connect financial planning to the operating decisions that determine whether a portfolio company meets its investment thesis. Our work is built on three disciplines that Private Equity sponsors and management teams require throughout the hold period.
We build the short-term cash forecasting and liquidity controls that allow management to anticipate debt service requirements, covenant obligations, and working capital pressure before they affect operations. Sponsors gain continuous visibility into the cash position without waiting for month-end close.
We replace static budgets with driver-based rolling forecasts that connect monthly operating decisions to EBITDA targets. Every variance is explained against the investment thesis, and every reforecast reflects the actual operating conditions the business is running in.
We build the financial reporting infrastructure and performance documentation that supports a transaction process. When the hold period ends, the portfolio company presents consistent, auditable financial performance, rather than a rushed reconstruction of the numbers.
Hold Period
City Shift Finance connects the investment thesis to forecasting, liquidity, operating accountability, and transaction preparation throughout Private Equity ownership.
Post-close
We establish the opening financial baseline, short-term cash view, reporting cadence, and ownership of the assumptions that govern the first operating forecast.
Immediately after close
We establish the opening financial baseline, short-term cash view, reporting cadence, and ownership of the assumptions that govern the first operating forecast.
Early ownership
We connect the acquisition case to a driver-based forecast, EBITDA bridge, management cadence, and ownership of the operating assumptions affecting performance.
Operating period
We isolate the drivers behind performance gaps and connect pricing, workforce cost, working capital, and capital deployment to the evolving financial outlook.
Transaction preparation
We strengthen forecast credibility, performance history, and financial documentation so the portfolio company can support its operating record with consistent evidence.
City Shift Finance
We replace static annual budgets with driver-based rolling forecasts that adjust to actual operating conditions, allowing management to anticipate margin compression and adapt to changing market realities before financial performance deteriorates.
We establish rigorous short-term cash forecasting and working capital controls to protect liquidity, manage debt service requirements, and ensure the business maintains sufficient capital to fund daily operations and strategic initiatives.
We design and implement consistent management reporting packages that provide the board with immediate visibility into revenue quality, cost structure changes, and the specific operational drivers affecting monthly EBITDA performance.
We connect departmental operating metrics directly to financial outcomes, ensuring that pricing decisions, workforce deployment, and capital allocation align with the margin requirements established in the original value creation plan.
We provide immediate, executive-level financial capacity to portfolio companies during critical transition periods, building the reporting infrastructure required by the sponsor before transitioning mature processes to the permanent internal team.
We evaluate the financial impact of add-on acquisitions, refinancing requirements, and exit preparation, ensuring the portfolio company maintains the documentation and performance history necessary to support future transaction events.
A profitable business can still run into cash pressure when revenue arrives later than expenses, growth consumes cash faster than collections replenish it, and working capital timing stretches beyond what the operation can support, leaving strong reported performance disconnected from the cash available to fund payroll, vendors, and continued growth.
Financial deterioration can begin long before visible crisis when leadership continues operating against assumptions that no longer match current conditions, gradually narrowing strategic flexibility and leaving the organization with fewer options as pressure compounds and decisions that could have been made deliberately become increasingly defensive.
