The economics behind a capital decision, and the senior capacity to carry it: investment cases, capital allocation, strategic planning and financial modelling, Board decision support — and, where the constraint is capacity rather than analysis, fractional CFO and senior commercial-finance support.
The situation it addresses
Capital is scarce and the requests are not. Each investment case is built to a different standard, none share assumptions, and the ones approved are often the ones argued most confidently. Meanwhile the plan is a spreadsheet nobody can interrogate, and the finance function is running the month rather than shaping the decisions ahead of it.
Investment cases and capital allocation
- Investment economics — NPV, IRR, payback and the two or three assumptions that actually decide the answer.
- Capital allocation — a framework for where the next dollar goes, so competing proposals compare on the same basis.
- Financial modelling — three-way, scenario and transaction models built to be interrogated, with the basis and sources visible.
- Strategic planning — a plan tied to capital, capacity and execution reality rather than to an aspiration curve.
- Funding decisions — what growth requires, what the balance sheet can carry, and the covenant and liquidity consequences of both.
- Board decision materials — basis, assumptions, sensitivities and a recommendation that can be challenged.
Senior commercial-finance support
Senior finance judgement without a permanent executive hire: a company that has outgrown its bookkeeping but cannot yet justify a CFO, a CFO who needs additional capacity through a capital event, or a Board that wants independent commercial challenge in the room.
When a decision has to be executed
Where a decision has been made and the business lacks the capacity to carry it, Graham Montrose sets the roadmap and priorities, provides senior commercial oversight, and measures the benefits against the baseline — bringing in trusted specialist capability where the work requires it.
Typical mandate outputs
- Investment case or capital-allocation framework — the economics, the assumptions that matter and the range around them.
- Model built to be challenged — three-way, scenario or transaction, with sources, assumptions and sensitivities exposed.
- Implementation roadmap and priorities — sequenced actions with owners and a governance structure proportionate to the value at stake.