.png)
CPG accounting and finance, built for how consumer brands actually grow
Inventory, landed cost, retailer deductions, and a cash cycle that never lines up with your P&L, consumer brands break the standard accounting playbook. We build the books, reporting, and financial strategy that fit how CPG really works, so your numbers tell you the truth about margin, cash, and what to do next.
Trusted with $158M+ in CPG revenue under management
The problem
Most CPG founders don't have a bookkeeping problem. They have a clarity problem.
Your P&L says you're profitable, but the bank account says otherwise. Gross margin looks fine until you back out trade spend, freight, and the chargebacks nobody categorized, and when a retailer or investor asks a sharp question, you're scrambling. That's what happens when a consumer brand runs on accounting built for service businesses.
What we do
What we do for CPG brands
One team for the full finance stack, from clean monthly books to the strategic calls that shape your next stage of growth.
CPG accounting & bookkeeping
A chart of accounts built for consumer goods: landed COGS and margin by SKU, inventory across co-packers and 3PLs, trade spend, deductions, and chargebacks broken out instead of buried, and gross-to-net reported by retailer.
Month-end close
A repeatable close that produces accrual financials you can actually make decisions from, on time, every month.
Fractional CFO for CPG
Financial leadership without the full-time hire: a 13-week cash forecast through the cash conversion cycle, unit economics by channel, pricing strategy, and fundraising or retailer-meeting prep.
CPG advisory
The strategic layer: margin analysis by product and channel, working-capital planning, and investor-ready reporting that holds up in diligence.
Tax & compliance
Federal, state, and sales-tax compliance coordinated with your books, no year-end scramble, no surprises.
Go deeper
Two ways we work with CPG brands
Both are built for consumer goods. One is an ongoing seat at your table, the other is built around a single decision.
Fractional CFO for CPG
The CFO seat, without the full time hire.
Cash flow forecasting, unit economics, pricing, and fundraising strategy for founder led brands between $1M and $50M in revenue. Clean books tell you what happened. This tells you what to do next.
- Cash flow forecasting
- Unit economics and pricing
- Fundraising strategy
CPG Advisory
For the moments where the stakes jump.
Project based financial strategy for fundraising, exit readiness, pricing overhauls, and turnarounds. Brought in for a defining decision rather than a monthly rhythm.
- Fundraising and exit readiness
- Pricing overhauls
- Turnarounds
Why CPG accounting is different
Consumer brands live and die on unit economics. Your true COGS, landed cost, and margin per SKU drive every decision, and inventory plus retailer deductions make the books messier than any service business.
Get it right and you see real margin by channel, forecast cash through a 90-to-180-day conversion cycle, and walk into a raise or a buyer meeting with financials that build trust. Get it wrong and the problems stay hidden until the worst possible moment.
That's why we pair clean books with ongoing fractional CFO leadership and project-based CPG advisory when the big moments hit.
The vocabulary matters because the money hides in it. Slotting fees and off-invoice allowances shrink the first year on a new shelf. Net 60 retailer terms and distributor margin stretch the gap between shipping a pallet and seeing the cash. Deductions and chargebacks quietly erode the revenue the PO promised. A CPG accountant tracks each of those lines on purpose, so gross-to-net, landed cost, and channel margin are numbers you manage instead of surprises you discover.
Who we work with
Founder-led consumer brands from $1M to $50M.
Food and beverage, health and beauty, apparel, household. DTC, retail, wholesale, Amazon, or all of it. Whether you need clean books for the first time, a cleanup before a raise, or a fractional CFO to steer growth, we scale the support to where you are. Thryve is based in McKinney, Texas, in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and works with consumer brands nationwide.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
CPG runs on unit economics. Your true COGS, landed cost, and gross margin per SKU drive every decision, and inventory plus retailer chargebacks make the books messier than a typical service business. We set up a chart of accounts and reporting that show real margin, not just top-line revenue.
A bookkeeper records what happened. A controller makes sure it's accurate and on time. A fractional CFO helps you decide what to do next, forecasting, pricing, cash flow, and fundraising. Most CPG founders need clean books first, then more strategic support as decisions get bigger. We provide all three and scale the mix as you grow.
Yes. Landed cost, inventory by location, and COGS by channel are core to how we set up CPG books. For why growing inventory and slow collections eat cash even when the brand is profitable, see Cash Conversion Cycle for CPG: Why Growth Eats Cash.
Yes, investor-ready, accrual-basis financials and the margin and cash-flow detail buyers and category managers expect are a big part of what we do.
It depends on scope. The fastest way to a real number is a quick consultation, or start with a $399 QuickBooks Health Check for a graded review of your file and a prioritized fix list.
Yes. Trade promotions, slotting, allowances, and retailer deductions and chargebacks get tracked by retailer and by program, reconciled against remittances, and reported as a gross-to-net waterfall each month. You see real net revenue, what each promotion returned, and which deductions are worth disputing.
We walk through every line of it, with a worked $100 example, in What Is Gross-to-Net in CPG? The Waterfall, Line by Line.
Thryve is headquartered in McKinney, Texas, north of Dallas. Most of our CPG clients are outside Texas. The engagement is remote, built around a monthly close, a standing review, and a team that already knows how consumer brands make and lose money.
Look for five things: fluency in gross-to-net, someone who actually reconciles your deductions, a weekly cash forecast, advice built on a clean monthly close, and a fit for your revenue stage. We compare the main firms, including where Thryve fits and where it does not, in Best Fractional CFO Firms for CPG Brands (2026).
Not sure where your books stand? Start with a QuickBooks Health Check.
For $399 we review the file that runs your business, grade it A to F, and hand you a prioritized plan for what to fix, usually within a week.