Anastasia Nikolaeva

Client case study · Operating business

Bringing a mobile-app portfolio’s finances into one model

I built a financial model for a mobile-app portfolio operating across multiple legal entities and currencies. It connects product revenue, acquisition spending and operating costs in one company P&L, with a repeatable workflow for importing and classifying new records.

Project by Anastasia Nikolaeva

Model walkthrough

Simplified working demonstration using synthetic data, edited from real Google Sheets screenshots. Client information remains confidential.

Project brief

Business
Mobile apps · Multiple entities and currencies
Assignment
Organize fragmented records into a clear company P&L.
Deliverable
A Google Sheets model connecting imports, classification and reporting.

A company view was missing from detailed operating data

The client had detailed records for individual products, but revenue, acquisition spending, payroll and operating costs were spread across platforms, bank exports and internal files. Multiple legal entities and currencies added another layer of complexity.

In a mobile-app business, subscription revenue might sit in RevenueCat, acquisition performance in Adjust, contractor payments in Deel, and other expenses in bank exports and internal spreadsheets. Each source describes a different part of the business.

My job was to bring those different views together so the company could see its overall result and still understand what was happening inside each app and cost category.

Turning transaction detail into meaningful business categories

A substantial part of my work was going through a large volume of varied transactions and deciding how to group them. The categories needed to be few enough to make the business understandable, but specific enough to explain where the money was going. That balance was an important part of the model.

I connected those categories to business functions, cost centres and the company P&L, keeping the original records available underneath. These were the main decisions behind the structure:

Separate source schedules
Product revenue and acquisition retain their own logic; transaction-based costs join them in the company P&L.
A manageable classification
Financial categories, functions and cost centres make the totals interpretable without losing the underlying records.
Rules with exception review
Recurring patterns follow the same treatment, while unmatched transactions remain visible for a decision.
One basis for actuals and forecasts
Consistent categories connect historical reporting with future planning.

New records follow the same classification logic

Supported bank exports, contractor reports and internal files are converted into common fields: description, date, currency and amount. Each new source layout needs its own field mapping.

Once the categories were defined, I built reusable rules around them. A familiar transaction follows the same treatment each time. If a record does not match, it stays visible for review; the next decision can become a rule for future imports.

Workbook capture

Review an unmatched subscription and assign its expense category, P&L group and app allocation.

Reporting periods and exchange rates convert the imported data into reporting values. Internal transfers are excluded from the P&L. The demonstration follows one bank-file import through this process.

From the company result to the costs behind it

The consolidated P&L brings product revenue and acquisition schedules together with payroll and operating expenses. Management can review revenue, gross profit and EBITDA, then look into the schedules that explain those totals.

Costs remain available by function and cost centre, while product schedules preserve the detail for individual apps. Actuals and forecasts use the same financial categories, providing a consistent basis for comparing performance with the plan.

Workbook capture

Classified expenses remain visible by category, P&L line and app before feeding the consolidated report.

What the model enables

I built the model to remain useful when the next set of files arrived. The company can bring in new records, review anything that needs a decision and follow the updated numbers through to its P&L and plans.

Review the overall result
A consolidated P&L across apps and legal entities.
Understand the underlying costs
Trace reported expenses into their categories and supporting detail.
Update reporting and plans
Bring new records and forecasts into a consistent financial structure.

The main work in this project was deciding how the company’s financial information should fit together. The import workflow made that structure repeatable. A manageable set of categories made it understandable. Together, they connected the overall company result to the records behind it—the level of detail needed to investigate costs and keep the model useful as new data arrived.

How I share client work

Financial models contain sensitive information beyond the numbers. Their structure, assumptions and calculation logic can reveal how a business operates and makes decisions. I treat those details as confidential too.

I publish these case studies to explain the business questions I worked on and the modeling approaches I used. For the demonstrations, I create separate, simplified examples with entirely synthetic data. The video and screenshots illustrate selected parts of the approach; they do not reproduce the client’s workbook or its full modeling logic.

This lets me show how I think through a project while protecting the business behind it.

Need a financial view across your products and companies?

I build custom financial models that bring operating data into consistent reporting and support the decisions ahead.

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