Helcyon Logo
Helcyon
How It WorksVital SignsAboutContactPricing

More

Request Early Access
Scenario Engine™

Know what happens before you commit

Model hiring, pricing, and debt decisions against your actual books. Helcyon shows what changes, why it changes, and what it costs in runway, margin, and risk.

Get StartedSee a Sample Scenario

Built from your connected accounting data·Read-only·Fast setup

The Problem

Most "forecasts" are vibes and spreadsheets

  • Spreadsheets assume the future behaves nicely. It doesn't.
  • Inputs go stale after week one. Nobody updates them.
  • Teams argue over assumptions instead of outcomes.
  • Owners miss second-order effects — runway shrinks while revenue climbs.

"A forecast is only useful if it changes a decision."

— Helcyon Diagnostic Principle
How It Connects

Every scenario runs through your Vital Signs

The Scenario Engine doesn't guess. It simulates the impact on the five systems that keep your business alive.

Cash Pulse

Runway and liquidity

Revenue Blood Pressure

Volatility and concentration

Customer Heartbeat

Collections and churn

Margin Temperature

Profit erosion risk

Growth Oxygen

Capacity and efficiency

How It Works

Three steps. No spreadsheets.

Pick a decision, set the bounds, and see the full picture — including what to do next.

1

Pick a decision

Hire a role. Raise prices. Take on debt. Choose the decision you're weighing right now.

2

Set assumptions

Best case, base case, worst case. Or just "aggressive" vs. "conservative." Your call.

3

Get the prescription

Impact on runway, margin, and risk — plus what Helcyon recommends you do next.

Choose Your Scenario

The three decisions that break or save most businesses

Hiring changes your cost base. Pricing changes your revenue math. Debt changes your obligations. All three hit runway.

Hire 1–3 People

  • Can I afford this hire right now?
  • How long until they pay for themselves?
  • What happens if the revenue lift doesn't show up?
Cash Pulse
Margin Temperature
Growth Oxygen

Raise Prices 3–10%

  • Does a price increase actually improve cash?
  • How much churn can I absorb before this backfires?
  • Which accounts should I grandfather?
Revenue Blood Pressure
Customer Heartbeat
Margin Temperature

Take on Debt or Credit

  • Can I service this payment if revenue dips 15%?
  • Does this loan improve my position or just extend my runway?
  • What covenant terms put me at risk?
Cash Pulse
Margin Temperature
Revenue Blood Pressure

Coming next: Marketing spend, expansion, cost restructuring

What Helcyon Detects

Real scenarios. Real risk flags. Real prescriptions.

Base case vs. worst case, with a prescription attached. This is what the Scenario Engine produces.

hiring

Senior Developer, $95K

Base — Runway

94 → 81 days

Worst — Runway

94 → 58 days

Worst trigger

AR slows, payroll hits first

Rx — Prescription

Delay start date 30 days or run a collections sprint to protect Cash Pulse before onboarding.

pricing

+7% Across SOWs

Base — Margin

+2.4 pts

Base — Churn

Flat

Worst — Churn

+3%, Revenue BP rises

Rx — Prescription

Grandfather your top 10 accounts. Raise on new SOWs first. Monitor Customer Heartbeat weekly.

debt

$150K Line of Credit, 8.5%

Base — Runway

58 → 104 days

Worst — Margin

-1.8 pts from service cost

Worst trigger

Revenue dips, covenant breach at 1.2x DSCR

Rx — Prescription

Draw only $80K now. Hold $70K in reserve. Set a 90-day review trigger tied to Cash Pulse before drawing more.

Cash Pulse

Runway ↓

13 days shorter

Margin Temperature

Margin →

Flat under base case

Growth Oxygen

Capacity ↑

+22% throughput

You can see the impact.

Vital Command tells you what to do about it — specific actions, tradeoff explanations, and what Helcyon recommends next.

Request Early AccessCompare Plans
Why Helcyon

Scenarios built different

Starts from actuals

Your books, not guesses.

Tied to Vital Signs

Not vanity KPIs.

Explains tradeoffs

Margin vs. runway vs. risk.

Outputs prescriptions

Next actions, not charts.

Updates automatically

New data lands, scenarios refresh.

Included in Vital Command

Scenario modeling. Forecasting. Prescriptions.

The Scenario Engine is part of Vital Command — for owners who want to see what's coming and know what to do about it.

See Plans and PricingTalk to Us
FAQ

Common questions

What data does the Scenario Engine use?

+
Your connected accounting data — the same books Helcyon already monitors for your Vital Signs. Read-only access. No manual data entry. The engine pulls actuals, not projections, so every scenario starts from where your business actually stands today.

How is this different from a spreadsheet forecast?

+
Spreadsheets model one variable at a time and assume everything else stays constant. The Scenario Engine models ripple effects across all five Vital Signs simultaneously — so a hiring decision hits not just payroll, but runway, margin, collections timing, and capacity. It also updates automatically when new data comes in. A spreadsheet doesn't do that.

Why only three scenarios at launch?

+
Hiring, pricing, and debt are the three highest-frequency, highest-stakes decisions for small businesses. Marketing spend, expansion, and cost restructuring are on the roadmap. We'd rather do three scenarios well than six poorly.

What do I get at each plan level?

+
Scenario modeling is included in Vital Command and above. Lower tiers can see directional impact — runway goes up or down, margin compresses or expands. Vital Command includes the full prescription: specific action steps, tradeoff explanations, risk flags, and what Helcyon recommends you do next. The direction tells you what happens. The prescription tells you what to do about it.

How does the debt scenario work?

+
You enter the loan amount, interest rate, and term. Helcyon models the payment schedule against your current cash position and revenue trends, then stress-tests it: what happens if revenue dips 10%, 15%, 20%? It flags covenant risk, shows where margin erodes from service costs, and tells you how much to draw now versus hold in reserve.

Does Helcyon access or change my financial data?

+
No. Read-only access. Helcyon interprets your data and runs simulations against it. Nothing in your accounting system gets modified, moved, or deleted. Your books stay exactly where they are.