Step 1 Advisors

Outsourced finance function

The finance team you'd otherwise assemble one hire at a time.

Step 1 Advisors runs the CFO, controller, tax, and audit-readiness work of a full finance department — under US GAAP, IFRS, UK GAAP (FRS 101/102/105), or Ind AS.

Book a discovery callSee how an engagement works →

Take one service, a few, or all four

Fractional CFO

strategy & board reporting

available

Controller & bookkeeping

monthly close, AP/AR

available

Technical GAAP accounting

memos, revenue recognition

available

Audit liaison & readiness

PBC lists, schedules

available

Nothing here is a required bundle — engage one function on its own, or combine them into a single retainer. Curious about the numbers? Calculate your savings today.

Built for —ICAI/CPA/ACA Equivalent/Xero Certified/Quickbooks Certified/Cross-border India–US-UK operators/PCAOB trained professionals/Savings upto 60%

Services

Four practices. One team that already talks to each other.

Engage one service or several — every practice is staffed from the same firm, so your GAAP position and your board deck are never built by people who've never spoken.

01

Fractional CFO

A finance lead who sits in your leadership meetings, not a report you skim once a month.

Who it fits — Companies past $1.5M ARR $0M ARR that need high-conviction financial leadership to scale sustainably—without the $300k+ commitment of a full-time executive.

What's included

  • Monthly board & investor reporting packages
  • 13-week cash flow and runway modeling
  • Budget vs. actuals and departmental variance reviews
  • Fundraise support — data room, cap table hygiene, diligence answers
  • Pricing, unit economics, and margin analysis

The outcome

A CFO-grade decision partner for the cost of one senior hire's benefits package.

02

GAAP Advisory

Technical accounting for US GAAP, IFRS, and Ind AS — written so your auditors stop asking follow-up questions.

Who it fits — Companies converting standards, or hitting technical transactions their bookkeeper has never seen.

What's included

  • Revenue recognition memos (ASC 606 / IFRS 15)
  • Lease accounting under ASC 842 / IFRS 16 / Ind AS 116
  • Stock compensation and Share Based Payments (IFRS 2/ASC 718)
  • Business combination and purchase price allocation support
  • Policy documentation for first-time audits or standard conversions

The outcome

A defensible accounting position, documented before your auditor has to ask for it.

03

Strategic Remote Accounting & Advisory

The monthly close, run by people who also read the numbers once they're closed.

Who it fits — Teams who aren't ready to build an in-house accounting department.

What's included

  • Full-cycle bookkeeping and monthly close, done inside your existing stack
  • AP, AR, and payroll coordination with existing vendors
  • KPI dashboards tied to the metrics your board actually asks about
  • Systems and process design as headcount and entities multiply
  • Multi-entity and multi-currency consolidation

The outcome

A close that lands by the 10th business day, with someone who can explain every line to your board.

04

Audit & Assurance

Financial statement audits and reviews performed under standards your investors already trust.

Who it fits — Companies with a lender, investor, or board covenant requiring audited or reviewed financials.

What's included

  • Financial statement audits and reviews under GAAS
  • SOC readiness assessments
  • Employee benefit plan audits
  • Agreed-upon procedures for lenders and acquirers
  • Going-concern and internal control evaluations

The outcome

An opinion delivered on schedule, from a team that scoped the engagement instead of discovering it mid-fieldwork.

Independence — we do not provide fractional CFO, GAAP advisory, or accounting services to any client for whom we serve as auditor in the same fiscal year. Audit engagements are staffed, scoped, and billed independently of our advisory practice, consistent with AICPA and ICAI independence rules.

How we work

Three steps from first call to a close that lands on schedule.

01

Diagnostic call

A 45-minute working session on your books, your stack, and where the finance function is actually straining. You leave with a written read of what's broken, not a sales pitch.

02

Scoped engagement design

We propose a specific scope, deliverable calendar, and monthly fee — tied to your entity structure and reporting obligations, not a generic package tier.

03

Embedded delivery

Your team joins your Slack, your board deck, your close calendar. Reporting lands on the same date every month, and the same people show up to every review.

Why Step 1

The firm that stays after the audit ends.

Most advisory relationships fragment across a bookkeeper, a part-time CFO, and a tax preparer who never compare notes. Ours doesn't.

One team, not a vendor roster

The person who builds your model is the person who explains it to your board — you're never re-briefing a new analyst every quarter.

Standards fluency across borders

US GAAP, IFRS, and Ind AS under one roof, for companies with entities, investors, or acquirers on more than one continent.

Audit-side judgment, advisory-side pace

Our technical accounting is written the way an auditor reads it — because several of us used to be the auditor.

Fixed monthly fee, scoped in writing

No hourly surprises. The engagement letter says exactly what's delivered, on what date, for what fee — revisited only when your business changes shape.

Industries

Deepest where the accounting gets specific.

Every industry below has its own revenue recognition quirks, covenant structures, or regulatory filings — we staff engagements with people who've already learned them.

B2B SaaS & softwareHealthcare services & MSOsManufacturing & industrialsProfessional services partnershipsConsumer & e-commerceNonprofits & foundationsReal estate & constructionCross-border India–US operators

Leadership

Three partners, one point of accountability.

PR

CA Kshitij

Managing Partner, GAAP Advisory

CA (ICAI)

Ten years split between Big Four and Big Six audit firms FP&A, including 5 years in UK mainland audit experience. Leads engagements spanning UK–India entity structures.

MA

CA Mayank A

Partner, Audit & Assurance

ICAI (India)

Former audit manager at a Big4 assurance practice. Runs the firm's independence framework and leads non-financial statement audits and SOC readiness work.

EV

Elena Voss

Partner, Tax & Compliance

CPA (Texas), MST

Fifteen years in multi-state and cross-border tax, with a focus on R&D credits and nexus exposure for fast-growing companies expanding into new states.

FAQ

Questions before the diagnostic call.

Which jurisdictions do you work in?+

We serve clients incorporated in the US, and companies with a US entity paired with an Indian, UK, or Singapore subsidiary. Our technical accounting covers US GAAP, IFRS, and Ind AS. If your structure sits outside those jurisdictions, tell us on the diagnostic call and we'll say plainly whether we're the right fit.

Can you handle both our audit and our monthly accounting?+

Not at the same time, and not for the same fiscal year. Independence standards require that we not audit books we also maintain. Most clients pick one or the other with us; some rotate audit providers so we can run their advisory work continuously.

How is pricing structured?+

A fixed monthly retainer, scoped to your entity count, transaction volume, and reporting cadence in the engagement letter. Audit and one-off projects — like a PPA or an R&D credit study — are quoted separately and fixed before work starts.

What accounting systems do you work inside?+

QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, and Xero most often, along with Bill.com, Ramp, Ramp Payroll, Gusto, and Ind AS-compliant systems like Tally and Zoho Books for Indian subsidiaries. We work inside your existing stack rather than migrating you to ours.

How quickly can an engagement start?+

Most clients move from diagnostic call to signed scope within two weeks, and see their first monthly close delivered on our calendar within 30–45 days — sooner if books are already current.

Do you work with companies that don't have a controller yet?+

That's most of our client base. We typically step in as the first dedicated finance function a company has had, and either hand off to an internal hire later or stay embedded indefinitely — whichever the business needs.

Get started

Book a discovery call.

Tell us where your finance function is straining. We'll reply within one business day to schedule the 45-minute diagnostic call — no pitch deck, just your books and our read on them.

Offices

India · Gurugram (Delhi NCR) — engagements delivered remotely