We diagnose it, benchmark it against your sector, and recover it. In weeks, not quarters. One engagement with Lever typically unlocks eight figures in annualised cash. No new debt, no new equity, no operational disruption.
The data exists. The tools exist. Without the right intelligence layer, leadership teams are making critical decisions on incomplete, backward-looking information.
Most mid-market companies have $500K to $3M of recoverable cash in their working capital cycle. Billing happens days after delivery. Collections follow aging reports rather than recovery probability. AP is paid on fixed terms regardless of cash position. This is a process problem and it is solvable.
Finance data exists across systems that do not talk to each other. Reporting is backward-looking by the time it arrives. The CFO and CEO are making strategic decisions on last month's numbers. Decision-making lags because the intelligence layer connecting data to decisions simply does not exist.
A full-time CFO is expensive and often premature. A traditional fractional CFO sells hours. Neither gives growth stage companies what they actually need: real time financial intelligence, live cash visibility, board-ready reporting, and strategic support that keeps pace with the business. AI changes the economics of this completely.
Any company can spin up autonomous AI agents in days. That has removed the technology barrier. What it has not removed is the accountability gap: who is responsible when an AI agent produces a wrong number in a board report, triggers a payment, or misclassifies a risk? Without a CFO-grade governance layer, AI deployment creates exposure that moves faster than the business can see it.
Operational, financial, regulatory, and technology risks compound faster in the AI era. Structured risk assessment, mitigation planning, and board level monitoring have traditionally been priced out of reach. We deliver corporate-grade ERM at a fraction of what larger firms charge. Practical, affordable, and continuously monitored.
Start where the cash problem is. Build the intelligence layer around it. Protect it with governance and risk management. Every service can be engaged independently or combined into the integrated package.
The entry point for every Lever engagement. We score your working capital position against the Lever Working Capital Index across seven layers, benchmark it against sector and revenue-band peers, and identify the top three cash recovery levers ranked by dollar impact. Delivered in five working days. Fixed scope. No ongoing commitment required. Most clients proceed to a full Working Capital Tower engagement within 30 days of receiving their score.
A floor-by-floor recovery of the cash trapped in your AR cycle, billing processes, collections, AP management, and cash forecasting. We quantify the total opportunity in dollars before the engagement starts, so you know the return before you commit. Our engagements typically reduce cash conversion cycle by 30% or more, with improvements that are permanent rather than reverting over time.
A live AI powered intelligence system built around your business. Custom AI agent embedded in your environment. Automated board packs. Live financial dashboards. 13-week rolling cash forecast. Scenario modelling on demand. The system surfaces what matters so your leadership team decides on current evidence rather than last month's report. It operates continuously, not only when an advisor is available.
Corporate-grade ERM at a cost structure accessible to mid-market businesses. Risk identification, assessment, mitigation planning, and continuous board level monitoring built as a living framework rather than a filing exercise. In the AI era, operational, financial, and technology risks compound faster than they did before. The businesses caught by them are typically the ones that could not see them coming.
Any team can deploy AI agents in days. What most cannot self-generate is the financial accountability layer that sits above them: an independent assessment of whether the AI investment is genuinely justified, whether autonomous decision-making meets board and audit standards, and whether the adoption plan will survive contact with real operations. We provide the CFO-grade challenge function that keeps AI deployment honest, before the money is spent and after the system goes live.
The integrated engagement. Working capital recovery, live intelligence layer, risk management, AI governance, and real time CFO-level strategic support combined into a single relationship built around your business. This is not a fractional CFO arrangement where you buy hours. It is a finance intelligence operation that runs continuously, scales with your business, and holds itself accountable to measurable outcomes. One engagement. Full coverage.
A fixed scope engagement for businesses navigating a specific, bounded challenge: ERP assessment or implementation, post-system performance gaps, working capital unlock as a standalone project, or pre-transaction finance readiness. We work inside the execution layer and leave the business with stronger infrastructure and measurable improvement. Fixed deliverables. Fixed timeline. Full accountability for the outcome.
We do not run a sales process. Every engagement starts with a direct conversation about your situation. We tell you what we can recover, how long it will take, and what it will cost. If the numbers do not justify the engagement, we say so before you commit to anything.
Five working days. We score your working capital position, benchmark it against sector peers, and deliver a ranked map of your cash recovery opportunity in dollars. Fixed scope. No ongoing commitment. Most clients see the full engagement ROI case before the diagnostic is complete.
Full floor-by-floor cash recovery engagement. We quantify the opportunity before you commit, execute the recovery inside your business, and build AI monitoring to protect the improvement permanently. Engagement fee typically recovered within two to three weeks of completion.
Monthly retainer covering your chosen service combination: intelligence layer, working capital monitoring, controls, risk management, and strategic CFO support. Scoped to your situation. No fixed term. Reviewed as the business evolves.
A structured LWCI™ diagnostic run across multiple portfolio companies simultaneously. Identifies the highest cash recovery opportunity across the portfolio, ranked by impact. A single conversation with your operating partner team is the starting point.
Find where value is leaking. Fix what matters first. Build the intelligence and discipline needed to sustain the improvement permanently.
Separate symptoms from the actual bottleneck across margin, cash, intelligence, controls, risk, and decision-making velocity. Every engagement begins here before any work is scoped.
Before anything is built or changed, we put a dollar value on the opportunity. You know the return before you commit. If the numbers do not justify the engagement, we say so.
We work directly within the execution layer alongside your team. Every output is validated before it reaches your board or leadership. No recommendations handed over without accountability for the result.
The end state is a business that sees further, decides faster, and holds its improvement permanently. Dependency on the advisor is not the goal. Independence is.
Before any engagement starts, we quantify the dollar value of each floor in your specific business. You see the full recovery opportunity before you commit to anything. Most mid-market companies carry $1M to $5M of recoverable cash across all five floors combined.
Enter your numbers below. This is the same calculation we run in every diagnostic, before anyone signs anything.
Conservative estimate based on Floor 01 only. Floors 02 through 05 generate additional recoveries not shown here.
We build the intelligence layer on top of your existing technology. No rip and replace. No new infrastructure. Connecting data that was always there but never talking to each other.
Every tool is selected because it passes the fit, ROI, and adoption test for your specific business. We work with leading AI platforms for finance, connecting seamlessly to your existing reporting, planning, and ERP infrastructure.
Lever Advisory publishes regularly on LinkedIn for finance leaders, PE operating partners, and investors who want to understand what conventional reporting is no longer telling them. Every piece is grounded in engagement experience, not theory.
DSO, DIO, and DPO each measure one part of the cash cycle. None of them measure whether the system, as a whole, is releasing the cash it should. We write about why that gap matters more than it used to, and what it costs the businesses that have not closed it.
Decision-making at mid-market scale now requires intelligence that lives ahead of monthly reporting, not behind it. We write about how finance functions are restructuring around live visibility and what that means for the CFO role itself.
For listed companies, FCF drives the multiple. For private and PE-backed businesses, it determines the exit. We write about why working capital recovery is now one of the highest-return value creation levers available and how operating partners are scoping it.
Follow for new pieces, working capital diagnostics in practice, and commentary on what is changing in mid-market finance. No spam, no sales sequences, just the writing.
Lever Advisory was founded by Micheal A. Legesse on a single observation, formed over a career carrying CFO and finance leadership accountability across complex businesses: the standard KPIs that most finance functions report on are telling half the story at best, and in many businesses, very little of it. The reported numbers move within acceptable ranges. The cash position does not match the metrics. The board asks questions the finance function cannot answer cleanly. Something is wrong, and the measurement framework was never built to surface what.
Micheal has spent his professional career working on exactly that gap. Sitting in the seat. Carrying the accountability. Watching the difference between businesses that know what their numbers are actually telling them and businesses that do not. Lever Advisory is the practice he founded to close that gap deliberately: to help finance leaders measure what matters most, not just what is easiest to report.
The practice operates in the UK and US, led personally by Micheal and supported by a curated bench of highly skilled and experienced professionals drawn in where their expertise is required. Every engagement is delivered inside the execution layer of the business until the outcome is measurable in cash, not on a slide. He has worked in the seat, not on the outside writing recommendations. He has also founded, scaled, and exited a commercial venture of his own. That experience matters: he understands the pressure that founders, PE-backed management teams, and growth-stage leaders face because he has carried it personally, not observed it from the outside.
Micheal is a Fellow of the ACCA, the highest designation in the profession, and holds an MBA. Lever Advisory engagements are scoped around measurable cash outcomes, not billable hours. On average, our engagements reduce cash conversion cycle by 30% or more. That is the standard we hold every engagement to, and the standard our clients hold us to.
In classical mechanics, a lever applies a small, precisely placed force to move a much larger load. The result is disproportionate output when the fulcrum is placed correctly. That principle is what this practice exists to apply in finance: finding the precise point of intervention where focused, well-placed effort produces returns far beyond what the resource deployed would suggest is possible. Disproportionate impact from disciplined, precisely applied force.
Precise force · disproportionate outcome
"Most working capital problems are not financing problems. They are process and visibility problems. The cash is already in the business. The question is whether you can see it, and whether you have the right lever to recover it."
Every engagement starts with a direct conversation. No sales pitch. A clear assessment of where and how we can help. If we cannot add value, we say so.
5-day working capital diagnostic. We score your business against the Lever Working Capital Index, benchmark it against sector peers, and quantify the cash recovery opportunity in dollars. Fixed scope. No ongoing commitment required.
Monthly retainer combining CFO intelligence, working capital monitoring, controls, risk management, and strategic support. Scoped to your situation and reviewed as the business evolves.
Time-bound fixed engagement for a specific challenge: ERP, working capital unlock, controls redesign, or ERM build. Clear deliverables, clear timeline, full accountability for the outcome.