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Consumer Products & DTC
Fractional CFO for Consumer Products
Cash trapped in inventory, channel margins blurred, and board decks that report history instead of choices: decision-grade FP&A fixes all.
Trusted by 50+ SaaS businesses, marketplaces, and platforms:
Founder’s pains
Your P&L shows profit while cash keeps disappearing into inventory
Consumer products finance lives and dies on cash timing, not accounting profit. Inventory lead times, seasonal demand swings, and multi-channel fulfillment create cash gaps that a monthly P&L cannot surface. Founders see growth on paper and a declining bank balance at the same time, and no single model connects the two.
Trigger moments hit hard: a peak-season inventory build drains six months of runway, a wholesale launch shifts margin structure overnight, or a board asks for channel-level economics that nobody has calculated. By the time the cash gap is visible, the purchase orders are already signed and the freight is already on the water.
Cash trapped in inventory and working capital
DTC cash conversion cycles typically run 60-120 days, and CPG working capital cycles stretch to 90-150 days under retailer Net-60/90 and distributor Net-45/60 terms. Every additional day inventory sits in the warehouse ties up cash that could fund growth, yet most consumer brands order inventory based on sales targets, not on a 13-week cash flow model that accounts for processor payouts, freight timing, and seasonal demand gaps.
Channel margin blind spots
Blended gross margin hides the real story. DTC, wholesale, and Amazon channels carry fundamentally different cost structures: retailer margins of 30-50%, distributor cuts of 5-15%, and Amazon's fee stack typically running 6-12 contribution points below DTC. When all channels are averaged together, a brand can look profitable while losing money on every Amazon unit and underpricing on every wholesale order, with no visibility into which channel actually funds growth.
Unit economics debated, not used
CAC payback, LTV:CAC, and contribution margin after marketing get debated in every planning meeting but rarely make it into the operating model. Without a consistent framework, teams argue about whether a channel is working instead of deciding what to scale, cut, or reallocate. The result: marketing budgets get set by last year's spend plus a round number, not by a channel-level contribution analysis that shows where each dollar actually returns cash.
Board reporting shows history, not choices
Investor updates arrive with revenue charts and growth percentages, but they don't frame the trade-offs the board actually needs to weigh: which channel to double down on, whether to raise inventory financing or equity, or how a margin improvement plan changes runway. Consumer products investors now price businesses on whether they throw off cash, not on an IPO exit that has effectively disappeared for sub-$300M DTC brands. Reporting that doesn't answer 'what do we do next' wastes the board's time.
WHY FISCALLION
Decision-grade finance for consumer products: built and owned by a senior CFO
01
Financial Planning and Analysis
A driver-based financial model built for consumer products: AOV, conversion rate, channel mix, inventory ordering cadence, and seasonality flow into a three-statement model that connects every operational decision to cash, runway, and margin impact. You stop guessing what a 15% inventory increase does to your cash position six months out.
02
Fundraising & Investor Support
Investor-ready board decks that frame channel-level economics, cash position, and the trade-offs your board needs to decide on, not just historical revenue charts. Aleksandar owns the fundraising narrative and the underlying model, so the numbers hold up under diligence and the story answers 'what do we do next.'
03
Actionable KPI Dashboards
KPI dashboards built around the metrics that actually drive consumer products decisions: days inventory outstanding, CAC payback by channel, contribution margin after marketing, channel-level MER, and cash conversion cycle. Each metric ties back to a decision: scale this channel, cut that SKU, reorder now or wait.
04
Growth Focus CFO Advisory
Senior CFO judgment on every engagement, without the cost and commitment of a full-time hire. Each Fiscallion client works directly with Aleksandar at the CFO layer: no account manager, no junior analyst handoff. His FP&A leadership experience gained through the growth of a SaaS company to €100M ARR brings a decision-grade framework that adapts to consumer products' cash and inventory dynamics.
FINANCIAL MODELING
The financial infrastructure built for scaling consumer products brands
Rolling 13-week cash flow model
Models every cash-moving event: inventory deposits, PO timing, processor payout delays, freight invoices, and seasonal demand swings. Subtracts committed purchase orders from headline cash so you see true runway, not a number that ignores signed obligations already draining the bank account.
Driver-based three-statement model
Built from consumer products drivers: AOV, conversion rate, channel mix, inventory ordering cadence, and seasonality. Flows into an integrated income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow forecast so you can stress-test any decision, a new wholesale deal, a price increase, or a SKU cut, against cash, margin, and runway.
Channel-level contribution margin analysis
Breaks out DTC, wholesale, Amazon, and retail contribution margin separately: net of channel-specific fees, trade spend, fulfillment costs, and returns. Reveals which channels actually generate cash and which are subsidized by the others, so pricing, promotion, and channel investment decisions have a financial basis.
Unit economics framework
Defines and calculates CAC payback, LTV:CAC, contribution margin after marketing (CM2), and break-even ROAS by channel, consistently, not ad hoc. Replaces the monthly unit economics debate with a single framework the team uses to decide where to scale spend, where to cut, and which products deserve inventory.
Board and investor reporting cadence
Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly reporting tailored to your stage: built around channel economics, cash position, inventory health, and the trade-offs your board needs to weigh. Frames recommendations next to every metric, so investor updates answer 'what do we do next' instead of recapping what already happened.
Capital strategy and financing decisions
Compares inventory financing, ABL lines, revenue-based advances, and equity on cost, dilution, and timing, not on familiarity. The cheapest capital goes to brands with clean 13-week forecasts, so the cash flow model directly feeds your financing strategy and determines whether you borrow, advance, or raise.
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