Alinement Group
Know which week cash gets tight, who owns each priority, and whether last week's decision worked.
A weekly operating rhythm for the people who advise owner-led companies, and for the owners who run them. One forecast, three priorities with names beside them, one meeting that ends in decisions. Built by a CPA who has been in the numbers since 1985 and still carries clients.
For advisors
You run several companies' numbers.
Fractional CFO or COO, client-advisory firm, coach. Every client that invites you, on one screen, ranked by who needs you this week.
Start hereRun it yourself
You run one company, and mean to keep it that way.
One forecast, three priorities with names beside them, one meeting that ends in decisions. A weekly rhythm you can run without hiring anyone to run it for you.
Start hereHere for the Brief? Every issue · The free one-page tools
This week in the Brief
Six Questions to Ask About Your Books Before December
Find out what's in your books in November, with six weeks left to fix it, not in March. Six questions to ask now, from reconciliations to inventory, and what a good answer sounds like.
What does this week look like?
Pick the one that sounds like this week. Each one opens a free tool and the Brief issues behind it.
Profitable on paper, tight at the bank
Free one-page tool The 13-Week Cash Forecast
Six rows, thirteen columns, built from when money actually moves, so you find your cash low point and the week it lands before it finds you.
Read and download
Free one-page tool The Three-Question Monthly Review
One sheet of paper after every month-end close: which way gross margin went, the sales it takes to break even, and whether the profit turned into cash.
Read and downloadEveryone is busy, the priorities keep drifting
Free one-page tool The Alignment Snapshot
Three questions, answered independently and in writing, that show what your leadership team actually agrees on.
Read and download
Free one-page tool The Priority & Owner Grid
Three priorities, one named owner each, and a plain sentence for what done looks like, on a single page.
Read and download
Free one-page tool The Priority Scoreboard
A five-row tracker that turns a ranked priority list into a name, a status, and a next step anyone can read in two minutes.
Read and download
Free one-page tool The Weekly Operating Rhythm
The five one-page tools on a single weekly cadence: who touches which page, when, and the honest minute count for the whole rhythm.
Read and downloadThe weekly meeting turned back into status updates
Free one-page tool The Priority Scoreboard
A five-row tracker that turns a ranked priority list into a name, a status, and a next step anyone can read in two minutes.
Read and download
Free one-page tool The 60-Minute Meeting Agenda
A fill-in agenda for the weekly leadership meeting: scoreboard, last week's list, issues and decisions, read-back.
Read and download Free one-page tool The Weekly Operating Rhythm
The five one-page tools on a single weekly cadence: who touches which page, when, and the honest minute count for the whole rhythm.
Read and downloadI get the P&L and I'm not sure what it's telling me
AI is in the building and nobody set the rules
The job has been posted for months
The method
Hard work isn't the problem. Drift is.
Most owner-led businesses don't fail from lack of effort. They slowly lose focus on priorities, because nobody can see the whole picture at once. Four steps put the picture back together: Diagnose, Align, Execute, Operate. Same four for an owner running one company and an advisor running twenty.
- 1
Diagnose
You can't fix what you can't see. Take an honest snapshot before you change anything. The free Diagnostic is that snapshot.
- 2
Align
Once you can see where you stand, pick where you're going. Pick less than you want to. Three goals, each with a number and a name.
- 3
Execute
Plans fail around week three, when the binder goes in the drawer. Make the week the unit of the plan: a short scoreboard, checked every week.
- 4
Operate
A good quarter can run on effort. A good year needs a rhythm. The meeting happens and the scoreboard gets read whether or not you're in the building.
Who is behind this
A CPA who thinks owners deserve to understand their own numbers.
Terry Smith is a CPA and CITP, in the numbers since 1985, a fractional CFO (a part-time finance chief), and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Raised in southern Indiana, based in Upstate South Carolina. Alinement Group is the software and the courses; The Brief is where he writes down what he tells owners across the table.