Chaos to Clarity
Financial transformation for operating companies in growth, turnaround, or transition.
About Bucephalus Consulting, LLC.
Our Expertise
Bucephalus is a financial transformation practice for middle-market operating companies in growth, turnaround, or transition. Engagements span fractional and interim CFO leadership, financial turnarounds, growth-stage scaling, and capital events. The focus is what most operating companies need but rarely have: a finance function that closes on time, controls that hold under audit, reporting that informs decisions, and capital relationships that hold under stress. Twenty years across fifteen industries. $375M+ in capital secured. Finance teams built from one to twenty-one. Engagements typically run with operating companies ranging from $10M to $250M across manufacturing, distribution, electrical contracting, transportation, food production, automotive services, real estate, and solar.
Our Approach
Every engagement starts with the same diagnostic. Read the books. Walk the floor. Talk to the people who do the work. Identify what is broken, what is masking it, and what would have to change for the company to operate as it claims. The deliverable is rarely a slide deck. The deliverable is usually a closed month, a clean reconciliation, a control that holds under audit, a banker who returns the call, or a P&L the owner can read in five minutes. Build first. Delegate second. Document everything.
Our Team
Bucephalus is led by Jorge L. Gonzalez, Principal. Twenty years of building finance functions inside operating companies, not advising from outside. Most recently, Director of Finance and Strategy at Zeller Electric, a $38M IBEW electrical contractor in Central Illinois. Prior CFO roles at AAA Lease (PE-backed transportation, 200+ trucks), Greenridge Farm (75x revenue run from $750K to $56M), and KLC Global Services (concurrent with Greenridge). Earlier years at the AVED Group through the 2008 crisis, where the work was bank workouts and distressed real estate. Bilingual in English and Spanish. Northern Illinois University, BS Political Science, Public Law concentration.
For specialized engagements, Bucephalus draws on a network of associates and subject-matter partners across forensic accounting, tax, treasury, and M&A. The roster scales to the engagement, not the other way around.
Based in Bloomington, Illinois. Serves the Midwest in person, with remote and hybrid engagements nationally.
Our Results
Twenty years of operator track record. The work shows in numbers, not narrative.
- Food manufacturing: 75x revenue growth from $750K to $56M. 22% reduction in labor costs without loss of output. The finance team was built from one to twelve. $3M cash reserve created.
- Multi-entity payment processing platform: 85% reduction in audit adjustments across $113M in combined revenue, achieved by redesigning internal controls before fieldwork.
- Multi-location automotive services: $7.5M in trapped equity freed. Interest rates reduced from 10-15% to 2.5-3%. Personal guarantees were eliminated across eight locations.
- PE-backed transportation: $800K in unbilled revenue recovered. 23% reduction in insurance costs without loss of coverage. PE sponsor reporting cycles met across 200+ trucks.
Career: $375M+ in capital secured across fifteen industries.
Our Style
The voice in this practice is steady, specific, and quiet. Numbers before narrative. Process before personality. Lawyer-grade writing. Calm under pressure regardless of what the room is doing. Bucephalus engagements are structured to survive the most consequential reader in the room: an auditor, a banker, a board, or a buyer in due diligence. Confidentiality is absolute. Deliverables are documented. Recommendations are defensible. The owner who hires Bucephalus does not need a slide deck. They need infrastructure that holds.
Case Studies
Food Manufacturing
Continuous CFO leadership for a food manufacturer entering national distribution. A small food manufacturer operating at $750K in annual revenue, with no formal finance function, faces the choice of remaining regional or building the infrastructure required for national distribution.
The engagement built the finance function from one person to twelve. Designed cost accounting for multi-building production. Set labor standards. Tracked yield variances. Negotiated commodity exposure across raw material imports from three continents. Established management reporting that allowed leadership to operate at scale without losing margin.
Outcome: 75x revenue growth from $750K to $56M. 22% reduction in labor costs without loss of output. $3M cash reserve created through working capital discipline. Production time was reduced by 7%, and throughput increased by 17%. Twelve-times exit multiple at sale to a national distributor.
MULTI-ENTITY PAYMENT PROCESSING
A $113M combined-revenue platform across two operating entities, with complex consolidation requirements and material audit adjustments in the prior year.
Bucephalus diagnosed control gaps across revenue recognition, accounts payable, and intercompany eliminations. Redesigned each cycle before the auditors arrived. Established proactive close schedules. Restructured accounting roles for scalability. Strengthened banking transparency.
Outcome: 85% reduction in audit adjustments. Long-standing intercompany discrepancies resolved. Banking relationships strengthened through transparency. Scalable accounting structure in place for ongoing operations.
MULTI-LOCATION AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES
An eight-location automotive service platform carrying debt structured at 10-15% across multiple lenders, with personal guarantees on every facility and trapped equity preventing strategic moves.
The engagement assessed the full debt portfolio. Built location-level P&L reporting. Negotiated with lenders to restructure terms. Eliminated personal guarantees and consolidated facilities under a single reporting framework.
Outcome: $7.5M in trapped equity freed. Interest rates reduced from 10-15% to 2.5-3%. Personal guarantees have been eliminated across all eight locations. Centralized financial framework enabling location-level profitability analysis.
PE-BACKED TRANSPORTATIOn
A private-equity-backed transportation platform operating 200-plus trucks across multiple states, with PE sponsor reporting requirements, complex billing across carriers and customers, and systematic unbilled revenue accumulating in the process.
Bucephalus audited the billing process end-to-end. Recovered systematic unbilled revenue. Renegotiated insurance carriers without reducing coverage levels. Built PE-grade reporting cadence, including board packages, covenant compliance monitoring, and external audit coordination from planning through completion.
Outcome: $800K in unbilled revenue recovered. 23% reduction in insurance costs without coverage loss. PE sponsor reporting cycles met across 200-plus trucks. Disciplined financial controls are in place across fleet operations, freight brokerage, and equipment leasing.