In services, the P&L is your people.
Margin lives in utilization, billable rates, and project economics, and it leaks in places a standard chart of accounts never shows you. I build the finance function that makes services margin visible and defensible, for founder-led and PE-backed agencies, consultancies, staffing, and IT-services firms.
Margin leaks where you cannot see it.
In a services business you can be busy and unprofitable at the same time. Utilization looks fine, the team is booked, and yet margin swings project to project for reasons nobody can name. The leaks hide in scope creep, delivery cost, unbilled time, and pricing that never kept up with the cost of talent. A finance function built for a product company will never find them.
I build the finance function that makes services economics visible, for firms where a transaction, a raise, or an exit is on the table. I ran the stabilize-scale-exit arc myself at Medicx Health, from a declining base to $40M at 20%-plus EBITDA and a $95M sale in October 2023. Different sector, same discipline: margin you can see, EBITDA you can defend.
What I run for professional-services businesses
- Delivery economics. Utilization and billable-rate discipline, project and client-level gross margin, and revenue per head, so you can see where margin is made and where it leaks.
- Backlog and revenue visibility. Pipeline-to-revenue and backlog reporting so the forward number is defensible, plus clean recognition for retainer, milestone, and time-and-materials work.
- Working capital. DSO, work-in-progress, and unbilled discipline, because in services the gap between booked and collected is where cash quietly disappears.
- Board and sponsor reporting. A monthly package a PE sponsor or board reads without a follow-up call, with KPI definitions written down.
Metrics I run
| Area | What I make visible |
|---|---|
| Utilization | Billable rates and utilization by team and role |
| Project margin | Gross margin by project, client, and service line |
| Productivity | Revenue and margin per head |
| Backlog | Pipeline-to-revenue and forward backlog |
| Revenue recognition | Retainer, milestone, and time-and-materials |
| Cash | DSO, work-in-progress, and unbilled discipline |
Past the founder-led ceiling, toward an exit
Services firms hit a ceiling where the founder is still the system... the pricing engine, the margin control, and the client relationship all at once. Getting past it means turning that into a finance function that runs without heroics, then getting the numbers to institutional grade before a buyer looks. I do both, and I advise on the finance side of the transaction only. I am not a broker-dealer.
Agencies, staffing, and IT services.
The economics rhyme across professional services, but the levers differ. Agencies live and die on utilization and scope discipline, where unbilled time and scope creep quietly erase margin. Staffing firms run on spread, fill rate, and bill-to-pay ratios, where a point of gross margin is the whole game. Consultancies turn on project margin and revenue per head. IT and managed-services firms blend recurring contract revenue with project work, so recognition and backlog matter as much as utilization. I tune the finance function to the model you actually run, not a generic services template.
Starting smaller
If the scope is not yet clear, the Pulse Check is the entry point: thirty days, a fixed fee, and a prioritized read on cash, margin, and KPI maturity.
Answers before the call.
The questions that come up first when a services founder or sponsor is sizing up the fit.
We track utilization already. What does a CFO add?
Our margin swings project to project. Is that normal?
Can you get us ready for a sale or a recap?
Do you work with staffing and IT services, not just agencies?
How do we start?
Find the margin your firm is leaving on the table.
One direct conversation about utilization, project margin, and what is on the horizon. That is usually enough to know whether this is the right partnership.