Q&A

Entrepreneurs, founders, business owners and managing directors - the people making decisions about hiring, pricing, spend and growth.

Advisors, accountants, board members, FDs, consultancies and investors use it alongside the businesses they support.

Same plan.

Same clarity.

Different perspectives but one shared picture.

You connect your accounting package, answer a few questions about how the business runs, and sherloc builds your baseline - a forward view of how your next few months look based on the way you actually operate.

The more detail you add, the sharper and more useful your Baseline becomes.

You can then duplicate it into your Active Scenario: the version that updates as your financials change and manually as your operational world shifts.

A living, breathing future. Always current.

Always connected. Always yours.

Yes. You can run as many what‑ifs as you need: hiring plans, pricing changes, supplier shifts, fundraising options, etc. and compare them visually across key metrics.

Yes. sherloc acts as the translation layer between how you run your business and how financial stakeholders evaluate it.

Operational clarity for you.

Financial clarity for them.

One shared truth.

sherloc surfaces early warnings, pressure building, opportunities forming and options worth considering - never predictions, never instructions.

Your Baseline shows the steady state.

Your Active Tracker shows the truth.

No. sherloc reads your accounting data for you and puts it back in business language: what’s shifting, what’s coming, and what you could do about it.

If you do have an accountant or finance lead, even better - sherloc gives you both the same view plus a library of out‑of‑the‑box financial performance ratios to help you get investor‑ready or lender‑ready.

Connecting your accounting package is quick.

Describing how your business runs takes a bit of thought - and it’s worth giving it that thought.

You don’t need to finish in one go.

Your progress is saved.

Yes. sherloc includes monthly board‑ready reporting, built from your data.

Clear, structured, forward‑looking and written in language your board, accountant, lender or investor will understand.

Yes. You connect sherloc through your accounting package’s own secure authorisation process. You grant access, and you can revoke it at any time.

Your data is encrypted and handled under UK GDPR.

We never sell it.

We never share it with other customers.

sherloc is owned and operated by ELEMENTARY B LTD, registered in England and Wales (company number 12193272).

Yes. sherloc reads your public company information directly from Companies House, keeping your statutory details aligned with your Baseline and Active scenarios. It’s read‑only and secure.

sherloc is a risk system and clarity system. It uses the data you enter to show potential outcomes and highlight what’s shifting, but it never predicts.

It helps you see the shape of decisions, not a fixed future.

Yes. sherloc currently allows access for two users.

Expanded multi‑user access - with different read/write permissions - is coming in 2027.

sherloc’s Active Scenario is built for movement. Your accounting data updates automatically once scheduled (or manually if you prefer), and the more you update your operational activity, the easier it becomes to spot opportunities and risks early - giving you time to act.

That’s completely fine. You can add detail to your Baseline during onboarding or later as you use the tool. sherloc is designed to weave in updates as your business evolves - nothing needs to be perfect on day one.

Absolutely not.

Your accountant is essential for your historical and statutory financial processes and sherloc is only as useful as those are reconciled.

sherloc sits on top of your existing systems as a planning and risk tool focused on your forward view.

Your accountant handles the rearview.

sherloc helps you navigate what’s ahead.

Many founders choose to give their accountant access to their sherloc forward view so they can plan Corporation Tax, VAT, payroll and other statutory obligations with more clarity. Access is always permission‑based and can be revoked at any time.

It depends on your business and the environment you’re operating in.

If you’re sensitive to market changes or going through a period of growth or change, you’ll benefit from running simulations more often to support decision‑making.

Founders use sherloc in different ways:

Daily, to stay close to what’s shifting.

Weekly, to keep decisions grounded.

Monthly, to prepare for boards.

And whenever a decision is on the table.

sherloc currently supports manufacturers, retailers, services, tech and consumer businesses with out‑of‑the‑box features - and we welcome SMEs across any industry where clarity helps.

If your business uses detailed operational systems - like consultant time allocation, inventory management or procurement tools - you can keep those exactly as they are. sherloc works best when you feed the outputs into your Baseline and Active Scenarios. We don’t replace those systems; we help you see their impact on your future.

If you have specific operational needs or want to check how sherloc fits your industry, get in touch - we’re always happy to help.

Absolutely. sherloc helps you build a forward view, a business model, a plan and investor and/or lender‑ready metrics - and you can explore whether any of our partner lenders can help.

We’re also expanding sherloc’s ecosystem in 2027 to include investors directly on the platform, giving founders a clearer route to the right capital at the right moment.

sherloc is designed for entrepreneurs who are brilliant at running their business - not necessarily those with a finance degree. It translates financial data into business language so you can make decisions with confidence.

Yes. sherloc can ingest mid‑cycle data, but for the most accurate forward view we recommend scheduling automatic updates for when your downstream systems are reconciled by your accountant. That way, your Baseline and Active Scenarios always reflect the cleanest version of your numbers.

Absolutely. sherloc helps you understand not just cashflow, but planned runway - including funding, one‑off costs and the impact of multiple actions across your next few months. You can see how decisions might affect your cash position before you act.

sherloc also helps you stay close to your working capital as your business trades. The more operational activity you add to your Baseline, the deeper the insight sherloc can provide. And with out‑of‑the‑box liquidity and cash ratios, you can analyse trends and spot pressure early.