Finance Service Onboarding
Establishing the Financial Foundation for Graphite Clients
Overview
Finance onboarding establishes the financial foundation required for ongoing planning, reporting, and decision support. It’s the phase where Graphite gets close to how the business actually operates so the model, budget, reporting, and forecast can be built on something current and usable.
This work is scoped separately from ongoing service because getting the finance layer right takes focused setup. Before Graphite can maintain the model, deliver monthly financial reviews, and support leadership with forward-looking analysis, the team needs to understand the business, gather the right inputs, and create a financial structure that reflects reality.
By the end of onboarding, the goal is straightforward: the company has a clean financial model, a defined budget, a clear reporting structure, and a shared understanding of how the ongoing finance workflow will run.
What Happens During Onboarding
Finance onboarding runs on a few tracks at the same time. Some of the work is visible through meetings, requests, and review conversations. Some happens behind the scenes as Graphite builds the model and establishes the reporting framework.
At a high level, the work usually includes:
- collecting accounting data, historical financials, and operating inputs
- reviewing revenue systems, billing platforms, and business drivers
- building a new financial model or restructuring and adopting an existing one
- creating the baseline budget
- establishing the monthly reporting structure and review cadence
Together, these workstreams move the engagement from raw financial information into a finance function leadership can actually use.
Model Build or Model Adoption
One of the most important parts of onboarding is establishing the financial model.
For many clients, Graphite builds a new model from the ground up based on the company’s current financial and operating reality. For others, there is already a model in place, though it may need to be restructured, cleaned up, or taken over so it can function as a dependable source of truth going forward. Either way, the goal is the same: create a model that reflects how the business actually operates and can support ongoing forecasting, budgeting, scenario analysis, and decision-making.
This is also where Graphite begins documenting assumptions and aligning the model with the actual drivers of the business rather than inheriting logic that no longer matches reality.
Budget and Reporting Setup
Finance onboarding also includes setting the baseline for how performance will be measured and discussed.
That usually means creating an annual budget aligned to leadership goals and operational plans, then establishing the monthly reporting structure Graphite will use to support the engagement. This is the point where the company begins moving from fragmented spreadsheets or ad hoc reporting into a more structured finance rhythm with budget-to-actual visibility, updated forecasts, and recurring review conversations.
By the end of this phase, leadership should know what to expect each month, what the model is built to show, and how Graphite will help interpret the numbers as the business changes.
What We’ll Need From You
Finance work depends heavily on accurate inputs and collaboration from the client.
In practice, that usually means access to:
- clean and closed accounting books
- revenue and billing systems
- CRM, ERP, or operational reporting tools where relevant
- historical financials and prior models
- key business assumptions and operating context
Clients are also expected to participate in the monthly review cycle and respond in a timely way to requests for metrics or other inputs needed to keep the model and forecasts current.
Timeline and Involvement
During onboarding, communication is usually more frequent because the model, reporting structure, and workflow are still being established. This is the heaviest collaboration period of the engagement.
Client involvement is usually highest early on, when Graphite is gathering information, validating assumptions, and aligning on how the business should be represented in the model. As onboarding progresses, more of the work shifts behind the scenes into model development, budget setup, and reporting preparation.
Onboarding Completion and What Happens Next
Finance onboarding is complete when the model, budget, and reporting structure are in place and the ongoing workflow is ready to begin.
At that point, the engagement moves into its normal operating rhythm: the model is maintained, monthly review packages are delivered, forecasts are updated, and leadership receives ongoing analysis tied to the decisions in front of the business. The onboarding work gives Graphite the foundation required to make that ongoing finance support useful instead of improvised.