$340K in Revenue. $23K in the Bank.
Your Shopify dashboard says record month. Your bank account disagrees. We connect DTC brands doing $500K-$10M with fractional CFOs who find where the cash actually went.
Revenue Is Not Cash
Your dashboard shows growth. Your bank account tells a different story. Here is where e-commerce cash disappears and what a fractional CFO does about it.
The Inventory Trap
You have $200K in inventory. $80K of it hasn't moved in 6 months. That's not product sitting in a warehouse. That's trapped cash earning nothing while you stress about making payroll.
Channel Margin Truth
Shopify margin: 42%. Amazon margin after FBA, storage, returns, and the 2-week payment hold: 11%. You might be subsidizing Amazon with Shopify profit and not know it.
The Cash Cycle
Every $1 you spend on inventory takes 140 days to come back as cash. You pay your manufacturer in March. The customer pays you in July. That gap is where your cash disappears.
Ad Spend Float
$60K/month on Meta. You pay today. The customer buys in 3 days. The product ships in 5. The return window closes in 30. Cash doesn't arrive for weeks. Ad spend is a cash flow machine running in reverse.
The Growth Trap
More sales means more inventory, more ad spend, more platform fees. Your best month is your worst cash flow month. Growth without cash flow visibility is how profitable brands run out of money.
The Dashboard Lie
Shopify shows revenue. Amazon shows orders. Your bookkeeper shows profit. Nobody shows you the full picture: real margins by channel, cash conversion timeline, and where every dollar is right now.
30 Minutes. Three Numbers You've Never Seen.
A fractional CFO looks at the same data your bookkeeper has. They just ask different questions. Here is what happens on the call.
Quick Snapshot
Revenue by channel, current ad spend, inventory value, team size. Five minutes of facts so the CFO knows what they're looking at.
Channel Margins
Your real margins by channel after all fees, returns, and platform costs. Almost always lower than expected on Amazon and wholesale. This is the number your dashboard hides.
Trapped Capital
How much cash is sitting in slow-moving inventory, locked in platform holds, or buried in payment terms you never renegotiated. Most DTC brands have $100K-$300K trapped.
The Roadmap
Three specific actions ranked by cash freed. Not theory. "Renegotiate manufacturer terms. Liquidate slow SKUs. Shift volume to your highest-margin channel." If it makes sense, you book a follow-up. If not, you keep the numbers.
The Assessment Is Free. The Numbers Are Yours.
Your bookkeeper has the data. A fractional CFO asks the questions nobody else is asking. If the call doesn't surface something useful, you walk away with free insights you didn't have before.
Your Shopify Dashboard Shows Revenue. Where's the Cash?
If you sell physical products, do $500K-$10M in revenue, and your bank account doesn't match your dashboard, we should talk. The assessment is free. The numbers are yours to keep.