Home/Biography · Los Angeles, CA

Rafael Gutierrez Jr.

Founder · Forecasting & Analytics · U.S. Marine Veteran · M.S. Finance

I founded DTLA Professional Services, LLC in Downtown Los Angeles: Key Forecasts for cash-flow forecasting and margin analytics, and a software studio that ships PayXT, Trackkr, Tripmetic, Travel Recap, PermitMobile, P1.do, DockTxt, and Stream CRM. Eighteen-plus years. Marine discipline. Results you can chart.

Cash flow forecasting
Financial analytics
Margin analysis
13-week cash models
Python
Software founder

Book a strategy session The companies →

Portrait of Rafael Gutierrez Jr., founder and financial controller in Los Angeles, CA

18+

Years in the seat

$150k+

Annual savings, one org

$360k

Audit discrepancy closed

Products founded

Live software

U.S. Marine

Service

Timeline

From Marine cadence to a Los Angeles studio.

2007
Independent controller work begins
2009
B.S. Financial Management
2011
M.S. Finance, honors
2012
YMCA Finance & Business Director
2014
Key Forecasts founded
2016
USPTO Pro Bono training
2023
Python for analytics
Now
Nine-product Los Angeles studio

2014 — Present
Founder · Forecasting & Analytics
Key Forecasts · DTLA Professional Services, LLC · Los Angeles, CA
- Build 13-week cash forecasts and 12-month outlooks that Los Angeles owners use to hire, price, and spend — before payroll week becomes a surprise.
- Run margin and labor-burden analytics so the mix of work that actually produces profit is visible, not buried in a company-wide average.
- Founded and operate the LLC’s software studio alongside the practice: PayXT, Trackkr, Tripmetic, Travel Recap, PermitMobile, P1.do, DockTxt, and Stream CRM.
2007 — 2023
Controller & Financial Analyst
Independent practice · California and international
- Coast to Coast Circuits (Huntington Beach, CA): cash-flow forecasts and sales-commission analytics that showed what manufacturing volume actually earned after cost.
- Livesay Capital Solutions (San Diego): investment analysis and statement analytics used to underwrite capital decisions.
- Policarpa Group (Colombia): multi-year forecasts and budget-vs-actual analytics tied to long-term strategy — not a year-end recap.
2012 — 2018
Finance & Business Director
YMCA
- Identified more than $150,000 in annual savings through benefits and contract analytics — then captured it in the forecast so the organization could keep the gain.
- Cut unemployment-claim cost from $47,000 to $10,902 by putting the true run-rate in front of leadership and changing the process that produced it.
- Replaced rear-view reporting with forecasts and variance analytics the board and operators could run the organization on.

Results · visual

Numbers that stood up in the room.

These are measured outcomes from controller work — savings kept in the forecast, a cost line that collapsed, and an audit discrepancy that analytics had to close. The 13-week chart is the method: cash vs. cushion, week by week.

Unemployment-claim run-rate

Cut 77%

$47,000 → $10,902 after the true cost sat in front of leadership.

Before: $47,000
After: $10,902

Annual savings, one organization

$150k+

Benefits and contract analytics. The gain was written into the forecast so it did not leak back out the next year.

$360,609

Audit swing closed

40%

Income that was weekly donations

18+

Years in the seat

13-week cash model

Read the path, not a single month.

Illustrative method — not a client file. Cash (copper) against a minimum cushion (forest). Week 6 is the decision: hire, wait, or collect.

Studio mix

Nine products. Eight live.

DTLA Professional Services, LLC — finance practice plus software. Not a staffing firm. Founder-operated from Downtown Los Angeles.

8 live products
1 in build (Stream CRM)

Los Angeles labor lens

Wage is not the rate.

Employer tax, workers’ compensation, benefits, and non-billable time commonly add 40–60% on top of wage in Los Angeles, CA. Bids that skip that number slowly bankrupt a healthy-looking P&L.

WageFully burdened (illustrative 55%)

How I work

Forecasts and analytics that change the next hire, the next price, the next week of cash.

The product is a number you can run the company on. Typical clients are small businesses in Los Angeles, CA at about $500k to $5M+ in revenue — past bookkeeping, not ready for a $150k full-time controller. Downtown Los Angeles. Hablamos Español. Python shows up when it makes the model better, not as a costume.

01
Financial baseline
Reconstruct the true P&L and cash position. Misclassified costs and unbilled work come out first so the forecast is not fiction.
02
Analytics that decide
Job-level margin, fully burdened Los Angeles labor, and the three to five variances that should change price, mix, or staffing this quarter.
03
Living forecast
A 13-week cash model plus a 12-month outlook, updated on a standing cadence — the number you hire and spend against.

Practice: Key Forecasts · DTLA
Typical client: $500k–$5M+ revenue
Languages: English and Spanish
Studio: 9 products, 8 live
Education: M.S. Finance, honors · 2011
Base: 770 S Grand Ave, LA 90017

Rafael Gutierrez Jr. during Marine service

Rafael Gutierrez Jr. — honor and discipline

Founder · DTLA Professional Services, LLC

The finance practice is Key Forecasts. The studio ships PayXT, Trackkr, Tripmetic, Travel Recap, PermitMobile, and more.

I founded and operate the Los Angeles LLC behind nine products. Controller clients hire Key Forecasts for reporting, analytics, and forecasts. The other companies are separate software businesses — text-to-pay invoices, apartment parcels, travel tools, permit tracking, link-in-bio commerce, and a Mac scratchpad. They are not bundled into a controller engagement.

Full portfolio with FAQs: Our Apps.

Academic background

Degrees and certifications.

National University, San Diego, CA — Master of Science in Corporate & International Finance (October 2011, honors) and Bachelor of Science in Financial Management (January 2009). Python coursework in 2023 for analytics work. Click any document to enlarge.

Case studies

Results the forecast had to absorb.

$150,000+ back in the forecast, every year

Benefits and contract analytics at a $500k organization showed where money left without producing the mission. Leadership saw the real cost structure — including that 40% of income arrived as weekly donations — and kept more than $150,000 a year that the old reports never flagged as a decision.

$360,609 audit discrepancy, closed with analytics

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration treated gross 1099-K card volume as taxable sales, including non-taxable labor. The model separated labor from taxable receipts and put a defensible number on the table. The discrepancy was $360,609. The work was analysis, not a stack of invoices.

Job-level margin that changed the next bid

A live job-costing model tied operations to the books so owners could see margin leak while there was still time to change price, mix, or staffing. Company-wide profit had been hiding jobs that were busy and unprofitable. The forecast and the bid list changed.

The portfolio gallery