Ashgrove Foods: three statements that always balance
Ashgrove Foods is a fictional food manufacturer with two plants and three sales channels. Its balance sheet was rebuilt by hand every quarter and rarely balanced on the first try. This blueprint links P&L, balance sheet and cash flow so they balance every month, with a 13-week cash view for treasury.
Blueprint: this model is fully designed and documented, and the live demo is being built next. The company and figures are fictional.
The problem
What wasn't working
The P&L lived in one file, the balance sheet in another, and cash was a separate treasury spreadsheet. Working-capital assumptions differed between them, and the balance sheet needed a plug to balance.
The design
How the model is built
- The P&L drives the balance sheet through working-capital drivers: debtor days, creditor days and inventory days.
- Capex and depreciation schedules feed fixed assets, and debt schedules feed interest and repayments.
- Cash flow is derived from balance sheet movements, never typed, so it can't disagree with the other statements.
- A 13-week cash view uses receipt and payment timing for treasury, reconciled to the monthly cash flow.
Inside the model
What planners work with
Working capital
Debtor, creditor and inventory days by channel and plant, with scenarios for tighter or looser terms.
Capex and assets
Projects with start dates and useful lives produce depreciation and asset balances automatically.
Debt and covenants
Facilities, interest and repayments, with covenant ratios flagged when they get close to limits.
Cash runway
Weekly receipts and payments show the lowest cash point and when a facility would be drawn.
Decisions that matter
Why it holds up
No plugs
The balance sheet balances by construction. A balance check metric must read zero, and it's on the main board.
Cash is derived
Cash flow comes from balance sheet movements, so there is one source of truth.
Weekly and monthly agree
The 13-week view reconciles to the monthly cash flow, so treasury and FP&A share a number.
What the client gets
Integrated statements that balance every month, working-capital levers leadership can test, and a weekly cash view treasury trusts.
More work
Other projects
SaaS FP&A on a hub-and-spoke
ARR engine, three versions, five cases and a write-back reforecast workbench across three Pigment applications.
Position-based workforce planning
Headcount roll-forward with hires, leavers and transfers, a merit cycle and fully loaded cost feeding the P&L.
Territory and quota planning
Account scoring, balanced territories, ramped rep capacity and quota set top-down against bottom-up capacity.