The Challenge
Businessbaker is a management consulting firm based in Abu Dhabi, serving enterprise clients across the UAE. With 15 team members and AED 8M+ in annual revenue, the firm was growing steadily. But the founders had a nagging problem: they could not tell which clients or service lines were actually profitable.
Revenue in consulting is project based and lumpy. Some months a large engagement would close, other months were quiet. The founders relied on gut feeling and quarterly spreadsheet reviews to understand their financial health. Cash flow between project milestones was unpredictable, and pricing decisions were made without real data.
- No visibility into profitability by client or service line
- Cash flow was unpredictable between project milestones
- Quarterly financial reviews took days to prepare manually
- Pricing decisions based on intuition instead of data
The Solution
After connecting Zoho Books, the CFO Dashboard revealed something the founders did not expect: their top 3 clients contributed 62% of total revenue, but one of those clients had consistently late payments that was quietly straining cash flow.
The revenue breakdown feature let them drill from total revenue down to individual clients, service lines, and even specific invoices. For the first time, they could see not just how much revenue each client generated, but how that revenue behaved over time. Combined with cash runway analysis, they could now plan for slow periods instead of being surprised by them.
Within the first week, Businessbaker renegotiated payment terms with a key client after discovering that late payments from that single account were responsible for 40% of their AR aging.
Key Results
Client profitability
Fully visible
Revenue breakdown by client and service line showed exactly where growth was coming from and where margins were thin.
Cash flow surprises
Eliminated
Cash runway and burn analysis helped the firm plan ahead for slow consulting months instead of reacting to them.
Financial review prep
Days to minutes
Monthly financial reviews that used to take 2 to 3 days of spreadsheet work now happen in a single meeting with live data.
“For the first time, we could see exactly which clients and services were driving our growth. We always assumed we knew, but the data told a different story. One insight in the first week changed how we manage our biggest client relationship.”
Priya Menon
Managing Partner, Businessbaker
What They Use Most
- Revenue breakdowns by client to track account performance
- Cash runway analysis to plan for gaps between project milestones
- Period over period P&L reconciliation for monthly reviews
- Expense analysis by category to monitor operational costs