Sector coverage
Every sector has its own accounting weather. We start there.
Revenue recognition, working capital behaviour, cost structure and regulatory exposure differ sharply by industry. Our engagement teams are staffed against those patterns rather than against a generic template.
Why sector knowledge changes the work
The technical difference between one client and another is rarely the software. It is what the numbers mean. A SaaS company recognises revenue over a contract term and lives or dies on retention economics. An e-commerce brand settles through marketplaces on rolling cycles and carries returns, commissions and freight that never appear on the invoice line. A manufacturer absorbs overhead into inventory and can look profitable while cash sits on the shop floor. A contractor recognises revenue as work progresses and is exposed the moment cost-to-complete estimates drift.
Those patterns determine what a close checklist has to catch, which reconciliations matter, where a forecast usually breaks and what a buyer will interrogate in diligence. They also determine which regulatory framework sits over the engagement, whether that is Ind AS 115 and 116, IFRS 15, sector rules from the RBI or SEBI, GST treatment of place of supply, or FEMA considerations on cross-border flows.
Sector patterns also decide which questions are worth asking first. In a subscription business the useful early question is what proportion of booked revenue is actually recognised and what retention looks like by cohort. In a manufacturer it is whether costing still reflects how overhead is consumed. In a project business it is how cost-to-complete estimates have moved over the last four quarters. Asking the generic question set first wastes the part of an engagement in which a client is most willing to answer honestly.
How we apply it
Sector knowledge enters an engagement in three concrete places. First, in scoping: we ask the questions specific to your model before agreeing deliverables, because a feasibility study for a renewable asset and one for an EdTech product share almost no structure. Second, in the working papers: revenue schedules, cost pools, reconciliation formats and KPI definitions are built to the conventions of your industry, so that an auditor, lender or acquirer recognises them without translation. Third, in the analysis: benchmarks, multiples and comparables are drawn from the right sector set, and we state which set we used and why.
Sectors we work in
The ten industries below account for the majority of our engagements. If your business sits between two of them, or in a sector not listed, the scoping conversation will establish quickly whether we have the relevant depth. Where we do not, we will say so rather than learn on your engagement.
Across all sectors, our services remain the same thirteen. What changes is the shape of the deliverable, the reconciliations we prioritise, the assumptions we stress-test and the regulatory references that frame the work.
Technology & SaaS
Subscription businesses are judged on retention economics and recognised revenue, not on booked contract value. The gap between the two is where most reporting problems and most diligence questions begin.
What makes this sector hard
- Revenue recognition across multi-element contracts, usage tiers and mid-term upgrades under Ind AS 115 or IFRS 15
- Deferred revenue and unbilled receivable schedules that do not tie to the billing system
- ESOP accounting, cap table maintenance and valuation for priced rounds or option grants
- Cross-border billing, place of supply and export of services documentation
How we help
- Build revenue recognition and deferred revenue schedules that reconcile to the billing platform every month
- Produce cohort retention, net revenue retention and unit economics reporting a board can act on
- Deliver valuations and fundraise-ready data rooms, including quality of earnings support
- Stand up a virtual CFO layer covering runway, burn and investor reporting
E-commerce & D2C
Marketplace settlements, returns, commissions and freight sit between gross sales and cash received. Brands that do not reconcile that gap regularly misread both margin and inventory.
What makes this sector hard
- Marketplace settlement reconciliation across multiple platforms, payment gateways and settlement cycles
- Returns, replacements and reverse logistics distorting reported revenue and stock
- Contribution margin by SKU, channel and campaign obscured by allocated fulfilment and marketing cost
- GST treatment of marketplace supplies, TCS credits and inter-state stock transfers
How we help
- Run platform-to-ledger settlement reconciliations on a fixed weekly or monthly cycle
- Build SKU and channel level contribution reporting including returns and fulfilment cost
- Manage receivables from marketplaces and distributors, including dispute and short-payment follow-up
- Model working capital and inventory funding requirements ahead of peak season
Manufacturing
Costing decisions made once and never revisited quietly misprice entire product lines. Inventory absorption can also make a cash-poor month look like a profitable one.
What makes this sector hard
- Standard costing and overhead absorption drifting away from actual consumption
- Inventory valuation, work-in-progress measurement and physical-to-book variances
- Vendor advances, procurement controls and three-way matching across purchase order, receipt and invoice
- Capex appraisal, capitalisation policy and depreciation schedules under Ind AS or IFRS
How we help
- Rebuild product costing and contribution analysis by line, plant and customer
- Run three-way reconciliations and inventory reconciliation programmes with documented variance explanations
- Deliver feasibility studies and payback modelling for capacity expansion or new plants
- Operate payables management with vendor master hygiene and approval workflow discipline
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Revenue arrives through payers, insurers and government schemes on long and contested cycles. Compliance obligations and capital intensity leave little room for imprecise reporting.
What makes this sector hard
- Payer and insurance receivables with high denial, deduction and ageing risk
- Revenue recognition across packages, procedures and long-cycle claims
- Equipment capex appraisal, utilisation tracking and lease accounting under Ind AS 116 or IFRS 16
- Confidentiality obligations over patient and trial data during any finance engagement
How we help
- Operate receivables management focused on claim ageing, denials and recovery discipline
- Build unit economics by department, procedure or facility to support pricing decisions
- Deliver feasibility and payback analysis for new facilities, equipment or service lines
- Provide valuation and diligence support for acquisitions and investor transactions
Real Estate & Infrastructure
Project accounting turns on cost-to-complete estimates and milestone measurement. Small drifts in either move reported profit and covenant headroom disproportionately.
What makes this sector hard
- Revenue and cost recognition over project life, including cost-to-complete reassessment
- Project-wise cash flow, escrow discipline and regulatory obligations under RERA
- Debt covenant monitoring, lender reporting and refinancing analysis
- Joint development arrangements, SPV structures and consolidation questions
How we help
- Build project-level cost, revenue and cash flow models with documented assumptions
- Prepare lender and investor reporting packs on a fixed cadence, including covenant tracking
- Deliver valuation and feasibility work for land acquisition and development decisions
- Run reconciliations across project ledgers, SPVs and consolidated books
Financial Services & Fintech
Ledger accuracy is the product, not a back-office function. Regulatory expectations and settlement complexity make reconciliation discipline a licence condition rather than a preference.
What makes this sector hard
- High-volume reconciliation across nodal accounts, payment gateways, partner banks and internal ledgers
- Regulatory reporting expectations from the RBI or SEBI depending on licence and activity
- Portfolio quality analysis, provisioning approaches and expected credit loss modelling
- Fraud, leakage and unauthorised transaction detection across large transaction sets
How we help
- Run daily or intraday reconciliation programmes with documented break resolution
- Build portfolio, collections and provisioning analytics for management and investors
- Deliver forensic reviews where leakage or unauthorised activity is suspected
- Provide investment research and diligence support for lenders and investors in the sector
Logistics & Supply Chain
Margin is measured in single-digit percentages per consignment, so billing leakage and unrecovered accessorial charges matter more than headline volume growth.
What makes this sector hard
- Freight billing accuracy, accessorial charge recovery and unbilled consignment tracking
- Vendor and carrier reconciliation across large transaction volumes and multiple rate cards
- Route, lane and customer level profitability obscured by allocated fixed cost
- Fuel, detention and demurrage cost volatility affecting contract profitability
How we help
- Reconcile billing systems to the ledger and identify unbilled or under-billed consignments
- Build lane, customer and vehicle level profitability reporting
- Operate receivables management with structured dispute and deduction follow-up
- Model contract pricing sensitivity to fuel, utilisation and detention assumptions
Energy & Renewables
Projects are financed on twenty-year assumptions and judged on generation performance against them. The financial model is the asset as much as the plant is.
What makes this sector hard
- Long-horizon project models with generation, tariff, degradation and O and M assumptions
- Debt sizing, DSCR maintenance and lender reporting obligations
- Power purchase agreement terms, receivable delays from offtakers and payment security mechanisms
- Asset capitalisation, component accounting and impairment assessment
How we help
- Build and stress-test project finance models with explicit sensitivity ranges
- Deliver feasibility studies and independent review of third-party models before financial close
- Prepare lender covenant and generation performance reporting on a fixed cycle
- Provide valuation support for asset acquisition, divestment or portfolio transactions
Media & Entertainment
Content is capital expenditure with an uncertain revenue tail. Rights, royalties and revenue shares create obligations that outlive the production they came from.
What makes this sector hard
- Content cost capitalisation and amortisation against uncertain revenue profiles
- Royalty, residual and revenue-share calculation across multiple rights holders
- Revenue recognition across advertising, subscription, syndication and licensing streams
- Production cost control against approved budgets and completion timelines
How we help
- Build content amortisation and title-level profitability reporting
- Run royalty and revenue-share reconciliations with documented calculation logic
- Deliver production cost tracking against budget with variance analysis
- Provide valuation and diligence support for catalogue or studio transactions
Education & EdTech
Fee revenue is collected in advance and earned over a term, so reported cash and earned revenue rarely agree. Refund and dropout behaviour decides whether a cohort was profitable.
What makes this sector hard
- Deferred fee revenue recognition across terms, cohorts and instalment plans
- Refund, dropout and financing arrangements affecting recognised revenue and receivables
- Cohort level acquisition cost against lifetime value, including counsellor and channel cost
- Regulatory and trust structures in formal education affecting reporting and fund usage
How we help
- Build deferred revenue and cohort recognition schedules reconciled to the fee management system
- Deliver cohort economics reporting covering acquisition cost, completion and refunds
- Operate receivables management across instalment plans and financing partners
- Provide valuation, feasibility and investor reporting support for growth-stage operators
Sector-specific questions deserve sector-specific answers
Tell us your industry and the decision in front of you. We will bring the relevant benchmarks and regulatory context to the first call.