Service 04

Financial Advisory.

Statutory books keep the GST office and your auditor happy. They almost never tell the CEO which product line is actually profitable, what a customer costs to win, or how much cash the business will have in thirteen weeks. We build the management layer on top, numbers you can actually decide with.

Book a discovery call
Gross margin 42.8% Segmented by product line, reviewed monthly.
Cash runway 14 mo Scenario-modelled against three forecast cases.
Working capital 52 days DSO plus DIO minus DPO, tracked weekly.
EBITDA margin 18.6% Reconciled to management accounts every close.
What this is

Numbers you can decide with.

Finance in most Indian SMEs is set up for compliance. Books close, returns get filed, the auditor signs off, and then the CFO (or more often, the founder) is asked in Monday’s meeting what the gross margin is on product line B, and the answer is a rough estimate. That’s a decision problem, not a reporting problem.

We don’t replace your accountant. We build the management layer above them. Segment P&Ls that actually show contribution by channel or product. A rolling 13-week cash forecast tied to real operating drivers. Unit economics that hold up to two follow-up questions. And the monthly cadence where finance sits in the room when capital calls are made, rather than emailing a PDF a week late.

If you’re lining up a raise, a strategic sale, or significant bank debt in the next 24 months, this work doubles as preparation. Investors and acquirers ask the same questions management accounts should already be answering. Better to have the answers drilled into the team before the data room opens.

What we solve

The problems we usually walk into.

If three of these describe your Monday morning, finance has outgrown the setup that worked five years ago.

01

Books are compliance-grade only

Statutory accounts are fine but management never sees contribution by product, customer, or channel. Decisions get made blind.

02

Cash flow surprises

The P&L looks healthy but the bank balance keeps shrinking. Working-capital dynamics are invisible until they bite.

03

No real unit economics

Nobody can answer “what does one customer cost and what do they earn us over their life?” in a way that holds up to two follow-up questions.

04

Pricing set by feel

Prices haven’t been reviewed in years. The team discounts at will. Margin is whatever falls out at the end of the quarter.

05

Capital decisions on gut

Should we take the debt? Buy the machine? Hire the team? The answers live in someone’s head, not a model.

06

Not ready for due diligence

A potential investor or buyer asks for a data room and the team panics. The information exists but it’s scattered, inconsistent, or unreconciled.

Our approach

How we actually build it.

Typically twelve to twenty weeks, with your in-house finance lead shadowing us from week one so the system doesn’t leave when we do.

Step 01 01

Financial audit

We go under the hood, chart of accounts, revenue recognition, cost allocation, working capital. What’s accurate, what’s estimated, what’s missing.

Step 02 02

Rebuild management reporting

Segment P&Ls, contribution analysis, unit economics, cash forecast. Built against the real structure of the business, not a generic template.

Step 03 03

Install the cadence

Monthly management pack, quarterly review, rolling forecast. Finance sits in the room when decisions are made.

Step 04 04

Coach & hand over

We train your finance lead (or help you hire one) to own the system. We step back to quarterly check-ins once it’s holding.

What you get

Concrete deliverables.

Working models and packs your finance lead runs every month. Nothing here is a one-off report, and nothing depends on us being around.

Financial health diagnostic

A plain-English read on where the business actually stands, liquidity, profitability, leverage, with the three things most worth fixing first.

Management reporting pack

Segment P&L, contribution by product or customer, working-capital view, a monthly pack leadership can read in ten minutes and act on.

Rolling cash forecast

13-week cash model tied to operational drivers, not a static spreadsheet that goes stale two weeks in.

Unit economics model

Customer acquisition cost, payback, lifetime contribution, defined for your business with the math shown so anyone can audit it later.

Pricing & margin review

Where margin is leaking, which SKUs or customers underperform, and a defensible pricing approach for the next cycle.

Forecast & scenario model

A three-year model with operating scenarios you can run, hiring, expansion, capex, downside, to test decisions before you make them.

Client story
PJ
Priya Jain Co-founder, D2C skincare
“Statutory accounts told us we were profitable. The unit economics Apxe built told us we were losing money on two of our four SKUs. Pricing changed the next quarter, and so did the P&L.”
Result: Contribution margin up 11 points in 2 quarters
Who this is for

Fit matters more than fees.

We can’t build finance on top of broken bookkeeping or a business that hasn’t found its market. These two lists should help you decide.

This is right if you…

  • Run a real operating business with meaningful revenue but finance has grown organically and hasn’t caught up.
  • Are planning to raise capital, bring in a partner, or sell within the next 24 months, and want the numbers ready before conversations start.
  • Make capital and pricing decisions regularly and want them grounded in better data.
  • Have an in-house finance or accounts team we can work alongside, even a small one.

This is wrong if you…

  • Need day-to-day bookkeeping or statutory audit. We don’t replace your accountant, we work above them.
  • Haven’t closed books in months. Get compliance current first, we can’t build on a broken foundation.
  • Are hoping a prettier dashboard fixes a business that doesn’t have product-market fit. Reporting reveals reality, it doesn’t change it.
  • Want someone to run finance as a service indefinitely. We build the system and hand over to a CFO or finance lead.
FAQ

Common questions.

The five questions every CFO or promoter asks before a finance engagement. Straight answers below.

Are you replacing our accountant?
No. Your accountant handles compliance, statutory accounts, tax. We build the management layer above, reporting, forecasting, unit economics, and we work alongside them. We’ll usually make their life easier, not harder.
Can you act as our CFO?
We provide fractional advisory, not a full-time embedded CFO role long-term. For the length of the engagement we act as the financial leadership you may not yet have. Once the system is built, most clients either promote internally or hire a CFO, we help with the spec and the interviews if useful.
What about fundraising support?
We prepare the numbers, the model, and the data room. We don’t make introductions to investors or negotiate terms, that’s a banker or broker’s job, and a separate fee structure. We’ll tell you if you’re ready or not before you go out.
We use Tally / Zoho / Xero. Is that fine?
Yes. We’re tool-agnostic and most of what we build sits in Excel or a simple BI tool on top of your accounting system. We’ll only recommend a change if the current setup is actively blocking you, not because we prefer one stack.
How much finance team do we need on our side?
At minimum, someone who owns the books day-to-day and can answer data questions. Ideally, a finance manager or controller we can train to own the management reporting once we step back. Without that person, the system won’t hold after we leave.

See the real numbers.