Clear numbers make better decisions. UBM Tax Associates provides practical financial consulting in Ottawa for owner-managed businesses, professionals, and incorporated contractors. Led by Braham Merchea, CA, CGA — a former CRA auditor — we turn your financial statements into a working plan: where your cash is going, what the business can afford next, and which structure keeps more of what you earn.
Financial Guidance Built on Real Numbers, Not Guesswork
Most owner-managers see their numbers once a year, at tax time — when it is too late to change anything. Our financial consulting engagements put a chartered accountant’s eyes on your business throughout the year, so decisions about hiring, pricing, equipment, and owner drawings are made on current figures instead of instinct.
We usually start by rebuilding your picture of cash: a rolling cash-flow forecast that shows week by week what is coming in and what must go out, followed by an annual budget with monthly checkpoints. From there we add the handful of performance indicators that actually drive your industry — gross margin by job, revenue per billable hour, receivable days — and review them with you in plain language, not accounting jargon.
Structure matters as much as performance. Whether to incorporate, how to split salary and dividends, when a holding company earns its keep, and how to get the business ready for financing or an eventual sale — these decisions compound for years. Because our team includes a former CRA senior auditor, the structures we recommend are ones we are confident defending under review.
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Cash-Flow Planning and Forecasting
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Budgets, KPIs, and Management Reporting
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Business Structure and Financing Readiness
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Succession and Exit Planning
Financial consulting is not a binder of charts — it is a standing conversation about the decisions in front of you. Some clients need a one-time engagement: a financing proposal for the bank, a budget for a new location, a valuation range before a partner buyout. Others keep us on quarterly, reviewing results and adjusting the plan as the year unfolds. Either way, the work connects directly to the other services our Ottawa firm provides, so advice never happens in a vacuum.
Tax Preparation Services
Consulting advice is only as good as its tax outcome. Because the same firm prepares your returns, every cash-flow and compensation decision we model already reflects its real after-tax cost — no surprises the following April.
Bookkeeping Services
Reliable advice needs reliable records. Our bookkeeping team keeps your ledgers current and reconciled, which means the forecasts and KPI reports we build for you draw on numbers you can actually trust.
Payroll Services
Staffing is usually the biggest line in any budget. With payroll processed by the same office, we can model the true cost of a new hire — wages, source deductions, WSIB — before you commit to the offer.
Business Consulting
For operational questions — pricing, systems, growth planning — our broader business consulting service picks up where the financial analysis leaves off, turning the numbers into a working plan.
Accounting Services
Year-end financial statements anchor every consulting engagement. Prepared by the same team, they give lenders, buyers, and the CRA a consistent, credible picture of your business.
Cash-Flow Planning and Budgeting for Ottawa Businesses
Profit on paper does not pay Friday’s wages. The first thing we build for most consulting clients is a rolling cash-flow forecast that shows, week by week, what is coming in, what must go out, and where the pinch points fall — before they arrive.
From there we set an annual operating budget with monthly checkpoints, so you can see quickly whether the year is tracking to plan and adjust while it still matters. HST instalments, corporate tax instalments, and loan payments are built in — which is exactly where most do-it-yourself budgets fall apart.
For seasonal Ottawa businesses — construction, landscaping, tourism — we pay particular attention to carrying the quiet months: how much cash reserve you need, when to draw on a line of credit, and when new equipment is genuinely affordable rather than merely financeable.
Financing Readiness, KPIs, and Management Reporting
Banks say no to messy files. When you need a term loan, a mortgage on a commercial unit, or a larger operating line, we prepare the package lenders expect: current statements, projections that hold together, and a clear story for how the debt gets serviced. You walk into the meeting with answers instead of apologies.
Between financing events, we keep score with a short monthly or quarterly report — the five to eight indicators that actually drive your business, compared against budget and last year. A gross margin drifting two points, receivables stretching from 30 to 45 days: these are problems that are cheap to fix early and expensive to discover at year-end.
Everything is written in plain language. You do not need an accounting background to run a profitable company — you need someone who translates the statements into the two or three decisions they point to.
Business Structure, Compensation, and Succession Planning
The way your business is structured quietly decides how much tax you pay every year. We advise on when incorporation makes sense, how to split owner compensation between salary and dividends, whether income can properly be shared within a family, and when a holding company is worth its added cost.
These calls draw on the full experience of UBM Tax Associates — including a former CRA senior auditor — so the structures we recommend are ones we are confident defending. Aggressive schemes that invite reassessment are not part of our practice.
Looking further ahead, we help owners prepare for a sale, a family transition, or a wind-down: cleaning up the balance sheet, documenting what makes the business valuable, and sequencing the change over the years it takes to do properly — including planning around the lifetime capital gains exemption where it applies.
Whether you run a two-person consultancy in Kanata or a crew of thirty out of Nepean, the goal is the same: a structure that fits how you actually operate, and an exit you choose rather than one that happens to you.
Ready for a Clearer Financial Picture?
Book a consultation with our financial consulting team and get a practical read on your cash flow, structure, and plans — usually within a single meeting.
FAQ
Our engagements typically cover cash-flow forecasting, annual budgets, KPI and management reporting, financing proposals, compensation planning (salary versus dividends), business structure advice, and succession planning. Every engagement is scoped and priced up front, so you know exactly what you are getting.
Bookkeeping records what already happened, and year-end accounting reports it. Financial consulting is forward-looking: it uses those records to decide what should happen next — what you can afford, how to finance it, and how to structure it. The three work best together, which is why many Ottawa clients use us for all of them.
Yes. We prepare the full financing package — current financial statements, cash-flow projections, and a repayment analysis — in the format lenders expect, and we will join the meeting or call with your bank if you want an accountant in the room.
It depends on scope. One-time projects such as a financing package or a budget build are quoted as a fixed fee before we start; ongoing advisory clients typically pay a flat quarterly amount. Call (613) 843-0757 and we will quote after a short conversation about what you need.
Both. For startups and new incorporations we help choose the right structure, register CRA accounts, build a workable first budget, and avoid the early mistakes that are expensive to unwind. Established businesses more often come to us for financing readiness, KPI reporting, and succession planning.
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