Are your finances investor-ready — or will due diligence expose what you don’t know?
Investment
£4,500
Duration
3–4 weeks
Ideal For
Founders, CEOs, and boards of UK businesses preparing for a funding round, private equity investment, management buyout, or trade sale in the next 6–18 months — or businesses whose financial controls and reporting have not kept pace with growth.
Investors and acquirers will find what you have not yet found yourself — that is the fundamental risk of going into a due diligence process without an independent financial assessment first. Financial controls built for a £5 million business do not work at £20 million. Board reporting that satisfied a founding investor does not satisfy an institutional one. Management accounts that were acceptable when the business had one entity become a liability when it has three. The Finance & Investor-Readiness Audit is a senior CFO-led review of your financial infrastructure — controls, reporting, forecasting, governance, and fundraising readiness — conducted before you enter the market, not during it. The output is a frank, detailed assessment of where you stand, what needs to be fixed, and a sequenced action plan to get you there.
A structured assessment of your financial function against investor-grade benchmarks, scored across ten dimensions of financial governance and reporting quality. Provides an honest, investor’s-eye view of where the business stands — so you can address weaknesses before they become deal-breakers in a live transaction process.
A detailed audit of your financial controls framework, identifying weaknesses, missing processes, and compliance risks that would be highlighted in a standard financial due diligence exercise. Each gap is assessed for its severity, likelihood of discovery, and the effort required to remediate it ahead of any investor process.
An evaluation of how effectively your financial story is told — the quality of your financial model, the credibility of your projections, the coherence of your investor narrative, and whether your management accounts give investors the confidence they need. Includes specific recommendations for strengthening the financial case before you go to market.
A prioritised, sequenced roadmap of the specific financial improvements required to reach investor readiness — with indicative timelines, resource requirements, and a recommendation for the level of fractional CFO support most suited to executing the plan within your target transaction window.
The fractional CFO reviews your last three years of management and statutory accounts, most recent board pack, financial model, cash flow forecasts, and any existing investor documentation. Conducts a structured interview with the CEO, Finance Director, and any existing investors or advisers involved in previous funding rounds.
Systematic review of financial controls, governance processes, and reporting infrastructure. Tests accuracy of key financial data, reviews reconciliation quality, assesses completeness of due diligence documentation, and benchmarks the financial function against investor expectations for businesses at your stage.
Delivery of the written Investor-Readiness Scorecard and full assessment report, followed by a structured presentation to the CEO and board. The session is designed to be frank and practical — giving the leadership team a clear view of where they stand, what the critical priorities are, and the realistic timeline to investor readiness.
The audit covers your management accounts and financial reporting quality, financial controls and governance framework, cash flow forecasting accuracy, financial modelling capability, due diligence pack completeness, and investor narrative strength. It is conducted by a senior fractional CFO and benchmarked against investor expectations for UK businesses at your stage and sector. The output is an Investor-Readiness Scorecard, a controls gap report, and a prioritised CFO action plan.
Ideally six to twelve months before you plan to enter a fundraising or sale process — enough time to implement the remediation plan and demonstrate improvement. However, many clients commission the audit with a shorter runway and use it to triage and prioritise: addressing the highest-risk gaps first and deferring lower-priority improvements. Even with a three-month window, a well-executed audit significantly improves your position relative to entering due diligence cold.
No. The audit is conducted by a senior fractional CFO with direct experience of investor processes, PE due diligence, and SME financial governance. They bring the same expertise as a full-time hire for this specific engagement, without the cost or commitment. If the audit recommends fractional CFO support to execute the remediation plan, that engagement can begin immediately using the same director — eliminating any onboarding delay and ensuring continuity of knowledge through the transaction process.
Possibly — and that is precisely the value of it. The fractional CFO conducting the audit is objective, experienced, and motivated by your commercial success, not by telling you what you want to hear. The findings will be frank, evidence-based, and specific. Clients who have been through due diligence without an advance audit consistently report that the experience is more stressful, more expensive, and more damaging to deal dynamics than a pre-audit remediation process would have been. Better to know now.
Yes — and in most cases, this is the recommended approach. The fractional CFO who conducts the audit already understands your business, your financial infrastructure, and the specific gaps that need to be addressed. Continuing the engagement avoids any onboarding lag, ensures complete continuity of knowledge, and means the director enters the transaction process already familiar with every aspect of your financial position. The transition from audit to retainer is straightforward and fast.
The Finance & Investor-Readiness Audit ends with a specific recommendation for the fractional CFO engagement that will take your business from current state to investor-ready. Most clients are matched with their fractional CFO within five working days of receiving the report — and begin the remediation programme the following week. No recruitment process, no notice period, no wasted time.
