Hundred Spires Advisory — The Forward Deployed CPA

Beyond the chatbot

There's a ceiling most finance teams hit with AI. The work lives above it.

Asking a chatbot to draft a memo is the first rung. The value shows up when someone with real accounting judgment uses AI as an execution layer — to reshape data, wire up systems, and ship tools the team relies on every day.

01Ask a chatbot a questionDraft an email, summarize a standard, explain a concept

02Paste data in for a one-off answerCopy a table into a prompt, read the reply, move on

03Automate a single recurring taskA macro, a saved prompt, a template that saves an hour

04Build systems that run the workDashboards, data pipelines & deployed apps — with an audit trailForward deployed

The difference isn't the model. It's knowing what the numbers should do — then having the technical range to make software do it.

Accounting logic comes from a CPA who has owned the close, the audit, and the reconciliation. The code is executed with AI. No development team, no six-figure implementation, no waiting a quarter for IT.

The three case studies below are live, interactive dashboards you can open right now — each built on synthetic data, each the kind of system a Forward Deployed CPA stands up for clients.

The model

What "forward deployed" means for finance.

The forward deployed engineer embeds with a customer, learns the problem firsthand, and builds the solution on site. The Forward Deployed CPA applies that model to the finance function — with the accounting judgment the work demands.

Embedded, not arm's length

Work happens inside the actual systems and the actual close, next to the team that owns them — not from a deck across the table. The problem gets understood the way the people living it understand it.

Judgment and build, one person

Accounting logic from a CPA who has owned the close, the audit, and the reconciliation; the software built with AI as the execution layer. No translation loss between what the numbers should do and what the code does.

Working software, not slideware

The deliverable is a dashboard, a data pipeline, or a deployed app that runs — with a full audit trail — not a recommendation to implement someday. Something usable this quarter, without a development team or a six-figure rollout.

Left running, not left behind

Systems are handed over documented and maintainable, owned by the team that uses them. The measure of success is a finance function that keeps moving once the engagement ends.

Case studies · live & interactive

Open the dashboards. This is what a Forward Deployed CPA ships.

Each is a working dashboard built on synthetic data — no client information — modeled on real engagements. Click any one to explore it, toggle themes, and hover the charts.

LIVE DASHBOARD

13-week cash flow · fractional CFO

The forecast that keeps owners up at night — made live.

A direct-method 13-week cash flow for a ~$15M business. Pick any week and the whole model re-derives — opening cash from actuals, the projection from collection patterns and the payment calendar, and how the forecast actually played out.

Any weekRoll the as-of date

Actual vs forecastAccuracy, live

Open live dashboard

LIVE DASHBOARD

Revenue · actual vs forecast

Revenue against plan, never a close behind.

Every revenue segment in one view — actual versus forecast, against prior year, and TTM growth. It replaces a board slide that was always a month stale; beats and misses surface the week they happen.

+8.1%YoY growth

Ahead of planSurfaced weekly

Open live dashboard

LIVE DASHBOARD

EBITDA · net-income bridge

From GAAP net income to EBITDA, reconciled every way.

EBITDA against forecast and prior year, plus a clean walk from net income up through interest, taxes, and D&A — reconciled for the trailing twelve months, each quarter, and every month.

Vendor rebate monitoring

Know what you've earned before the vendor tells you.

Two dozen supplier rebate programs in one view — earned to date, forecast to year-end, and exactly which tiers are about to slip. It replaces a two-day monthly spreadsheet reconciliation and turns rebates into a managed number.

2 days → liveReconciliation time

$840KAt-risk, surfaced early

Open live dashboard

How engagements run

Senior expertise, without the large-firm overhead.

Operator, not advisor

Someone who has owned the close, the audit function, and the reconciliation. The structure gets fixed, not just the symptom.

AI as a real tool

Actual deployments and automation — not slideware about someday. Working software you can use this quarter.

Direct delivery

You work with the principal. No layers, no handoff to junior staff who learn on your engagement.

Measurable outcomes

Defined objectives, results you can point to. Results over representations.

About

Sander Abernathy, CPA

Sander Abernathy is the Forward Deployed CPA behind Hundred Spires — a finance leader who pairs the judgment of a controller with the technical range to build the tools that judgment implies.

Twenty-five years of finance and accounting sit behind the work: audit and national-office technical accounting at a Big Four firm, financial-executive roles inside private equity-backed companies, ERP implementations run under pressure, and finance teams led through restructuring. The hard problems — complex transactions, messy consolidations, a close that keeps slipping — are familiar ground.

What sets the model apart is what comes next. Most finance teams have discovered AI and stopped at the chatbot. Hundred Spires goes further, turning accounting logic into dashboards, restructured data, automated reconciliations, and applications deployed to the people who use them — structural fixes over temporary ones, software over repetitive manual work.

The result is senior finance capability without the overhead of a large firm: one operator who understands the numbers and can build what they imply, embedded alongside the team until the work runs on its own.

Hundred Spires AdvisoryThe Forward Deployed CPA · finance transformation & AI

Start a conversation

Have a number that should be a dashboard?

A close that runs long, data that won't reconcile, or an AI idea that can't quite get off the ground — that's forward deployed territory. A short conversation is usually enough to see the path.

Get in touch Call (404) 229-4045 sander@hundred-spires.com