Company Background
Our client is North America’s largest lawn care franchisor, serving more than 800,000 households across approximately 1,000 territories across a majority of U.S. states and Canadian provinces. The group combines a franchise network with substantial company-owned operations and provides lawn care services and mosquito/tick control.
The business has moved from a founder-led environment to a private equity-backed one while continuing to be led by its existing management team. To support this next stage, finance is undertaking two major initiatives: modernizing its infrastructure, tools and ERP systems, and establishing a consistent monthly reporting cadence for private equity investors and the Board of Directors.
Role Overview
Reporting to the CFO, this role will lead consolidated reporting of actual results, budgets and future forecasts across the group. The immediate priority is to own Board, executive and lender reporting, working closely with accounting and business leaders and taking ownership of the tools and processes developed an in process 100 day plan engagement to lay foundations for reporting. Over the next 24 months, the role will also play a significant part in finance transformation, particularly initiatives affecting reporting and FP&A.
This is a player-coach role. At the company's current size, the leader of FP&A must be hands-on, building the models, reporting packages and processes personally, while also setting the standard for how the business thinks about financial performance. The successful candidate will be expected to develop a strong financial culture across the organization, partnering with operators to build their financial acumen and equip them to manage the business through its next phase of growth.
On an ongoing basis, the successful candidate will serve as a key finance partner to the CFO and operating leaders. As the business grows and its needs evolve, the successful candidate will build the FP&A function, including its team, responsibilities and recurring planning and reporting cadence.
Role & Responsiblities
Management and Board Reporting
- Own consolidated and business-level reporting across franchising and corporate operations in Canada and the US in a timely manner, including visibility of bank accounts and cash balances across entities and currencies.
- Align with the CFO, executive team and PE fund on reporting needs, key metrics and presentation.
- Develop a recurring reporting package covering financial performance, operational KPIs, budget variances and management commentary.
- Translate results into clear insights, risks and recommended actions.
Budgeting, Forecasting and Financial Modeling
- Streamline and lead the annual budget, rolling forecast and long-range planning processes with the respective business teams and consolidate the results for Board/Executive reporting.
- Build and maintain an integrated three-statement financial model (by business stream; as well as consolidated) covering the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow.
- Ensure driver-based budgeting linked to operational KPIs and business priorities.
- Partner with business leaders to challenge assumptions, assess resource needs and improve forecast accuracy, building their ownership of the numbers.
- Develop scenario and sensitivity analyses to support strategic and operating decisions.
- Own a rolling 13-week cash forecast and longer-term liquidity projections.
Business Performance and Profitability Analysis
- Establish consistent financial and operational KPIs across business units and help operators understand and act on them.
- Use the integrated financial model to analyze profitability by business stream, entity, branch and geography, as appropriate.
- Assess revenue growth, margins, labour productivity, overhead and cost allocations.
- Identify opportunities to improve profitability and track delivery against agreed initiatives.
Lender Reporting and Covenant Monitoring
- Develop and own the recurring lender reporting package, including covenant calculation templates and supporting schedules.
- Establish reliable data sources, review procedures and accountability for timely submissions.
- Forecast covenant compliance and available headroom, flagging potential constraints early.
- Identify challenges or gaps affecting delivery of lender reporting and implement practical recommendations.
- Partner with accounting and operations to improve working capital and cash conversion.
M&A Evaluation and Long-Range Financial Modeling
- Partner with the M&A team to evaluate potential acquisitions and support deal valuation, including assessing potential synergies and investment returns.
- Work with business leaders to develop long-range forecasts for acquisition targets, grounded in historical performance, operational drivers and growth opportunities.
- Incorporate completed acquisitions into the group’s budget and long-range plan and track performance against the original investment assumptions.
Finance Transformation and Automation
- Play a significant role in the 24-month finance transformation roadmap, helping rebuild the finance function through modern technology, improved processes and automation.
- Lead one or more transformation workstreams affecting reporting and FP&A, including budgeting, forecasting and financial analysis.
- Partner with accounting, IT and business leaders to evaluate and implement planning, reporting, consolidation and business intelligence tools.
- Define FP&A requirements for the future ERP and related systems, including data structures, reporting dimensions and integration needs.
- Automate data gathering, consolidation and recurring reporting to improve accuracy and timeliness and reduce manual work.
- Drive adoption through process redesign, documentation and training, embedding new tools in day-to-day operations.
Culture and Business Partnership
- Lead by example, personally building and owning the core models, reports and analyses while setting the standards and habits that raise the bar for the finance function.
- Develop a financial culture grounded in accountability, data-driven decision-making and a shared understanding of what drives profitability, cash flow and growth.
- Build financial acumen among operators through coaching, training and accessible tools, helping them read their own P&Ls, KPIs and budget variances and take ownership of results.
- Mentor and develop the future FP&A team, defining roles, standards and career paths as the function grows.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics or a related field; CPA, CA, CFA or MBA preferred.
- 10+ years of progressive FP&A, corporate finance or finance leadership experience, ideally in a private equity-backed, multi-entity or multi-location service business.
- Proven experience owning Board, investor and lender reporting, including covenant monitoring and compliance forecasting.
- Advanced financial modeling skills, including integrated three-statement models, driver-based budgets and scenario and sensitivity analyses.
- Hands-on experience with ERP, planning and business intelligence tools, and a track record of automating reporting and improving finance processes.
- Experience supporting M&A, including valuation, financial diligence and post-acquisition integration preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to coach and influence non-finance leaders, building financial acumen and accountability across operating teams.
- Strong communicator who can present to a Board and private equity sponsor and translate complex results into clear, actionable insights.
- A hands-on, player-coach mindset: comfortable building the work personally while developing a team and a finance culture.
- Experience in franchise, seasonal or cross-border (Canada and U.S.) businesses is an asset.
