FP&A Research Lead
Dana is Aziell's FP&A research lead and a licensed CPA. She writes our most quantitative pieces — branch benchmarking methodology, rolling forecast vs. annual budget, the SMB operator's enterprise-value guide — and is the internal check on any piece that touches valuation math. Before Aziell she spent six years at a top-10 accounting firm's transaction advisory group working on sell-side quality-of-earnings engagements for multi-location service platforms.
Your top-quartile portco is the operating benchmark your bottom-quartile portco should be measured against. Here is how to run cross-portfolio benchmarking without falling into the industry-average trap.
Your top-quartile branch is the benchmark your bottom-quartile branch should be measured against — not industry averages, not last year. Here is a practical framework for branch-level P&L benchmarking.
13-week cash forecasting at a single operator is a standard tool. Rolling it across a portfolio of 8–15 portcos is where most funds fall down. Here is how to make it scale without adding a finance headcount per portco.
Every FP&A blog tells you to replace your annual budget with a rolling forecast. That advice is half right. The budget is your accountability line. The forecast is your steering wheel. You need both, and they do different jobs.
The enterprise-value bridge at exit is where 20–50% of fund IRR is made or lost. Most funds assemble it in the six weeks before a sale process. Here is why it should be a continuous artifact maintained from day 1 of the hold.
Every operating decision has two values: the cash impact this year and the enterprise-value impact at exit. The second one is almost always larger. Here is how to think about it.