How a commercial real estate firm covered a $160K cash gap in five months
A commercial real estate firm’s forecast did not include its planned year-end bonuses, creating a projected cash shortfall of approximately $160,000. Beankeeper translated the gap into a five-month closing plan. Leadership adjusted the sales plan and protected cash, and the company met the revised target, paid all planned bonuses, and restored executive compensation.
Client Snapshot
Industry: Commercial real estate
Challenge: A major year-end compensation obligation was missing from the cash forecast
Services used: Fractional CFO support and Controller support
Key Takeaways
Cash shortfall: $160,000 identified with five months to act
Closing target: Set from the forecast and met by year-end
Year-end result: 100% of planned bonuses paid and executive compensation restored
What wasn't working
The company’s forecast omitted planned year-end bonuses, a major part of its compensation structure. Once Beankeeper included those payments, the model showed an approximately $160,000 projected cash shortfall.
With five months remaining, leadership needed to know how many transactions the company would have to close before the bonuses came due.
What Beankeeper changed
Beankeeper connected the company’s cash forecast, sales planning, and recurring accounting support so leadership could address the year-end risk without losing coverage of the day-to-day finance work.
Built the forecast around the full year-end obligation
Beankeeper rebuilt the financial model to include the planned bonus payments and project cash through year-end.
Turned a $160K gap into a closing target
Because cash arrived when transactions closed, Beankeeper connected the projected shortfall to the number of closings required over the next five months.
Leadership used that target to rebuild the sales plan, add sales capacity, and increase incentives for faster closes.
The executive team also temporarily reduced its pay by more than 20% and deferred its own bonus compensation. Those changes protected cash for planned bonus payments even if the sales team missed its target.
Kept recurring accounting work covered
The company later hired an internal finance employee and retained Beankeeper for recurring accounting work.
Beankeeper continued handling that work, allowing the internal role to focus on modeling, analysis, and future financial needs.
The results
A projected $160K cash gap was covered in five months
The company addressed the forecasted shortfall before the year-end compensation payments came due.
The revised closing target was met by year-end
The leadership and sales teams completed the transactions required to fund the company’s planned obligations.
100% of planned bonuses were paid
The company paid every planned bonus and restored executive compensation by the end of the year.
Beankeeper established the financial requirement and closing target. The client’s leadership and sales teams executed the plan.
The business impact
The forecast converted a future cash problem into a decision leadership could manage while options remained available. Instead of reaching year-end with an unexpected shortfall, the company had a defined target, a response plan, and time to execute it.
The engagement also supported the company’s growing internal finance capacity. Beankeeper kept recurring accounting work moving while the internal role concentrated on forward-looking modeling and analysis.
Services used
Fractional CFO support
Cash forecasting, financial modeling, identification of the projected shortfall, and guidance that connected the cash requirement to a five-month closing plan.
Controller support
Recurring accounting support coordinated alongside the company’s internal finance employee.
Does your forecast show whether the business can fund what it has already committed to?
A financial plan can appear workable until every known obligation is included.
Beankeeper connects recurring financial work with forecasting and CFO-level guidance so leadership can identify potential gaps earlier and turn them into clear operating targets before those commitments come due.
