Introduction
You’re preparing your company for a VC round or planning an exit, and an investor starts asking about your finances. In your head there’s one big question mark: “Where do I even start?”
I’ve met dozens of tech founders who at some point hit a brutal truth: chaos in finance isn’t just uncomfortable. It directly drags down your company’s valuation. Sometimes by a few, sometimes by several percentage points. In absolute terms? You’re playing for millions.
That’s why together with Michał we created a framework that walks tech companies through the entire process of preparing their finance for investors. From chaos to “investor ready.” This is not theory – these are concrete steps we’ve been implementing at incro for years.
In this article I’ll show you exactly what this process looks like. Six stages that take from three months (in an ideal world) up to half a year (in the toughest cases). Each stage has a clear goal and specific deliverables. No philosophy, just practical solutions.
Ready? Let’s start with the foundation.
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Step 1 – AS-IS Analysis: Where You Really Are With Your Finance
Before we optimize anything, we need to understand the starting point. And here comes the first, often painful, moment of truth.
“In an ideal world you can do it in three months, in practice it stretches to four or five months, in the worst situations even up to half a year.”
That’s how Michał talks about the entire finance clean-up process. Why such different timeframes? Because it all depends on the current state of your finance.
The AS-IS analysis is a fundamental check of three areas: data sources, the accounting system and finops (financial–operational processes).
Why Data Sources Are the Foundation of Valuation
Imagine you’re building a house. You can have the best architectural designs and the best builders, but if the foundations are crooked, the entire building is in trouble. It’s the same with financial data.
We start with accounting. If you have in-house accounting, we check how it’s set up, what the posting and document description processes look like, and how the chart of accounts is structured. If you work with an external accounting firm – we do the same, but even more critically.
Why more critically? Because an accounting firm is a normal service business. Their job is to prepare information for the authorities in line with accounting regulations. Period.
“If there are no specific client requirements when it comes to bookkeeping – because bookkeeping is simply preparing the right information for the authorities,” as Michał puts it.
But you don’t want finance prepared for the tax office. You want finance prepared for an investor. That’s a different league.
We check:
- Document flow – where documents are stored, how they’re described, who reviews them
- Posting processes – whether they’re consistent and whether anyone supervises them
- Chart of accounts – whether it’s tailored to your industry or just a default template
- Posting history – whether you can draw any meaningful conclusions from it
Chart of Accounts – an Underrated Value Tool
Here’s a short digression that may save you millions. The chart of accounts is not a boring technical detail. It’s a tool that either supports your valuation or kills it.
Imagine an investor asks: “How much do you spend on customer acquisition?” You open your books and see one big line item “sales and marketing costs.” You have no idea how much goes to paid ads, how much to the sales team, how much to events. You can’t calculate CAC. You can’t show a trend. The investor starts making assumptions – always to your disadvantage.
A good chart of accounts answers investors’ questions out of the box. And the chart of accounts plus posting history doesn’t appear overnight, because you simply need that 12 or 24 months of history – as Michał stresses in the podcast.
At this stage we also review critical financial procedures:
- Revenue recognition – is revenue recognized in line with standards (especially important in SaaS)? [see more here]
- R&D costs – do you recognize R&D costs correctly over time?
- Accruals and deferrals – are you accidentally recognizing an annual subscription paid in January as revenue of a single month?
These things may feel technical, but they directly affect how an investor reads your results.
The value of this stage for you? Confidence that the data you’ll build on later is reliable. And a clear picture of the biggest gaps that need fixing before an investor finds them.
Step 2 – Data Harmonization: When Finance and Sales Speak Different Languages
You already have your AS-IS picture. You know where you stand. Now comes the heaviest piece of work – data harmonization.
The name might sound technical, but the problem is very business-centric. In most fast-growing companies every department understands key metrics a bit differently. Finance counts them in one way, sales in another. Marketing sees “customer” differently than product. And the founder has their own fourth perspective.
The Three-Number Test – a Simple Exercise That Exposes Chaos
“Ask them what your customer count was last month. And when we ask this question, we often get three or even four different numbers, because the founder still adds their own perspective.”
This is not a joke. It’s a real test you can run in your company today:
- Ask the finance team: “How many customers do we have?”
- Ask the sales team: “How many customers do we have?”
- Ask the marketing team: “How many customers do we have?”
Finance will tell you a customer is someone you’ve invoiced at least once. Sales will say it’s someone who signed a contract (even if they haven’t paid yet). Marketing will say it’s an active product user (maybe even on a free plan).
Who’s right? Everyone and no one. The problem isn’t the people – it’s the lack of shared definitions.
During the harmonization stage we:
- Map all KPIs you want to monitor
- Define how each metric is calculated
- Agree what each metric actually means and what it’s used for
- Document assumptions specific to your organization
An example? ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). Sounds simple, right? But if you look at how different public companies define it, you’ll discover each calculates it slightly differently. One includes only annual subscriptions, another multiplies monthly plans by 12, the third adds recurring services, the fourth doesn’t.
There’s no single “correct” definition of ARR. But you must have your ARR definition that everyone in the organization understands the same way.
Do You Have to Rebook Your Entire History? The Booksy Case
This is where the key decision comes in: do we go back and rebook the history, or do we start “from now on”?
Two factors matter most:
- What the new chart of accounts will look like – how many new accounts you add, how much the structure changes
- Whether you rebook the history – whether you want to compare historical data in the new layout
Rebooking the history has pros and cons:
Cons:
- It takes time (often several additional months of work)
- It costs money (you need resources to do the rebooking)
- It delays other initiatives
Pros:
- The entire history is in one standard
- You can show trends to investors
- You avoid “we counted this differently in 2024” situations
“That was a project that took a very long time. I’m not sure if it didn’t take almost a year, just to straighten out that history and make the data consistent.”
That’s how Michał describes the Booksy case, where the company decided to rebook its full history.
Did it pay off? Absolutely. Because when the time came for due diligence before the next round or exit, all the data was consistent. There was no “remember that we used to count marketing differently?” situation.
Now imagine the opposite. It’s 2026, you analyze sales and marketing costs versus 2023. You see a big deviation.
“If we monitored revenue differently back in ‘25, then comparing that sales and marketing cost bucket year-on-year makes little sense, because we’re talking about two totally different definitions.”
If people in the organization still remember this – fine. But what if the management team has changed? A new CFO joins? An investor comes in who doesn’t know the history? That knowledge disappears. And with it – your valuation drops, because the investor again has to fill gaps with assumptions to your disadvantage.
The Math of Harmonization – Why It Takes Time
Here’s a concrete example so you know what you’re signing up for.
“On average, we have 100 invoices or different cost items per month (…) those 100 items suddenly multiply into around 150 operations,” Michał explains.
Let’s say you’re straightening only the cost side. You have 100 invoices per month. Now you realize that some salaries need to be split between R&D and operations. Some marketing costs into paid ads and content. Sales costs into new acquisition and existing customer support.
Suddenly your 100 items become 150 operations each month. Multiply that by 12 months of history. That’s 1,800 operations to rebook manually or semi-manually.
That’s why this is the most time-consuming stage. And that’s why founders so often ask us: “Hey, what are you actually doing there?”
We’re building the foundations for your valuation. Quietly. One invoice at a time.
“You’re playing for those few points on the EBITDA multiple (…) and it later turns out that it’s actually a game for millions.”
This is where that value is created. In spreadsheet cells nobody outside your team will ever see.
Key takeaway: don’t try to do this only with internal resources if you don’t have financial, PM and technical skills combined. That combo is rare but necessary if you don’t want this process to last forever.
Step 3 – Building Reporting: From Chaos to a Management Dashboard
Your data is clean. Definitions are shared. History is consistent. Now comes the fun part – building reporting you’ll actually use.
Most founders, when they hear “reporting,” think pretty charts. That’s the cherry on top. The real value lies elsewhere.
We’re aiming at a state where all key data is gathered in one place, clearly presented, always up-to-date and on time. So that when an investor asks a question, you don’t answer “I’ll check and get back to you tomorrow.” You say “Hold on, I’m opening the dashboard… here you go.”
What Should Be on the Dashboard (and What You Don’t Need There)
We’ve learned one rule: less is more.
Don’t overload your dashboard with everything that can be measured. Focus instead on what truly describes your business model. For most tech companies this means:
Overview (first glance):
- Revenue, costs, margins – basic snapshot
- Key metrics for your business (MRR/ARR for SaaS, GMV for marketplaces, etc.)
Management P&L:
- Profit and loss statement tailored to your business
- Not a generic accounting template, but real cost buckets you monitor
- Comparison to plan and prior period
Unit Economics:
- What you make money on and how much
- CAC, LTV, payback period – if you’re SaaS (click here)
- Margins by product/service/segment
- Analysis of where the biggest growth opportunities lie
Detailed revenue and cost analysis:
- What’s growing, what’s declining
- Where the biggest deviations from plan are
- Monthly and quarterly trends
Budget:
- Real-time comparison to plan
- Not a spreadsheet opened once a quarter
- Automatic updates with actuals
Forecasting:
- Cash flow forecast (most critical for survival)
- Profit forecast based on realized sales + pipeline
- Scenarios: what if X happens
Sounds like a lot? These are just directions – the actual set is always tailored to your company.
How Often to Report – Standard for Companies With 10M+ Revenue
Let’s assume you run an agency or software house with 10 million in revenue. What’s a solid reporting standard?
“Cash flow forecast – depending on sensitivity (…) either updated once a week or every two weeks.”
That’s the most important piece. Liquidity is a survival question. You need to know what will happen with cash in a week, two weeks, three months.
“A P&L summary, the profit and loss statement, once a month is enough,” unless something extreme is happening. Once a month you can check against plan and see trends.
Unit economics – once a month. That’s frequent enough to capture changes, but not so frequent that you go crazy.
Key KPIs – once a month as part of the summary. Some businesses indeed track certain KPIs daily (e.g. active users in consumer products), but for most, monthly is enough.
Budget vs actual – once a month. That’s frequent enough to keep your hand on the pulse and adjust if something goes off track.
Key Question: Who Are We Reporting To?
It might be:
- Founder/CEO – needs an overview and the ability to deep dive
- Management board – broader summary, strategic focus
- Managers – detailed view of their area of responsibility
- Supervisory board – high-level summary, key decisions
- Investors – whatever your investment agreement requires (often monthly/quarterly)
The same dashboard won’t fit everyone. That’s why building reporting also means defining who gets what and when.
Power BI, Excel or Something Else?
Smaller companies can start with Excel. If you’re at a few million in revenue and everything is still manageable manually – no need to shoot sparrows with cannons.
But once you start growing fast, manual updates won’t cut it. That’s when you need automation.
Power BI (or similar BI tools) is a good standard. Automatic updates, looks nice, can connect different data sources. But it has its pains: everything needs to be set up properly, metrics applied manually, multi-factor authentication (a nightmare in fast organizations).
We offer CFO Studio – our in-house solution that combines BI benefits (automation, visualization) with additional capabilities:
- Plugging into your own financial models
- AI that doesn’t hallucinate (because it works on your actual data)
- Ability to ask questions in natural language (“what did Q3 sales look like vs Q2?”)
- Text interpretations, not just dry numbers
I won’t pretend – it’s our product. But it was born out of frustration at how hard it is to give founders a tool they actually use, not just something that looks nice in a presentation. Check it here.
Bottom line: reporting is not about pretty charts. It’s about real-time access to the truth about your business. When an investor calls, you don’t go searching for data. You already have it.
Step 4 – Implementing Optimization: Fighting for Every Point on the Multiple
Now you have data. You have reporting. You know what’s happening in the business. Time to use that knowledge to boost valuation.
Valuation is simple math:
EBITDA × multiple = valuation
You can work on both sides of that equation.
EBITDA – the Left Side of the Valuation Equation
EBITDA is your operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. In simplified terms: what you earn from running the business.
At this stage we ask two questions:
- What can you do with revenue?
- Are there areas for expansion?
- Which segments are growing fastest?
- Where are the highest margins?
- What’s blocking growth?
- Which costs can be optimized?
- Are your margins in line with industry benchmarks?
- Where do you lag behind top performers?
- Which costs are too high relative to the value they bring?
There’s an analytical part here. We look at the numbers and search for opportunities.
But equally important is the process side. We implement or fix key procedures:
- Revenue recognition – to assign revenue to the right periods
- Cost recognition – analogously with costs
- R&D capitalization – if you’re building software, some development costs can be capitalized
These aren’t accounting tricks. They’re about correctly reflecting the economics of your business. And they directly impact the EBITDA you’ll show to investors. To learn more click here.
8 Multiple Drivers You Can Control
Now, the other side of the equation – the multiple. This is where the biggest upside potential lies.
Picture two scenarios:
- Scenario A: EBITDA 5M PLN × multiple 5 = valuation 25M PLN
- Scenario B: EBITDA 5M PLN × multiple 8 = valuation 40M PLN
Same EBITDA. 15M PLN difference. Simply because you improved the factors driving the multiple.
Here are the eight fundamental drivers that influence what multiple you can get:
- Business model
Do you have repeatable, predictable revenue? SaaS with annual subscriptions is rewarded. Project-based agencies less so. That doesn’t mean you must change the business, but if you can add a recurring revenue component – do it.
- Revenue growth
How fast are you growing? 20% year-on-year is ok. 50% is great. 100%+ is wow. But careful – growth must be healthy (not at the cost of burning all your cash).
- Gross margin
What margin is left after serving the customer? In software, 80%+ is standard. In e-commerce, 30–40% is normal. Investors view this in the context of the industry, but higher margin = higher multiple.
- EBITDA margin
How much do you keep as operating profit at the end of the day? Show the investor you don’t just sell – you actually earn.
- Customer type
Who do you serve? Small businesses (SMB), mid-market, or large enterprises? Enterprises get a premium, SMBs a discount. Why? Because enterprise churn is lower, contracts longer, LTV higher.
- Revenue mix
Do you sell only in your home market or also abroad? International exposure = higher multiple, because it shows your model works across markets.
- Business scale
Are you small, mid-size, or large in your category? Greater scale often = higher multiple (though not always linearly).
- Customer concentration
Does 80% of revenue come from five customers? Or are you diversified? High concentration = risk. Risk = lower multiple.
These are areas you can influence. Not all can be changed overnight (e.g. business scale). But some can be improved within 6–12 months (e.g. adding international customers, increasing average customer value, reducing concentration).
At this stage we look together at these eight factors and ask: what can we realistically achieve in the next 12–18 months to raise the multiple?
Sometimes moving from 5 to 6.5 is enough. That’s a 30% higher valuation with the same EBITDA. And that’s exactly the “game for millions” we’ve been talking about since the beginning.
Step 5 – Performance Monitoring: How Not to Waste All the Work
You’ve cleaned up the data. Built reporting. Implemented optimizations. What now?
Now comes the crucial part: don’t let go. Experience shows that if something isn’t monitored, it drifts back into chaos.
A Dual-Track Approach to Monitoring
Monitoring has two components:
Component 1: Standard review (bi-weekly/monthly)
These are regular meetings where you:
- Look at results vs plan
- Analyze deviations
- Update the forecast
- Make corrective decisions
This should be delivery-based: specific slides/reports, clear conclusions, specific action items. This is run by your controller or head of controlling.
But there’s also the second, often underestimated component.
Component 2: Data quality control at the accounting level
Remember how much work went into cleaning up the data? Harmonizing it? Implementing the new chart of accounts?
If nobody watches over this day-to-day, sooner or later errors will creep in. Someone posts an item to the wrong account. A new employee misunderstands a procedure. The accounting firm slips back into old habits.
That’s why once a month (or more often in very dynamic businesses) someone needs to check:
- Whether postings follow the new procedures
- Whether accounting data matches operational data
- Whether the chart of accounts is used in line with the assumptions
It’s dull, tedious work. But it’s exactly what protects the value you’ve already built.
An Experienced Advisor as Part of Monitoring
Besides the internal team, it’s worth having an external sounding board. Someone who has “been around the block” with similar businesses. Who asks tough questions. Who sees things you might miss because you’re too close.
It doesn’t have to be a formal advisory board. It might simply be someone from our team who calls once a month, reviews the numbers and says: “Hey, I’ve noticed that…”
The value? A fresh perspective. Preventing mistakes before they become expensive problems.
Key takeaway: monitoring is not just looking at numbers. It’s making sure the foundations you’ve built don’t slip over time.
Step 6 – Budgeting: Where You’re Going and How You’ll Get There
The last element of the framework. Sometimes we do it at the very beginning, sometimes at the very end – it depends on the company’s situation.
A budget is not an exercise in “what numbers will look good for investors.” A budget is a plan. Where you want to get to, and how you intend to get there.
Key questions:
- What results do you want to achieve? (revenue, EBITDA, margins)
- How fast do you want to grow? (growth rate influences the multiple)
- What investments are needed? (team, marketing, product)
- What’s the path to profitability? (if you’re not profitable yet)
This has to be tailored to your business model. A SaaS budget looks different from an agency’s. A marketplace budget differs from e-commerce.
Most importantly – the budget has to be ambitious but realistic. Investors immediately see when numbers are fantasy. But they also see when you’re selling yourself short.
Valuation angle: the budget shows where you’re heading. That directly affects how much an investor is willing to pay today. They’re buying not only current results, but future potential.
That’s why a well-prepared budget is not just a spreadsheet. It’s storytelling. A narrative about where you’re taking the company and why that path is achievable.
How Long Does It All Take? Realistic Timeframes
Let’s go back to the initial question: how long does this take?
“In an ideal world you can do it in three months, in practice it stretches to four or five months, in the worst situations even up to half a year.”
What does it depend on?
3 months – if:
- You already have decent accounting
- The chart of accounts only needs cosmetic changes
- The data is relatively consistent
- You have resources available to cooperate
4–5 months – the typical case, if:
- The chart of accounts needs major changes
- You have to rebook part of the history
- There are data quality issues
- The organization is in the middle of fast growth
6+ months – if:
- Accounting is complete chaos
- You rebook the full history (like Booksy)
- Key data is missing
- The organization resists change
This is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. But a marathon that ends in a very concrete difference of millions in valuation.
“You’re playing for those few points on the EBITDA multiple (…) and it later turns out that it’s actually a game for millions.”
That’s exactly what this is about.
Summary
We’ve gone through six stages of preparing finance for investors:
- AS-IS analysis – checking where you’re at and identifying issues
- Data harmonization – shared definitions, consistent data, rebooked history
- Building reporting – a management dashboard you actually use
- Optimization – fighting for EBITDA and the multiple
- Monitoring – making sure you don’t drift back into chaos
- Budgeting – a plan for where you’re heading
These aren’t theoretical concepts. These are concrete steps we’ve been implementing at incro for years.
Why does it work?
Because investors don’t only assess your current results. They assess risk. If your finance is chaotic, risk goes up. And risk = lower valuation.
If your finance is clean, transparent, investor-ready – risk goes down. The multiple goes up. And suddenly the same EBITDA is worth 30–50% more.
The question is not “is it worth doing?”. The real question is: can you afford not to?
If you’re preparing a tech company for a round or exit and want investor-ready finance, don’t leave it to the last minute.
We’ll start with a free AS-IS analysis – a 60-minute call where we show you exactly where you stand and what needs fixing. No fluff, just a concrete action plan.
Book a free consultation at incro.us/contact
Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about “if.” It’s about “when.” And the earlier you start, the higher valuation you’ll achieve.
