I didn’t set out to build a software platform. But that’s what’s happened as we push the button to go live with The Profit First Prophet being available to Profit First implementers globally.

Initially, I was just trying to answer a question that kept coming up — both in my own business and in every Profit First conversation I was having with clients:

“What cash is actually going to be in my Profit First bank accounts next month… and the month after that… if I follow my Profit First plan?”

We’d help clients implement Profit First. They loved it. It helped them feel more in control of their money. It gave them financial peace of mind. And they’d start seeing cash stay in their accounts for each of their different purposes.

But it only went so far. Every week, someone would ask:

• “When can I afford to hire someone?”
• “If I take time off, will I have enough in Owners Pay to pay myself?”
• “Will I have enough money in OpEx over the Christmas period?”
• “Can I buy that new equipment… or will it blow up my plan?”

And those weren’t questions I could answer quickly. I needed to ask lots of questions, look at a bunch of reports, and throw in a few of my own spreadsheets for good measure.

But all this would do is add complexity back into what was supposed to be an approach that was making my clients financial life simpler and easier.

So I started looking for cashflow forecasting softwares on the market that could maybe help me.

Why Nothing on the Market Worked

I spent months testing cashflow tools. Futurli. Fathom. Spotlight. A few others.

Some of them were great for what their focus is. But none of them were built for Profit First. They all forecasted the business as a whole and gave interesting data.

But they didn’t break it down across multiple bank accounts of a Profit First setup taking into account a Profit first Roll out plan. With the goal of moving a business from their current allocation %’s to their target %’s.

Therefore, they couldn’t show me how a decision today would impact the cash balances of Profit, Tax, Owner’s Pay or Operating Expenses weeks or months from now.

The way they showed cash didn’t reflect how I was helping clients manage it.

Added to that was their plug and play nature that spat out forecast based on the data in the accounting package. With the majority of businesses having questionable reconciliation timelines there were just too many red flags.

And if I couldn’t trust the outputs, it wasn’t helping me make better decisions.

So I started building my own model..

The First Version: A Spreadsheet Built for Profit First

This wasn’t a “tweak” to another template. It was built from scratch — entirely for Profit First.

I started in Excel. It was basic but functional. I could input projected income, expenses, and allocations over time, and it would show the expected balance in every Profit First bank account, week by week.

It gave me what I needed: The ability to test assumptions, answer client questions with confidence, and plan for both opportunity and risk.

Over time, I moved it into Google Sheets to make version control and collaboration easier with clients. Clients could access their own live copy, we could update it together, and it became part of our regular financial rhythm.

It did the job for all of us. But managing a rolling 12 month forecast based on Profit First percentages and changing roll out plans became an administrative nightmare. It was time to work on a better solution.

When It Became More Than Just My Tool

In the Australian/New Zealand  Profit First Professionals community we have regular catch up for learning and collaboration. And one session in May 2020 stands out in my memory.

It was one of those defining moments, someone asked what others were using for cashflow forecasting with their clients. And initially there was silence…

So I piped up and talked through what I had started to build And the response was immediate:

“Can you show me?”
“Can I use it with my clients?”
“Where do I get it?”

That’s when I realised this wasn’t just my problem. Other PFPs were feeling the same pain. We’d all hit the same issue at some point: Profit First gives clarity, but decision-making still needed more than just seeing healthy Profit First bank balances.

So I shared the spreadsheet. A few started piloting it. Feedback came in. I kept iterating.

A couple of months later, I took the next step — I registered the business name, The Profit First Profit, and committed to turning the spreadsheet into software.

From Spreadsheet to Software (The Long Way)

We kicked off development in August 2020.

It was bootstrapped from day one. No venture capitalists to be seen. Just calling in favours, a bit of hope that I could produce something worthwhile, and a lot of juggling between my main consulting business (The Healthy Business Lab), software builds, and family life with three young kids.

We got it built. And it worked. And clients were loving it. As were the initial PFP testers.

But in July 2023, we hit a major setback — one simple new feature broke the platform in a way we didn’t anticipate. It exposed a bunch of things and it took us months to get things back on track.

In fairness our users never really felt the full extent of it all. A few bugs here and there that are always around in any software.

But we had to do so much in the back end that it just felt like we were continually going in circles.

But we stuck with it. Because even when it was rough, advisors and clients still said:

“This is what I’ve needed for years.”

The feedback from that small but vocal group of early users was what we kept leaning into.

Where Things Are Now

As this website goes live, we now have over 100 businesses with active licences using The Profit First Prophet to bring more visibility to their Profit First implementation.

Until now, it was only available through advisors using the software directly with their clients. But that changes with the new website launch — now any Profit First Implementer can jump in, start a free trial, and see what it can do.

No pitch. No lock-in. Just a tool that is likely solve a problem you’ve had for a while.

Where It’s Headed

The vision is simple: help 1% of Profit First implementers globally improve their financial peace of mind in 15 minutes per week.

In my consulting business where we have an allied health focus we talk about giving clients Financial Brain Care™ . That model is based on:

• Unlocking their unique money code (hint: knowing this is brilliant when coupled with profit First)
• Put the right financial team around them (hint: your accountant rarely has the entire skillset to help you with all the financial aspects of your business)
• Help with how to make financial decisions (hint: this is where we leverage Profit First)
• Cashflow forecasting (hint: training your forecasting muscles does wonders for reducing financial stress)

In numbers, that 1% of Profit First Implementers will equate to 10,000 business owners over the next 6 years that we can give financial peace of mind to

Helping them spend their time in other areas of life and business that light them up.

And the platform will keep evolving based on what is needed to make financial peace of mind a reality now and into the future for everyone that uses it.

If You’re Curious…

Try it. Click one of the Free Trial buttons on this site to get started.

And see how much cash you’ll have in each profit First bank account at Christmas, the New Year or any other milestone date you have.

And if you’ve got feedback — good, bad, or otherwise — I’m listening. That’s what’s built it this far, and what’ll shape where it goes next. Feedback from Profit First implementers like you.

A Few Thank You’s

Having spent a bunch of time reflecting as I drafted this blog, I couldn’t help but think of all the people that have made this blog post and software possible.

And while it’s impossible to thank everyone that has been involved in the process along the way there are some notable mentions that I feel are necessary:

• To Lauren and the kids – for being on this roller coaster of life & business with me
• To my dad, Norm – without your early support this wouldn’t have got off the ground
• To Rakz Mathur & the Pounce Marketing team – for building the first version of TPFP
• To the current dev team at Infinity Soft – for building what I imagined, and fixing what I broke (I didn’t break too much did I 🤷.
• To the Australian/New Zealand Profit First community – this would’ve stayed a spreadsheet if it weren’t for your encouragement.
• To Laura Elkaslassy and Katie Marshall — for your early belief and backing.
• And finally to Jodi Porteous – the first person outside my client base to jump in fully and start using the platform and champion it ever since

You are all amazing and have contributed so much to making The Profit First Prophet a reality!