The Divergence Audit

Find out where your numbers stopped telling the truth.

A deep review of your financial model and the raw data underneath it. You get a written report: where your numbers diverge from reality, what each divergence costs you, and how to fix it.

The engagement
Price
$6,500 fixed
Duration
Two weeks
Deliverable
Written findings + walkthrough call
Access
Read-only, NDA first
After
No retainer, no obligation
Request the audit

Prefer to talk first? Book a 30-minute fit call

01 · How it works

Three steps, two weeks.

Week 0 · Access

You open the data

Read-only access to your platform, ad accounts, and 3PL invoices. An hour or two of your team's time.

Week 1 · Teardown & forensics

I go in myself

Your assumptions, line by line. Then into the raw exports, cohort tables, and invoices to find where they break.

Week 2 · Findings

The truth, in writing

The divergences that matter, what each costs you, corrected numbers, and a fix plan. We walk through it on a call.

After: your call. No retainer attached, no pitch at the end.

02 · What it answers

The root cause of why your projections diverge from reality.

The questions underneath
  • Will an investor find a flaw in my model before I do?
  • What's causing my revenue projections to drift?
  • Am I blind to a cost that's eating my margin?
  • What did that launch actually do to my revenue?
03 · What it costs

$6,500, fixed. Here's the honest math.

A brand doing $5M+ typically spends $40–80K a month on advertising alone. A CAC miscounted by 10%, or a fulfillment cost understated by $10 an order, costs you more than the audit every few weeks, without you knowing it.

Priced as a fraction of what one wrong number costs you per quarter. A complete engagement: a beginning, an end, and a deliverable you keep.

04 · What clients say

Verified reviews, public profile.

Expert-Vetted on Upwork · top 1% of talent · 100% Job Success

"Michael was fantastic: he quickly picked up an understanding of our business and was able to turn around a relatively complex model for important fundraising meetings in a very tight time window."

Mike Saunders · CEO, Commonplace (UK)

"He was always truthful, readily available, and incredibly hard working. He really took the time and effort to immerse himself in the project at hand."

Mohamed El-Sharkawi · Founder (KSA)

"Michael takes the time to understand your business, your vision and your needs... He goes above and beyond what is expected of him and he truly cares about your goals. He has become a trusted advisor when it comes to my business."

Gabriella Mengstab · Founder (USA)
05 · Fit

Before you book, check the fit.

This works if

  • You're doing $5M+ in DTC or subscription revenue
  • There's a decision on the table: scaling spend, a new channel, a raise, an inventory bet, a board meeting
  • You have real transaction history and books in reasonable shape
  • You have a bookkeeper or accountant already. Keep them. I work alongside them, not instead of them.

Not for you if

  • You're pre-revenue or well under $5M. The price won't make sense yet, and I'd rather say so here than on a call.
  • You need accounting cleanup, catch-up bookkeeping, or audit coordination. Important work, not mine.
  • There's no decision riding on the numbers. Better numbers only matter if something changes when you see them.
06 · FAQ

Questions founders actually ask.

What access do you need, and is it safe?

Read-only access to your commerce platform, ad accounts, and whatever reporting your accountant produces, plus your 3PL invoices as files. I sign an NDA before I see anything. Read-only means I can't change or break anything.

We already have Triple Whale / Northbeam / a dashboard stack. What will you find that they don't show?

Dashboards report what they're fed and mirror your own assumptions back at you. The divergences worth money live underneath: in how costs are invoiced, how cohorts actually behave, how attribution counts. Every example on this page came from a brand with dashboards.

Our accountant produces forecasts already. How is this different?

Your accountant reports what happened, and does it for far less than $6,500, as it should be. The audit answers a different question: whether the assumptions underneath your forecasts are still true. That's not their job. It's mine.

What if you don't find anything?

In practice there's always something; a model that matches reality everywhere would be a first. But if your numbers genuinely hold up, the report says so, and that's worth having: you get to scale with confidence instead of doubt. Either way you get the corrected baseline in writing.

Why isn't this free? Others offer free audits.

A free audit is a sales call wearing a costume. Its job is to find just enough to sell you a retainer. This is the opposite: a paid engagement with no retainer attached, which means the findings answer to you, not to my pipeline.

What happens after the audit?

Whatever you want. Some clients take the report and run. Most ask me to stay involved, monthly or per project. There's no obligation and no pitch; the report's final page maps what ongoing work would look like, and you decide if that conversation happens.

Can you do this for a brand under $5M?

Usually I'll say no, not because the work is different but because the economics are: at $2M, a $6,500 audit is a real cash decision, and the divergences I find are proportionally smaller. If you're close to the line and something specific is at stake, write to me and I'll tell you honestly whether it's worth it.

07 · Request the audit

Two weeks from now, you could know.

Which number is wrong, what it's costing you, and what the corrected version says about your next move. Tell me what's on the table and I'll reply within one business day.

Prefer to talk first? Book a 30-minute call instead.