Cash feels tight. You can't understand why.
Profits go up. Cash doesn't follow.
Expenses are cut. Profits don't improve.
The Kaufmann QuickScan shows you how cash gets trapped in your assets and how much hidden profit you can recover. It's built for executives who want answers on their own time and don't need someone looking over their shoulder.
The furniture retailer's inventory report showed $250K in "defective" merchandise. The reality: only about 20% was truly defective. The rest was either fine, missing a part, or needed a small repair. The problem: the system had just one code for damaged items—"D" for defective. On the report, a ruined couch looked exactly the same as one that just needed a leg. The solution: three new codes—G for good, P for parts, R for repair. Good items went straight back into inventory for resale. Parts and repair items were fixed and went back into inventory to sell. Now the owner had a report with real visibility: value of inventory and actual status. That's how $250,000 of "defective" inventory became $300,000 in profitable sales.
The industrial fastener manufacturer's receivables aging showed $300K more than 90 days past due. The CFO was certain customers hadn't paid. But they had. Cash was sitting in a suspense account, unmatched to invoices. The CFO was only looking at the AR aging. That report only gives partial visibility. We pulled three numbers for the same date: the total on the AR aging, the AR balance in the trial balance, the AR line on the balance sheet. Those didn't tie. That was the clue this wasn't a collections problem at all. Once we followed the trail, hundreds of thousands were recovered from accounts that were never actually past due.
Overtime. Expedites. Rework. Inventory orders that "had to happen this week." These are not random problems.
They're clues to connected patterns hiding your profit. You only see one or two at a time, so you treat them as isolated. They're not.
So don't ask: "What's the real problem behind this symptom?" Instead, ask: "What pattern of events keeps creating this symptom?"
Questions? Schedule a 20-minute chat.| Issue | Dashboards | ERP Project | Reduce Expenses | Grow Revenue | Uncover Hidden Profit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Problem Solved | Visibility into operations | Standardizing data and workflows. | Reducing spend, headcount, visible waste. | Increasing volume and margin per sale. | Cash trapped in assets |
| Area of Focus | Data, reports, KPIs | Processes, system fields, integrations. | Expense lines, labor, purchasing, shop-floor waste. | Price lists, discounts, product mix, sales behavior. | The gap between operations, financials, and cash. |
| Assumption | Better information, better decisions | "Once the new system is in, problems will settle down." | "We spend too much; cuts will restore profit." | "We can sell more and charge better prices." | There is a gap between operations and reporting |
| Measure of Success | Faster reporting, new KPIs | Go-live, on-time project delivery, system adoption. | Savings versus last year, lower headcount. | Revenue growth, higher gross margin, better deal mix. | Profit that converts into cash in the bank. |
| Biggest Unseen Risk | More reports, same process | Locking in flawed assumptions at great expense. | Efficiency gains have a ceiling — there's only so much to cut before it affects capability. | Volume growth doesn't always improve cash if mix or pricing isn't aligned with what ops can deliver. | You recover cash but it quietly slips back into business as usual. |
This isn't about getting more profit through increased sales or reduced expenses. You've already earned the profit. You just can't see it. Pick a symptom. We identify what else it's triggering. You see the hidden profit buried in that pattern — and what it would take in new sales to recover the same money.
I'm a finance guy who likes living in the ops world. I've sat inside companies as controller and operations manager — close to the floor, close to the numbers. And I've sat outside as a banker and consultant — seeing what the reports don't say. That dual view is how I find patterns others miss. If your current data told the whole story, you'd already know where your money went. Let's discuss working together to see where your profit is hiding.
Questions? Schedule a 20-minute chat.