Hiring a startup financial model consultant: scope, files and price, before you pay

What you are buying: a model that answers questions

A seed financial model turns a short list of assumptions into three statements: the income statement, the cash flow statement and the balance sheet. It exists so that an investor can change one input and see what happens to the cash. If it cannot do that, it is a forecast typed into a grid, not a model.

So you are buying three things. A structure, with every input on one tab and formulas everywhere else. Checks that prove the three statements agree. And a second reader who tests your assumptions against each other and against your deck. The six questions investors test should each have an answer somewhere in the file.

What to bring to the first message

The more of your plan arrives in the first message, the fewer rounds of questions follow. Send what you have, however rough:

• The deck, in any draft.
• Any spreadsheet you already use, even a single tab.
• Actual numbers to date: revenue by month, customers, cash in the bank.
• Your prices, and how and when customers pay.
• The hiring plan: roles, start months and salaries.
• The amount you are raising, and the milestone it should reach.
• Any question an investor has already asked.

Missing pieces are fine. Say which ones, and expect the consultant to say how each will be estimated and labeled in the file.

The scope items that change the price

Two models with the same name can be very different jobs. These are the items that move the price, so each one belongs in the written quote:

• Periods: monthly or yearly, and how many years. Monthly periods show the month cash runs out; yearly periods can hide it.
• Revenue lines: each way you charge is its own build.
• Markets: each country adds launch timing, and sometimes a currency.
• What exists already: checking a working model is a different job from rebuilding one.
• Scenarios: a sensitivity tab that re-runs the plan at other inputs.
• The deck: whether the slides are built from the model in the same project.
• Your deadline.

My financial model service prices by the same items: the periods, the number of revenue streams, how much of the model already exists, and your deadline. A model on its own is quoted in writing before any work starts. The deck with a 3-year model is a fixed package: $295 in 7 days on Fiverr.

What “reconciled” means: a balance check of 0.00 in every period

Reconciled, or tied out, means the three statements describe the same company. The test is one row at the bottom of the balance sheet: total assets minus total liabilities and equity. It should read 0.00 in every period, at every input you can type.

Ask to see that row before you accept the file, and ask how many periods it covers. A check shown for one year and hidden for the others is not a check.

Tying out is the floor, not the finish. A model can balance in every month and still run out of cash before the milestone, which is why the assumptions get tested next.

Ownership: an editable file, yours to change forever

The model will change after delivery: by you before every meeting, by an investor in diligence, by your first finance hire. Agree in writing that you receive the working file with every formula intact, with no locked sheets, no hidden tabs and no limit on editing it.

Read the contract for a clause that limits edits once you share the model. One published model contract says that once you disclose a deliverable, you “shall not alter, edit or modify it” from the form provided. That is the opposite of what a fundraising model is for.

With me, the Excel file is yours to keep and edit after delivery. Every assumption sits on one tab, and every other cell is a live formula, so you can change a number and re-run the model.

Assumptions challenged in writing

A consultant who types your numbers into a template has built a spreadsheet, not checked a plan. Ask for the challenges in writing: each assumption set against the others and against your deck, with the question an investor would ask and the answer the model gives. The assumptions stay yours. The job is to show where they disagree.

Start with headcount against payroll, because a team slide and a cost line are usually written weeks apart.

Expect the same treatment for price, sales pace, churn, salaries and payment terms. If you would like your own assumptions read this way before anyone builds anything, send me the deck and the spreadsheet. You get one written page back, and every point names the slide, the number and the fix.

Check yours: the deliverables checklist

Before you accept the final file, tick each line.

1. One Excel or Google Sheets file with live formulas, not values pasted from another tool.
2. Every input on one assumptions tab, each with a unit and a one-line source note.
3. Revenue built from customers × price, × usage where you charge for it.
4. Costs built from a hiring plan with roles, start months and salaries.
5. An income statement, a cash flow statement and a balance sheet for every period.
6. A balance check row that reads 0.00 in every period.
7. Monthly burn and runway taken from the cash flow statement.
8. A sensitivity on at least one input, such as price.
9. A written list of the assumptions challenged, with the answers.
10. The right to edit the file, with no locked or hidden sheets.

The process, in days

A fixed process gives every step a date, in writing. Mine runs in this order:

1. You send the deck, and the spreadsheet if there is one. A written read comes back within 2 business days (India time).
2. If a model would help, a fixed quote follows in writing: the periods, the revenue lines, the price and the delivery date.
3. You accept the same scope, price and date as a Fiverr custom offer.
4. I build, with my questions batched in writing, and reply within 1 business day (India time) during the project.
5. You get 2 revision rounds. One round is one consolidated list of changes, in writing.
6. You keep the final Excel file.

A model on its own is delivered by the date in your quote. The deck and a 3-year model together take 7 days from the order, as listed on the Fiverr gig, and the model is built first so that every slide figure traces to a cell.

Red flags: four signs a model will not survive questions

• Typed-over cells. A formula replaced by a number. The model balances until an input changes.
• Hard-coded totals. A total typed in instead of summed, so it never moves when its parts do.
• Growth percentages with no drivers. Revenue that grows by a fixed percentage says nothing about customers won or price.
• A model built after the deck. When the deck comes first, the model is built to match it, and the checks run backwards.

You can watch the same failure in the first-draft model on the home page. Switch on the typed-over cell there: Year 3 receivables become a typed $850,626, which balances at $1,806 a month and at no other price.

Send the model link with your deck

When an investor asks for the numbers, send a view-only link to the model with the deck. Every figure on a slide should be one they can find in that file, and the balance check should be on the first screen.