Movers & Shakers: Roger Jacobi, CEO of Fiscal Advantage

CEO Roger Jacobi hopes to help small and midsize companies mine actionable data from their financial statements with Fiscal Checkup, financial performance software from Lake Elmo-based Fiscal Advantage.

Fiscal Checkup launched last May, soon after Jacobi joined the company. The software generates a report on the financial health of a business in only a few minutes after a company enters at least three years of financial data.

The report compares the company to its own trends and to industry trends from a database of some 250,000-plus mostly private companies, Jacobi said.

"Our goal is to empower businesses to improve their financial performance," Jacobi said.

Companies using Fiscal Checkup receive six customized reports, from an executive summary to a business valuation, cash management analysis, analysis of where to improve profitability and a forecast on how lenders will review loan requests.

Fiscal Advantage founder Dan O'Connell, the company's vice president of business development, has focused on developing the analytical software for the past four years, based on his experience in working in mergers and acquisitions, Jacobi said.

Companies with $1 million to $200 million in revenue will benefit the most from using Fiscal Checkup, Jacobi said. A report costs $495. The company is promoting the Web-based software directly to businesses and their advisers.

Q: What prompted you to join Fiscal Advantage?

A: I have a strong business background and a strong financial background and saw what this company was trying to do. I saw an incredible opportunity to help small to medium-sized businesses significantly improve their financial performance.

Q: What's your 30-second pitch for Fiscal Checkup?

A: All businesses have to prepare financial statements to measure their performance. Unfortunately very few people have the time or the expertise to analyze those financial statements in a way that extracts actionable data. What we are is the link between the financial statements and the actionable data.

Q: What kind of information does a business get from the report?