For portfolio companies · Portfolio-company finance or payroll lead
An EBITDA bridge you can reproduce from payroll, not a portfolio average
Projected savings enter the value creation plan only when they can be reproduced: the employee population, the payroll facts, the fee and savings bridge, and the sensitivity around them. The review builds the model from your company's actual payroll, keeps forecast and realized results separate, and defines the post launch reconciliation before anyone counts a dollar toward EBITDA.
The question on your desk
Can we reproduce the projected result from our employee data and operate the payroll changes cleanly?
From your chair
Validate the EBITDA bridge through real payroll, not portfolio averages.
Your role in this decision: company-level ebitda validator. You enter after pilot candidacy and before the opportunity enters the value-creation plan.
Fee and savings bridge
Controls and reporting
An illustrative scenario
Picture the post launch reconciliation
Two quarters in, someone asks whether the savings are real. The forecast exists, but nobody defined how realized results would be measured, which exceptions were expected, or how fees net against the bridge. The number becomes an argument instead of a report.
That argument is designed out in advance: employee level accuracy at modeling time, controls and reporting defined before launch, and a measurement cadence that distinguishes what was projected from what payroll actually did. If it cannot be reconciled, it does not get claimed.
This scenario is hypothetical, written for this role. It is not a customer story and it quotes no results. Your review runs on your company's real payroll, in writing, before anything is decided.
Your part of the review
What happens, and what you walk away with.
On the agenda when your role is in the room:
Employee population and payroll facts
Savings, fees, and EBITDA bridge
Controls, reporting, and measurement cadence
What the review puts in front of you:
Company payroll model
Traceable EBITDA sensitivity
Post-launch reconciliation dashboard definition
Validate only what can be reproduced from actual company payroll and reconciled after launch.
Before you proceed
What has to be true, and what could go wrong.
No portfolio average substitutes for company data
No value is double counted
Reporting can distinguish forecast from realized results
Watch for: double counting
Watch for: hidden employee exceptions
Watch for: a model that cannot be reconciled
Where your role sits in the chapter journey:
Prove company economics
Company-specific model and EBITDA sensitivity · Owner: Company finance + payroll
Pilot with governance
Controlled launch, measurement, and issue log · Owner: Company leadership + provider
Start here: Build the company-specific payroll model before the opportunity enters the value-creation plan. Book the confidential employer review or go back to for portfolio companies.
Same company, different chair
The other roles in this decision.
Operating partner or value-creation lead
Select an operating company and define the required financial and employee results.
Read this pagePortfolio-company chief executive or finance leader
Review The Plan using your company data and retain local approval authority.
Read this pageFor portfolio companies
You need numbers per company, not portfolio averages.
Read the full chapterYour next step
Start with a 30-minute conversation.
Bring your employee count, your payroll setup, and your current coverage. We'll tell you straight whether the math works for your company.