Finance Scope Of Service

Graphite Finance provides end-to-end financial structure, reporting, forecasting, and decision support for growing companies that need more than historical reporting. The service is designed to give leadership a maintained financial model, a consistent review cadence, and clearer forward-looking insight without requiring the company to build a full internal finance team.

What’s Included

Every Finance engagement includes a core foundation of financial modeling, reporting, and ongoing analysis.

That core scope includes:

• a fully built or fully adopted financial model maintained by Graphite
• a monthly financial review package
• updated forecasts tied to current business performance
• a monthly financial review call, unless the client declines it
• one to two formal reforecast cycles each year
• ad hoc scenario planning within the existing model
• additional financial analysis as needed, depending on the engagement

This is the working finance layer for the business. It is designed to help leadership understand what changed, why it changed, and what it means for hiring, spend, runway, and upcoming decisions.

Forecasting Process

Forecasting is a core part of the service.

Graphite maintains the model so forecasts stay aligned with closed financials, current business performance, updated assumptions, and known changes in the business. Rather than letting the forecast go stale, the team updates it regularly to reflect actual results, revenue and billing trends, headcount plans, spending changes, and other business conditions that affect the outlook.

Most engagements also include one to two structured reforecast cycles during the year. These allow the company to recalibrate expectations when performance meaningfully shifts from the original plan.

Budgeting Process

Budgeting is also part of the core finance scope.

During onboarding, Graphite typically helps establish the annual budget based on leadership goals and operating plans. That budget then becomes part of the ongoing monthly rhythm, showing how actual performance is tracking and where meaningful variances are developing.

The point is not to create a budget once and ignore it. The point is to maintain a financial frame leadership can use for hiring, spending, growth planning, and resource allocation across the year.

Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is included so leadership can evaluate important decisions before committing to them.

When the company needs to test a hiring plan, spending change, pricing shift, or other operational decision, Graphite uses the existing model to run targeted scenarios and show the financial implications. That helps leadership compare options and understand tradeoffs with a model already tied to the company’s real operating structure.

Cash Flow Management

Cash flow management within the Finance service is focused on visibility and planning.

Graphite helps leadership understand how current performance, spending, and growth assumptions affect cash position, burn, and runway. That gives the business a clearer picture of what it can afford, what risks may be building, and what choices may need to shift if performance changes.

This service supports cash planning and decision-making. It does not include movement of funds or execution of payments. That is explicitly outside scope.

Board Reporting Support

Finance also supports board and investor readiness.

The maintained model, updated forecasts, variance explanations, and recurring financial review process help leadership go into board or investor conversations with a stronger financial narrative and more current assumptions. More extensive diligence preparation or heavily customized investor reporting may require additional scoping, though regular support around financial visibility and board-level preparedness is part of the value of the service.

Intersections With Other Services

Finance works as the analytical and planning layer across the broader financial picture.

Its effectiveness depends heavily on strong upstream inputs. Accounting provides the closed financials and adjustments that feed the model. Payroll supplies compensation and headcount data that affects forecasts and spend assumptions. Revenue and billing systems inform projections and unit economics. People Operations can affect hiring plans, compensation structures, and other workforce assumptions that shape the model. Tax may become relevant when expansion, entity structure, or compliance-related costs affect planning.

When multiple Graphite services are active, Graphite manages that internal coordination so the client isn’t responsible for stitching the services together. Finance remains accountable for the model and the analysis within scope while coordinating with adjacent teams as needed.

Pricing Model & Key Factors

Graphite Finance is delivered through a recurring fixed-fee model. Pricing is aligned to defined service tiers and reflects the depth of support required. The three common tiers are Financial Dashboards, FP&A / Financial Services, and Fractional CFO support.

Pricing is influenced by the complexity of the business and the level of engagement needed. Key factors include:

• business complexity, including revenue streams, cost drivers, and product lines
• model complexity
• number and reliability of operational metrics required for forecasting
• leadership expectations around cadence and advisory depth
• strategic needs such as fundraising support or major business transitions

As complexity changes, the engagement may be reviewed and adjusted so the scope and fee remain aligned with the actual work required.

Boundaries

Finance provides modeling, forecasting, analysis, and ongoing financial interpretation. It does not replace Accounting, Payroll, Tax, or People Operations.

Standard Finance scope does not include:

• maintaining the general ledger or reconciling accounts
• flow of funds or execution of payments
• on-site or embedded staffing
• compensation design or broader HR policy work
• broader operational ownership of adjacent service lines

Certain requests, such as comprehensive investor packages, major model restructures, or unusually customized modeling may require separate scoping.