Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
Forward-looking finance, layered on your books.
Your account services — bookkeeping, payroll, tax — keep the record of what happened. Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) is the layer on top that looks forward: pricing and margin insight, a review of how the business runs, plans to bring costs down, the handful of KPIs that actually matter, cash-flow projections, and the budgeting and scenario work behind real decisions — can I hire, can I afford this, will I make payroll, should I take the loan, should I raise prices. It's what a fractional CFO does, matched to the size and complexity of your business.
FP&A is not reporting
FP&A is not reporting. Reporting looks back — what happened. Financial Planning & Analysis looks forward — what to do about it.
We build and maintain the plumbing
Think of your books, payroll, and tax as the plumbing of your business — the system that has to run clean and quiet underneath everything. We design that plumbing, maintain it month to month, and upgrade it as you grow. As it runs better, the routine cost comes down and that freed capacity moves into the forward work. Financial Planning & Analysis is what becomes possible once the plumbing runs right.
What Financial Planning & Analysis covers
Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) is a new service line at JMCPA — the forward-looking finance function most small and mid-sized businesses never had without hiring a full-time CFO.
Pricing & margin insight
Where your prices and margins have room — and what a change would actually do to volume and profit.
Process review
A look at how the business runs, to find where time and money leak out.
Cost reduction plans
Targeted, prioritized plans to bring costs down without breaking what works.
KPI monitoring
The few numbers that run your business — margin, runway, AR/AP days, working capital — tracked every period.
Cash-flow projections
A 13-week rolling forecast and 12-month outlook: the 'will I make payroll, am I really broke' answer.
Budgeting & planning
A budget to measure against, and the scenario work behind hiring, buying, financing, and pricing.
People come to this looking for a fractional CFO, cash-flow forecasting, budgeting help, pricing strategy, cost reduction, or a KPI dashboard — or just asking why a profitable business is always short on cash. That is Financial Planning & Analysis.
Three tiers, matched to your business
The right tier is the one that fits the size and complexity of your business — not a question of how much you spend. A simple one-entity business belongs in Pulse; a complex multi-entity group belongs in Command. If you land in the wrong one, we move you.
all-in, on top of account services
A single-entity small business with clean operations whose owner wants to see what's coming, not just what already happened — a rolling cash-flow view, a budget to measure against, and a plain-English read each month.
What this isall-in, on top of account services
A growing business making real decisions — hiring, equipment, financing, pricing — where the owner wants a CPA working the numbers with them every month, not just sending a report. Often a single entity or two with some complexity.
What this isall-in, on top of account services
A larger or multi-entity business — multiple sets of books, lender or regulatory reporting (e.g. accrual financials for Medicare cost reports), an active reorganization, or a multi-year plan to build toward a sale. The kind of work a fractional CFO does.
What this isHow pricing works
Prices are shown all-in — one number, not a stack of separate bills. At Command, your business tax returns are included. Inside the engagement, tax preparation is always a fixed component, so any value-based pricing applies only to advisory work and never to the returns themselves.
Where Forge fits · In development
Forge — where simple books begin
Forge is our AI bookkeeping agent for businesses with very simple books — a low-cost QuickBooks alternative, billed on its own. It keeps day-to-day books current in a dashboard. When a business outgrows DIY and needs review, real reports, and forward-looking planning, that's where a CPA connects — and where FP&A picks up. Forge is the on-ramp; FP&A is the destination.
Learn about ForgeFP&A is an add-on to JMCPA account services. Informational — not an offer, guarantee, or tax/financial advice. Josh Mauer CPA LLC, a Kansas-licensed CPA firm.