Your Interim CFO &
Finance Advisory Team
We embed with your team, find the gaps in your finance function, and fix them, so you get clarity, control, and a finance operation that scales.
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Starved for Insights? Buried in Process?
Your finance team is working hard, but effort isn’t translating into impact.
Without reliable numbers, connected systems, and a clear view of performance, your leadership team is making decisions half-blind.
The result?
- Your team is firefighting instead of analyzing and planning.
- Reporting takes weeks, lives in spreadsheets, and is outdated by the time it lands.
- Opportunities slip through the cracks, and nobody trusts the numbers.
“We’re growing fast, but our finance team can’t keep up.”
Sound familiar?
Maybe you can’t get a straight answer on cash flow. Your board is asking questions your team can’t answer. Or your processes that worked at $10M are breaking at $50M.
You don’t need to figure this out alone.
We bring senior finance leaders who cut through complexity and build a finance function that gives you straight answers, fast.
Schedule a Strategy Call →
100+ Years in Finance, Combined. Here’s What That Means for You.
Most consultants write the recommendation and leave. We’ve sat in the CFO chair, managing the board, rebuilding the close, leading the team through the hard parts.
Because we’ve done this work from the inside, we know the difference between a plan that looks good on paper and one that actually survives Monday morning.
See What Makes Us Different →
Kari Lockhart
Founder & CEOKari spent three decades as a finance executive, leading transformations, advising high-growth companies, and coaching leaders through the moments where everything feels uncertain.
She launched Unlocked Advisory because she kept seeing the same problem: smart leaders getting advice that didn’t survive contact with reality. She’s sat in the C-suite. She knows what it’s like when the board wants answers your team can’t produce, or when a system migration goes sideways at quarter-end.
Kari’s approach is practical and personal, because the best results happen when strategy and people are aligned.
The Team
You get someone who has solved your problem before, at your scale, and who stays long enough for your team to own the fix.
Unlocked Advisory isn’t a one-person shop. It isn’t a pyramid of junior consultants either. It’s a hand-picked team of five senior finance professionals: Kari, plus four consultants who subcontract with the firm, all people she has worked beside for years and trusts with her own clients.
Every one is a CPA who trained at a Big Four firm, then went into industry and did the real work. Rebuilding month-end close and reconciliations. Redesigning charts of accounts. Untangling systems that were never set up properly. Coaching the accountants left holding it all together.
The bench runs from controller-level operators to advisory-level leaders, so we staff with leverage: senior judgment where it changes the outcome, capable hands everywhere else. Nobody bills at CFO rates to do reconciliations.
Supporting the team is an AI-enabled software developer with an accounting degree and enterprise project experience who reads a general ledger as fluently as they write code. They build the machinery behind our engagements, then turn advanced text processing and forensic data mining loose on your messiest data. Numbers become something you can bet on. Insights surface.
WE’VE SAT IN YOUR CHAIR
We’ve led and advised finance teams from startup to $500M+ revenue. We know the pressure because we’ve lived it.
FIND THE REAL PROBLEM
Usually the issue isn’t what you think it is. We diagnose what’s actually broken, so you fix the right thing first.
RESULTS IN WEEKS
We embed with your team in days, bringing hands-on experience and AI tooling to accelerate diagnostics, reporting, and process design.
A clear picture in days, and a practical plan in weeks, not months.
What We Do
We help companies turn their finance function from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage. Whether you need a CFO in the room, a finance overhaul, or leadership alignment, we meet you where you are and move fast.
CFO Advisory & Financial Leadership
When the stakes are high and your board wants answers, you need a senior finance leader at the table, now, not in six months. We step in as your interim or fractional CFO and get to work immediately.
- Step in as interim or fractional CFO, fully embedded with your team.
- Rebuild board and investor reporting so you walk in prepared.
- Design cash flow and capital strategies that support your next stage of growth.
- Coach your VP Finance or Controller for future CFO readiness.
Confident decision-making at the top, credible reporting for your board, and CFO-level leadership, without the 6-month search or $300K+ salary commitment.
Finance Function Transformation
If your finance team spends 80% of its time compiling reports and 20% analyzing them, that ratio is backwards. We flip it using modern tools, including AI, to transform finance from a back-office function into the strategic engine your leadership team relies on.
- Map and streamline your month-end close, forecasting, and reporting workflows.
- Eliminate manual bottlenecks. We use AI and automation tools hands-on, not just recommend them. If it saves your team 10 hours a week, we’ll build it with you.
- Strengthen planning and budgeting so your forecasts hold up.
- Build a finance function that works at 2x your current revenue without breaking.
A finance function that closes faster, reports clearly, and gives your leadership team real-time visibility into what matters, so you can grow without outrunning your numbers.
Strategy & Leadership Alignment
The best process in the world won’t help if your leadership team isn’t aligned on where you’re going. We get your leaders, metrics, and operating rhythm pointing in the same direction, so transformation sticks.
- Align your leadership team on vision, priorities, and the metrics that matter.
- Facilitate executive offsites that produce real decisions, not just slide decks.
- Build accountability frameworks so priorities don’t die in the next quarter.
- Coach your finance leaders through the transition from manager to executive.
A leadership team that’s aligned, accountable, and driving performance, not just talking about it.
Other advisors identify the problem and hand you a report. We embed with your team, do the work alongside you, and leave your finance function stronger than we found it.
Let’s Talk About Your Situation →
How We Work
Every engagement starts with rapid diagnosis and ends with your team owning the solution. Here’s how.
Assess & Align
We start with a rapid diagnosis to get past the easy, obvious issues and identify true root causes. Most CFOs have seen four or five finance teams; our team has assessed hundreds. We spot the gaps, misalignments, and quick wins faster. Hard questions, straight facts, and a clear picture within days.
Fix the Foundation
Companies chase new software when the friction is really in people and process. We fix the foundation first: alignment, accountability, and workflows. Then we layer in the right tools, automation, and data infrastructure once the team is ready to use them properly.
Make It Last
Transformation only counts if it lasts beyond our engagement. We embed operating rhythms, reporting cadences, and decision-making habits into your team’s DNA so performance compounds over time and you don’t need us anymore.
Why Clients Choose Us
We See What Others Often Miss
Where others get lost in spreadsheets and details, we see patterns. We assess fast, prioritize ruthlessly, and tell you the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable.
We’ve Done This Job Before
We’ve been the CFO, the Controller, the Transformation Lead. We’ve managed boards, rebuilt teams, and led through crises. Everything we recommend comes from experience doing it ourselves.
We Don’t Leave You With a Slide Deck
We give you practical, step-by-step actions and work alongside your team until they own it. Our goal is to make ourselves unnecessary. That’s how you know the engagement worked.
Built to Last, Not Just to Impress
Quick fixes waste time and money. We build clarity and discipline into your systems, your team, and your operating habits, so the gains compound long after we’re gone.
What Leaders Say About Working With Us
Hear from the leaders and organizations who’ve experienced the impact of working with Unlocked Advisory.
Common Questions
Yes. Finance and leadership challenges are remarkably consistent across industries. We’ve worked across financial services, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and non-profit, and that cross-sector experience is one of our strengths.
Vancouver, Canada, but we work with clients across North America. Most engagements are remote-first, with strategic on-site visits when they add value.
Good. You already know what doesn’t work. We’ll assess why it failed (usually poor execution or misaligned priorities), address the root cause, and build a practical path forward. Failed transformations are some of our best starting points.
Fast. We embed within days of our first conversation and get to work immediately. You’ll have a clear picture of what’s broken within days.
It depends on scope. Engagements typically range from focused 4-week assessments to 6-month embedded partnerships. We’ll give you a clear proposal after an initial conversation so you know exactly what you’re getting and what it costs.
Big firms send junior staff and bill for learning curves. We send senior people who’ve done this work themselves and have assessed hundreds of finance operations. You get experienced operators, not analysts with frameworks.
They probably can, eventually. But most CFOs are deep in the day-to-day: managing the close, keeping the board informed, leading their team. Stepping back to objectively assess and redesign the function they’re running is nearly impossible from the inside. Our team has collectively assessed hundreds of finance operations. We bring that pattern recognition plus the bandwidth to focus 100% on the problem. We’re not replacing your CFO. We’re giving them the support, structure, and strategic firepower to be even more effective.
Let’s Talk About What’s Next for Your Finance Team
Whether you need a CFO in the room or just a fresh set of eyes on what’s not working, we’d love to hear from you.