Financial leadership built for IT and consulting firms that are ready to scale.

Works out which projects and clients actually earn after delivery cost, tracks utilisation and bench, and fixes the collections cycle. In services, margin is made or lost in staffing decisions, not in the P&L.

When headcount grows past the point where the founder can track project economics personally. Usually around 50 people, or earlier if you run fixed-price work, multiple currencies or offshore delivery.

For most firms under ₹100 crore, yes. The work is monthly rather than daily. Multiple entities, overseas subsidiaries, transfer pricing and a large finance team eventually justify a full-time hire.

A finance manager runs billing, payroll, GST and collections. A CFO decides pricing, hiring and which clients to keep. Most services firms have competent operations and no one challenging the commercial model.

Yes. The economics are close enough — people-based delivery, utilisation, project margin and receivables. The differences are in billing structure and contract terms rather than in the financial model.

Load fully-costed delivery hours to each project, including bench absorption, and compare against billed value. Fixed-price projects need effort tracked against estimate weekly, or overruns surface only at delivery.

Utilisation, realisation, revenue per employee, gross margin by project and client, bench cost and days sales outstanding. Six numbers, monthly, is enough to run a services business.

The share of available hours that are billable. It is the single biggest driver of margin in a services business — a few points of utilisation moves profit more than most pricing changes.

It varies widely by service line and mix of onsite versus offshore, so the useful benchmark is your own trend rather than an industry figure. Falling revenue per employee usually signals pricing pressure or utilisation slipping before the P&L shows it.

Price from fully-loaded cost per delivery hour with target utilisation and margin, not from what the last client paid. Most firms discover their standard rate cards were set years ago against different costs.

Forecast pipeline against skill availability rather than headcount totals. Most bench cost comes from hiring for a deal that slipped, or from skills that no longer match demand. Track bench by skill and ageing.

Because you pay salaries monthly and collect in 60 to 90 days. Revenue recognised is not cash received. Growth widens the gap, since every new project funds delivery before it funds you.

Bill faster and collect harder. Weekly invoicing rather than month-end, milestone billing on fixed-price work, and a collections rhythm with named ownership. Cutting DSO by fifteen days usually beats any cost exercise.

Age receivables by client and invoice, escalate on a fixed schedule and make one person accountable. In services firms collections are typically handled by whoever is free, which is why they slip.

Front-load the schedule where you can, tie milestones to deliverables the client signs off, and invoice the day it clears. Milestones tied to vague completion criteria are where cash gets stuck.

Set drawings against a policy, not against the bank balance. Distribute after retaining working capital for the delivery cycle and statutory dues. Firms get into trouble distributing profit that is still sitting in receivables.

By testing each hire against pipeline, utilisation and cash. A billable hire pays for itself only if it is deployed within the ramp period. We model the runway impact before the offer goes out.

Match hiring to signed work rather than expected work, keep DSO tight as you grow, and hold enough working capital to fund a delivery cycle. Growth in services consumes cash before it produces it.

Services firms rarely suit equity, so the practical routes are working capital facilities, invoice discounting and cash-flow-based lending. Clean reporting on receivables and contracted revenue is what improves terms.

Rank clients by realised margin after delivery cost and collection behaviour. Firms usually find a large client that looks important and earns very little once its discount and payment delay are loaded.

Currency exposure, invoicing entity, transfer pricing and withholding tax all affect realised margin. Firms billing overseas without planning this lose meaningful revenue to tax and FX before it reaches the P&L.

A monthly pack with project and client margin, utilisation, bench, DSO and receivables ageing, budget versus actuals and a cash forecast. Fixed date each month with a leadership review.

Built around delivery, not just accounting — project P&L, utilisation by team, revenue per employee and pipeline against capacity. Standard accounting reports say nothing useful about a services business.

They keep billing, payroll, GST and TDS. We build the management reporting layer and take it to decisions. Most teams work better with clearer formats to deliver against.

Planning and coordination, including export of services treatment, LUT and refunds where relevant. Filing stays with your CA. Export refunds are the item most firms leave on the table.

Cash and reporting improve within 60 days, mainly through collections discipline. Utilisation and pricing gains take a quarter, because the data has to be rebuilt before decisions can rest on it.