KBS CFO

10/12/2026

Plenty of businesses have a fire extinguisher on the wall and nothing written down about who to call if the owner is suddenly unavailable.

Five names belong on that list.

1. Your CPA, who holds the tax picture and the closed books.
2. Your CFO or financial lead, who knows what cash is committed and what the reports actually mean.
3. Your attorney, for entity documents, contracts, and any instruments you have in place.
4. Your banker or lender, for lines of credit, covenants, and signature authority.
5. Your insurance professional, for coverage and claims.

Then add one more name that is not an outside advisor at all: the person inside the company who would run day to day.

Two questions turn that list into something useful. Does your family know how to reach them, and do those five know the others exist?

The list takes about ten minutes to write. Most of its value comes from someone else being able to find it, so keep it with your credentials and tell your second in command where it lives.

If you would like a second set of eyes on the financial side of that list, we are here. Send us a DM.

10/09/2026

Most owners believe they have a second in command. Fewer have said so out loud to that person, and fewer still have said it to the rest of the team.

When I ask three people on the same team who would be in charge if the owner were out for a month, I often get three different answers. That tells me the plan is an assumption rather than an agreement.

In a design-build firm, I have watched that gap get expensive quickly. A change order lands while the owner is out of reach. A crew has to come off one job to protect the schedule on another. The client wants an answer this week. Those look like operational decisions, but they are financial ones, and the cost of guessing usually shows up in margin two months later.

A real second in command knows what they are authorized to decide, what they are not, and who to call for the rest. That is a conversation and a dollar limit, not a box on an org chart.

It is also the argument for building bench depth before you need it, which is why growth requires a bench.
(read more about this here: https://www.kbscfo.com/growth-requires-a-bench/)

If you want help sorting out which decisions can be delegated and where the limits belong, that is a conversation we have often. Send us a DM here on LinkedIn.

10/06/2026

For years I have kept a shared, secure record of credentials and key information with a trusted family member. My husband and I set ours up a long time ago, after I helped a client's spouse try to get into accounts nobody had thought to write down. It is a nerdy habit, and it is also one of the most caring things you can do for the people who would have to step in.

That is the personal side. The business side needs a different answer, and the two get blurred more often than you would expect.

In most growing companies, one person holds the access to banking, payroll, the accounting system, email, insurance portals, vendor portals, and the website. Usually that person is the owner. Nobody planned it that way. It happened one setup screen at a time.

For business accounts, the answer is not a shared password. Most bank agreements do not allow it, and auditors flag it when they see it. What you want instead is named users with their own logins, a second person authorized on the account, and a written recovery path.

The piece almost everyone forgets is the phone. When the security codes go to a device only you can unlock, most of the company's other credentials sit behind a door only you can open.

None of this takes long to set up. It is simply much easier to do before anyone needs it.

09/30/2026

There is one blind spot I care about more than any number on a report: what happens to a business, and a family, if the owner is suddenly gone.

It is the plan no one wants to make, which is why so many owners never make it. It is not complicated, and it is not morbid. It is responsible.

A few questions worth sitting with:
· Does someone you trust know where the important keys and contacts are?
· Can an “in case of emergency” person actually reach your login credentials?
· Is there a second in command who could keep the business running?
· Do you carry current owner life insurance, and a will that covers your digital accounts?

For years, I have been an advocate of keeping a shared, secure record of credentials and key information with a trusted family member. My husband and I set ours up a long time ago and have kept it current ever since. It is a nerdy habit, and it is also one of the most caring things you can do for the people who would have to step in.

You do not need to solve all of it today. You just need to start. Your attorney and financial advisor can help you put the pieces in place.

If you want help thinking through the financial and operational side of a continuity plan, we are here. Send us a DM, or contact us at KBSCFO.com.

09/28/2026

If you find your financial mistakes at year-end, you found them too late.

By December, the numbers are set and the decisions are made. A year-end report mostly confirms what is already in place.

The close of the third quarter is different. What you catch now can still shape next year's budget and make your year-end cleaner.

For federal contractors especially, strong revenue can hide erosion when indirect costs climb and payment cycles run long. A forward view catches it while there is still time to adjust.

Look now, not in December.

Read the full guide, then let's talk before budget season. KBSCFO.com. https://www.kbscfo.com/financial-mistakes-business-owners-find-too-late/

09/25/2026

Five questions will tell you whether you have a financial blind spot. Most owners stall on the second one.

1. Do you know your margin by product or job, not just your blended average?
2. Which customers owe you money past thirty days?
3. What will your cash look like thirteen weeks from now?
4. Is your pricing still covering today's costs, not last year's?
5. When did you last look forward at your numbers instead of back?

If any of these gave you pause, you are not behind. You just found the thing worth looking at next.

The full checklist, and what to do with your answers, is on the blog at KBSCFO.com. https://www.kbscfo.com/financial-mistakes-business-owners-find-too-late/

09/24/2026

Have time to grab a quick CPE credit this afternoon? If so, join me at 1 PM EDT TODAY.
Link and details below!

Reconciliations aren’t exactly the glamorous part of accounting.
But they are one of the places where good advisory work starts.

Today at 1:00 PM EDT, I’ll be moderating a rebroadcast of my CPAacademy.org session, Beyond the Checklist: Reconciliations That Drive CAS Growth.

We’ll look at reconciliations for what they actually are: more than a month-end task to check off the list.

Done well, they can help you:
• Catch issues before they become bigger problems
• Improve consistency and accuracy across your team
• Build stronger recurring CAS workflows
• Surface operational and financial insights hiding in the data
• Identify opportunities for more meaningful advisory conversations

The goal isn’t simply to reconcile the accounts.

It’s to understand what the reconciliations are telling you about the business.
Because checking the box is compliance.

Knowing what to do with what you find is advisory.

The rebroadcast starts today, September 24, at 1:00 PM EDT and offers 1.0 CPE credit.
Hope to see you there.
https://www.cpaacademy.org/s/webinardate/a0HPB00000XcoG12AJ/9242026

Earn CPE and continuing education (CE) credit with CPA Academy. Easily join live webinars and on-demand courses and for CPAs, EAs, bookeepers, and accounting professionals.

09/23/2026

The thing that surprises me most when I open a new client's books is rarely fraud. It is what the owner never knew to look for.

Most owners are not missing something out of carelessness. They are sitting on a blind spot they could not have seen on their own.

I have watched a distillery owner point to a full warehouse as proof the business was healthy, while cash was quietly going out the door long before any of that product would come back as revenue. Nothing was wrong with the effort. It just was not anyone's job to watch that gap.

That is usually the real issue. Not a mistake, but the absence of a second set of eyes looking forward.

If you have never had that second look at your numbers, that is where we start. Send us a DM.

09/21/2026

You approved the spend because the bank balance looked healthy. That is the trap.

A good decision needs good, timely reporting behind it. Without it, you are deciding on a number that may already be out of date.

Picture a design-build firm with a job that looked profitable at bid. Unbilled change orders stack up, draws come in slow, and margin erodes while cash sits out in the field. The bank balance still looks fine, right up until it does not.

Reporting quality sets decision quality. That is the whole idea behind our SMART Reporting framework: numbers that are Strategic, Meaningful, Actionable, Relevant, and Timely, so the decision rests on something current.

See what better reporting looks like (link in comments).

09/17/2026

The most expensive financial mistakes are rarely the loud ones.

They are quiet. A margin slips. Receivables age. Pricing stops covering its cost. By the time it reaches your bank balance, it has been true for months.

Blind spots are not hiding. They are sitting in your numbers, waiting for someone to read them forward instead of backward. In our new article, we walk through where they hide, the assumptions that create them, and why owners so often find out too late, at year-end, when the options have run out.

The close of the third quarter is the right time to look. What you catch now can still shape next year's plan.

Read it here: https://www.kbscfo.com/financial-mistakes-business-owners-find-too-late/