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About

I built the thing I needed at 2am, and then I kept building it.

For most of twenty years I have been the person in a company who gets asked the hard financial question and has to answer it by Monday. Not from a finance department — from an operating seat, with a bookkeeper, a spreadsheet, and a payroll run coming.

Every time, the work was the same. Rebuild a thirteen-week cash forecast from scratch. Figure out which customer was quietly costing money. Work out what a bank would say about the debt coverage before asking. Each one took a weekend, and the weekend after that I would do it again because the model had broken.

The answer was never hard. Getting to it was. That gap is the entire product.

So the tools here are not a finance platform. They are the 30 specific pieces of arithmetic I have had to do over and over, each one built once, properly, so nobody has to rebuild it at 2am again. You do not have to be a finance person to use them. That is the point.

Photograph

Josh, working — desk, site, or shop floor. Not a studio portrait against grey.

JOSH MENOLD
FOUNDER · OPERATIONAL CFO

The seats

2001Assistant to VP / Operations ManagerCampbell UniversityDuring MBA. Identified an untapped multi-million-dollar opportunity in student food services. Oversaw a $2.5M budget, 96 FTE + 50 part-time, franchise partnerships (Chick-Fil-A, Quiznos), and implemented the campus-wide biometric POS system. The early lesson: an organization thinks it's about one thing when it's really about another. Campbell wasn't a food system — it was an education system that happened to run food. That reframe changed how everything got run. It's also where 'ITABWODI' — Is There A Better Way Of Doing It? — became the daily posture. Read the full origin essay →
2005Controller / Accounting Manager / Financial AnalystK. Hovnanian HomesPromoted across three roles in the Raleigh Division of a publicly-traded national homebuilder. Managed financial reporting, tri-annual budgets, GAAP/SOX/SEC compliance. Selected as lead finance liaison for Corporate Oracle IT implementation across US divisions. Built Excel analytics used by division and group leadership. Reduced role workload 60% through reporting streamlining.
2009CFO / Director of Finance & Board MemberFaulkner/Haynes & AssociatesFirst CFO seat. Reengineered all financial systems. Purchased and implemented ERP. Restructured banking and insurance. Analyzed and advised on a new NC territory that became a durable revenue line. 40% IT cost savings. Recovered $100K+ in tax refunds via financial audit back to 2005. Mentored the incoming CEO. Served on the board.
2011Director of Operations & FinanceMakarios International (DR)Led operations and finance for an international nonprofit focused on children's safety, health, and education in the Dominican Republic. Trained 30+ staff. Migrated key positions to Dominican nationals, reducing cost and improving cultural alignment. Partnered with 13 international groups in 12 months. Implemented fund accounting and KPI benchmarking across nonprofit operations.
2013Director of Finance & Admin (Interim CFO)Tower Engineering ProfessionalsPersonally recruited by the President to RESCUE an in-process M&A. Performed due diligence across 40+ divisions (US and Canada), 4 subsidiaries, and a DBA. Identified $1M+ in billing errors. Closed the books in under 45 days for the first time in company history. Completed all required M&A reports in under 60. Deployed NetSuite. Trained the incoming CFO, Controller, HR Director through the PE transition. Read the full rescue essay →
2015CFO & Board Member (Interim CEO/COO/CIO 3+ yrs)Bobbitt Design BuildJoined a founder-led design-build firm. Effectively served as Interim CEO/COO/CIO for 3+ years while CFO and Board Member, preparing the company to scale. Identified key growth markets that opened significant new pipeline. Hired sales consultant who drove close rates from under 10% to over 35% in 18 months. Led technology overhaul from 25% to over 90% paperless. Restructured ESOP and 401(k). Served as in-house legal advisor and Chief Risk Manager. The BUILD-THE-INFRASTRUCTURE-TO-SCALE seat — and the company still runs on that foundation.
2022Principal Consultant & Managing MemberITABWODI, LLCBuilt a fractional C-suite consulting practice — outsourced CFO, integrator, and strategic advisor across construction, dental, and multi-site behavioral health engagements. Performed company valuations and due diligence. Served as fractional CFO and integrator for a multi-entity organization, rebuilding its finance team. Built M&A process for 5-10 acquisitions/year roll-up growth. ITABWODI — Is There A Better Way Of Doing It? — is both the company name and the operating posture.
2023CEO, Owner & Board MemberThe CHE CompaniesAcquired majority ownership of a multi-division exterior construction platform spanning NC, SC, and VA. Architected post-acquisition operating model (85/15 capital structure, governance, multi-state management services agreements). Launched Cornerstone Exterior Remodeling as a new consumer-facing division. Implementing AI-powered operational workflows using Claude and custom agent architectures — daily executive pulse reports, meeting-to-action processing, company-wide communication drafting. NetSuite as the central data backbone. The CURRENT SEAT — and the platform this tool was built from.
2026FounderOperational CFO + CFO OSBuilt two AI platforms because every business owner deserves the financial clarity that took me 20+ years to develop across eight seats in the room — analyst, controller, director of finance, CFO, interim CEO, board member, fractional consultant, owner. The tool doesn't preach. The tool frees.

What I believe about this work

Four things, and they shape every tool here.

Show the math or say nothing

Every number on this site can be traced to the inputs that made it. If the advisor cannot show its arithmetic, it tells you that instead of inventing a figure.

An answer you cannot act on is trivia

Every tool ends in a decision, not a dashboard. If a result does not change what you do this week, it should not be on the screen.

Your numbers are yours

Free tools run entirely in your browser. Nothing is sold, nothing trains a model, and cancelling does not hold your work hostage.

Nonprofits pay less

Same work, less staff, harder questions from the board. Charging them full price for it would be strange.

Why this exists

You don't have to be the expert. You just have to be aware.

You started this business because you're great at something.

Maybe you're an engineer who saw a better way to solve a problem. Maybe you're a contractor who got tired of watching other people do mediocre work. Maybe you started a nonprofit because you couldn't walk past a need without doing something about it. Maybe you just looked around and said, “I can do this better.”

And you were right. You built something real.

But somewhere along the way, the financial side got complicated. Revenue grew. Expenses multiplied. Your bookkeeper sends you reports and you nod, but you're not always sure what you're looking at. Your board asks about margins and you give an answer that sounds right but you're not confident it is.

Here's what nobody tells you: that's not a failure. That's normal.

You got here because you're excellent at something other than finance. That's not a weakness — it's the whole reason your business exists.

The real problem isn't the numbers

The real problem is what happens when leaders don't understand their numbers.

They make decisions from anxiety instead of clarity. They underpay good people because they're not sure they can afford more. They overspend in the wrong places because they can't see what's actually driving their costs. They miss opportunities to invest, to give, to grow — not because they lack the heart, but because they lack the awareness.

And here's the harder truth: when leaders operate without financial clarity, the people around them pay the price. Teams feel the tension of a leader who's guessing. Families absorb the stress of uncertainty. Communities miss out on the generosity that clarity would have unlocked.

Financial clarity isn't about spreadsheets. It's about freedom.

Who this is for

This is for the nonprofit founder whose board is asking about Q1 revenue and she needs to give a clear, confident answer.

This is for the contractor who just crossed $5M and knows his margins should be better but can't figure out where the leak is.

This is for the owner-operator who's been running on instinct for 15 years and finally wants to understand the machine underneath.

This is for anyone who believes that running a business well isn't just about making money — it's about stewarding what you've been given so you can bless the people around you.

If that's you, you're not behind. You're not failing. You're right on time.

Built on a simple belief

Excellence and integrity aren't just business values

They're reflections of how we were designed to work. The emptiness comes when we pursue them for ourselves instead of for others.

Human capital is not a line item

The people are the point. If you have to destroy the humans to generate the returns, you've missed it entirely.

Stewardship over accumulation

We will be held responsible for how well we stewarded what we were given. This tool exists to help leaders steward well.

The tool doesn't preach. The tool frees.

Build it with excellence. Make it genuinely useful. Trust that when leaders have real financial clarity, the good ones will use it to bless others.

ITABWODI

Is There A Better Way Of Doing It?

This is the question I ask every day — in my company, in this platform, in everything I build. It's not a destination. It's a posture. And it's the reason this platform will never stop getting better.

There's only so much you can take to the grave. The question is what you leave behind — and who you blessed along the way.

If something here does not fit your business, tell me.

Every tool on this site started as somebody's specific problem. Yours might be next. You don't have to be the expert — you just have to be aware.