Manufacturing, beverage and distribution
Margin by product line. Inventory you can trust. Covenants you can see coming.
ProvenCFO keeps the books and runs finance for manufacturers, food and beverage producers, and distributors. We tie inventory and landed cost to your counts, show margin by product line and channel, calculate your borrowing base and loan covenants every month, and combine the numbers when you run more than one company.
| Line | Net sales | Landed COGS | Gross margin | Inventory days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core SKUs | $486,000 | $291,600 | 40% | 54 |
| Seasonal | $142,000 | $99,400 | 30% | 131 |
| Private label | $208,000 | $135,200 | 35% | 47 |
| Bank covenant: debt service coverage | 1.41x | min 1.25x |
Seasonal inventory is 131 days. Recommendation: clear it through the wholesale channel before the Q4 buy, and hold the covenant cushion.
Sound familiar?
- Inventory is a plug at year end and the write-down is a shock.
- Gross margin on the P&L ignores freight, duties, breakage and the co-packer's fees.
- The bank's borrowing base certificate takes a week and the covenant calculation is a guess.
- Three entities, three QuickBooks files, and one person who knows how they fit.
- Big customers pay in 60 to 90 days and payroll is every two weeks.
- You are deciding on a line, a plant or a co-packer with no model behind it.
Software we work in
QuickBooks Online, Xero, Cin7, Fishbowl, Katana, NetSuite (reporting), BILL, Ramp, Gusto.
Bookkeeping from $400 / mo
What ProvenCFO does for you each month
Inventory and landed cost
Raw materials, WIP and finished goods tied to counts; freight, duties and co-packing capitalized into cost; COGS by SKU.
Margin by product line and channel
Net sales, landed cost and gross margin by line, customer and channel each month, so pricing and the next production run are decisions.
Borrowing base and covenants
Monthly borrowing base certificate and covenant calculations in your bank's format, with the cushion tracked before the quarter ends.
Multi-entity consolidation
Operating, holding and real estate entities closed monthly, intercompany reconciled, one consolidated set of statements.
13-week cash forecast
Built around production runs, customer terms and payroll, with the line of credit sized before the big buy.
Capital decisions modeled
A line, a plant, a co-packer, a distributor: what each does to cash and margin over the first year, before you commit.
Questions
Do you handle inventory accounting?
Yes. Landed cost (product, freight, duties, co-packing) capitalized into inventory and released to COGS as units sell, tied to counts in Cin7, Fishbowl or your system, reconciled monthly.
Can you produce the bank's borrowing base?
Yes, monthly, in the bank's format: eligible receivables and inventory at the advance rates in your agreement, with the covenant calculations alongside.
Can you consolidate our entities?
Yes. Monthly closes for each entity, intercompany reconciled, and a consolidated set of statements for ownership and lenders.
What does it cost for a $10 million distributor?
Bookkeeping plus controller for an inventory business usually runs $2,000 to $3,800 a month depending on SKUs, entities and volume. CFO Foundation adds $1,500. See pricing.
Have you done due diligence on a beverage company?
Yes. Our team has run buy-side diligence and Quality of Earnings work on producers and distributors, which is the same discipline we bring to the monthly close.
Start here
Find out what your numbers are telling you.
A 20-minute call. We look at how your books run today and tell you what we see. Nothing is sold on the call.