How we help
We start with the problem, then build what it takes to fix it.
Dashboards, forecasts, and models are tools. The work is figuring out what is actually happening to profit and cash, what it is worth, and what needs to change.
01
Diagnose
Understand what is wrong and what it is costing.
A diagnosis follows the same sequence every time, because skipping a step is how practices end up fixing the wrong thing.
Questions a diagnosis answers
- Which services and providers produce contribution profit, and which consume it?
- Where is labor, product cost, or discounting drifting away from where it should be?
- How much paid provider capacity goes unused?
- Why is the cash balance moving differently from profit?
- Which of these gaps is controllable, and what is it worth to fix?
- 1
Understand the current state
How the business actually operates financially today, beyond the summary P&L.
- 2
Identify the problem
Where performance diverges from what the business should be producing.
- 3
Quantify the impact
What the gap is worth in dollars, and how that compares with the effort to close it.
- 4
Find the root cause
Why it is happening. Most symptoms have several possible causes with different fixes.
- 5
Define the future state
What needs to be different, operationally and financially, and how it will be measured.
- 6
Build the financial system
The reporting, forecasting, and monthly rhythm needed to create the change and keep it.
02
Build
Create the financial infrastructure needed to manage the problem.
What gets built depends on what the diagnosis found. A practice with a compensation problem needs different tools than one with a cash-timing problem.
Segmented reporting
Revenue, labor, and margin by service line, provider, and location.
Cash forecasting
A forward view of cash that reflects packages, memberships, inventory, and distributions.
Diagnostic KPIs
A small set of metrics tied to the problems that matter in this practice.
Decision models
Compensation, pricing, hiring, device, and location models built around real numbers.
Financial Foundation
Analysis is only as reliable as the data under it. Where needed, Ward Advisory helps establish the accounting structure that decision-quality reporting depends on (a chart of accounts built around service lines, provider and administrative labor recorded separately, and correct treatment of deferred revenue), or coordinates with your existing bookkeeper and CPA.
- A monthly review of results that ends in a decision, not a report
- Modeling behind hiring, pricing, compensation, equipment, and expansion decisions
- Tracking whether the changes made are moving the economics they were meant to move
- A financial partner for ownership between reviews when something time-sensitive comes up
Engagements
How engagements are structured
Work usually takes one of three shapes. You do not need to pick one before we talk; the problem decides.
A focused diagnostic
For owners who want to understand what is driving a specific problem, and what it is worth, before committing to anything ongoing.
A defined build
For practices that know the problem and need the reporting, forecasting, and models to manage it, delivered over a set period.
Ongoing advisory
For owners who want continuing CFO leadership around decisions and performance, month after month.
Scope and investment are set after we understand the business and the problem, not before.
Built for established med spas, aesthetic practices, and closely related health and aesthetics businesses, typically doing $1M–$10M+ in annual revenue.
Common questions
How is an engagement scoped and priced?
After the Strategy Call. Scope depends on the problem ownership is trying to solve, the state of the underlying data, and the work required. You receive a written proposal with the scope and investment before anything begins.
Do I have to choose a diagnostic, a build, or ongoing advisory up front?
No. Those are ways an engagement can be structured, not packages to select. Some practices start with a diagnostic; others move straight into a build or ongoing work. The Strategy Call is where that gets decided.
Do you replace my bookkeeper or CPA?
No. Bookkeeping records transactions and a CPA handles tax and compliance. Ward Advisory works on what the numbers mean and what to do about them, and coordinates with your existing bookkeeper and CPA. Where the accounting structure cannot support decision-quality reporting, we help set it up.
What do you need from us?
Access to your accounting system and practice-management or EMR reporting, provider compensation details, and time with ownership. The more honest the data, the more useful the diagnosis.
How soon does the work lead to decisions?
The aim is for the first findings to change an actual operating decision early in the engagement, not months later. Timing depends on data quality and the size of the problem.
Start with the problem in front of you.
Bring the symptom. The Strategy Call is where we work out whether there is a financially meaningful problem underneath it.