Owners who come to us asking for a fractional CFO almost always want the same thing, and it isn't a CFO. They want the picture sharper: is this profitable and where, what does cash look like in ninety days, what happens if revenue drops fifteen percent. That's CFO-level visibility — and it costs a fraction of a CFO, because it's reporting and forecasting rather than a hire.
"Fractional CFO" now covers everything from a monthly report to a seat at the leadership table, at prices that range just as widely. It's worth knowing which one you're shopping for, because the answer changes what you should pay by an order of magnitude. Most owners who call us aren't short a CFO — they're running a real business on a low-resolution picture of it.
Look at the left column again: every item on it is a question you already know you have. That's the tell, and it's the cleanest way to sort yourself. Our reporting answers the questions you're already asking.
A fractional CFO finds the questions you don't know to ask. They're embedded in the business deeply enough to notice what you weren't looking at, experienced enough to know which of it matters, and engaged enough to give you real strategic advice about what to do next. That's a different kind of value, and it's why it costs what it costs.
One brings the picture into focus so you can see what you came looking for. The other is judgment, in the room, on your side of the table. We do the first one extremely well, and we don't pretend to do the second.
If your list is on the right, you need a CFO — and we'll introduce you to one. We keep a contracted fractional CFO partner for exactly that, and we'd rather hand you off well than sell you something adjacent. If your list is on the left, hiring a CFO is an expensive way to bring the picture into focus.
Everything arrives on a schedule and nothing waits on a calendar invite. You watch the walkthrough when it suits you, at double speed if you like, and send questions in writing. The picture gets sharper every month whether or not you have time to talk about it.
This sits on top of our bookkeeping — it isn't sold separately. The forecast is only as good as the close underneath it, so we don't build one on books we don't keep. See what the monthly bookkeeping includes. An annual budget build is not part of the monthly work; that happens in an annual planning session. We hold a deliberately limited number of these engagements at a time so the delivery stays on schedule.
About three weeks from signing, start to finish, and almost none of it needs your time. A forecast is only as honest as the assumptions underneath it, so the whole process is designed to get those assumptions out of your head and onto a page you can argue with.
How the business makes money, seasonality, headcount and planned hires, leases, loans, major contracts, growth goals, big planned purchases, and owner draws. One sitting, at your desk, whenever.
Monthly profit and loss and balance sheet. Because we already keep your books, this is a review for one-time items to strip out — not a cleanup project and not a data request sent back to you.
Fixed, variable, or step. Rent behaves differently than merchant fees, which behave differently than hourly payroll. We test each one against your own data rather than assuming — and where the data disagrees with the assumption, you hear about it.
Recurring revenue forecasts from starting monthly revenue plus new minus churn. A service business forecasts from billable hours and rate, or customers and average ticket. Payroll comes off a headcount roster. The model matches the business instead of the other way around.
One list of every assumption the forecast rests on, in sentences rather than formulas. This becomes your assumptions log, and it's the document that makes the forecast arguable instead of a black box.
We record a walkthrough of the forecast, the assumptions, and everything we flagged as uncertain. You have five business days to correct anything. Corrections get built in; silence means the assumptions stand.
From there it rolls. Every month compares actuals to the forecast, and every quarter the forecast gets rebuilt from what really happened rather than patched.
That's the whole reason this works without meetings. The assumptions are written down, so disagreeing with the forecast is a reply rather than a scheduling exercise.
The monthly work is asynchronous on purpose — it's what keeps the reporting on schedule and the price where it is. But some decisions deserve a room and three hours, and when you want that, it's a booked, flat-fee session rather than a standing meeting you'll cancel twice.
You make the decisions. We bring the structure, the numbers, and the scenarios. A session is facilitation — we'll show you what each option does to profit and cash, press on the assumptions, and write down what you decided. We don't recommend strategic actions, we don't sit on your leadership team, and we aren't acting as your CFO. If what you need is someone to own those decisions with you, that's a real CFO, and we'll introduce you to ours.
No, and the difference is worth being clear about. A fractional CFO takes a seat in your business: they own financial decisions with you, show up to leadership meetings, and advise on strategy. We don't do any of that. We produce the reporting and the forecast, explain what changed, and leave the decisions to you.
The simplest test is whose questions get answered. Our reporting answers the questions you already have. A fractional CFO finds the questions you didn't know to ask and gives you real strategic advice on them, because they're embedded in your business in a way a reporting engagement never is.
Most owners shopping for a fractional CFO want the second thing at the first thing's price. We'd rather sell you what you actually need and tell you plainly where the line is.
A profit and loss statement tells you what happened. It doesn't tell you whether you're on track, which parts of the business are carrying the others, or what cash looks like in ninety days. That's the resolution difference — same business, sharper picture.
You get budget versus actual, the rest of the year forecast, trended KPIs chosen for your model, and a recorded walkthrough of what moved and why.
Yes. A forecast built on books someone else keeps is a forecast built on a ledger we can't vouch for, and the first surprise closes the file. Your books close by the seventh of the month, which is what makes mid-month reporting possible at all.
If your books are elsewhere and you like this, the conversation starts with monthly bookkeeping.
Because the meetings didn't happen. Clients booked them, moved them, and eventually stopped, and what they actually valued was the reporting. A recording is better than the meeting it replaces: it arrives on schedule, you watch it when you have twenty minutes, you can rewatch the part you missed, and you can forward it to a partner or a spouse.
Questions come back in writing and get answered within a set window. When something genuinely needs a room, that's a strategy session.
Then we'll tell you, and we'll introduce you to one. We keep a contracted fractional CFO partner for fundraising, acquisitions, investor relations, and the leadership-table work that genuinely requires a CFO.
Treat that as a feature rather than a limitation: if you outgrow this, there's a next step and we already know who it is.
We'll tell you what the numbers say and what each option does to profit and cash. We won't tell you which one to choose. That's a deliberate boundary — you know your business, your market, and your appetite for risk better than we do, and we're not acting as your CFO.
In a strategy session we facilitate the decision: we bring structure, scenarios, and the forecast, and we write down what you landed on.
An annual budget build isn't part of the monthly work. A rolling reforecast beats a budget set nine months earlier, so the budget build lives in an annual planning session instead.
Also not included: tax planning and returns, audit or attest work, investment advice, and anything requiring a license we don't hold. We'll tell you who to call.
About three weeks from signing. You spend roughly an hour of that on a questionnaire; we spend the rest pulling history, classifying accounts, choosing drivers, and writing the assumptions. Then you get a recorded walkthrough and five business days to correct anything before it becomes your baseline.
Not sure which side of the CFO line you're on? Talk it through with Abbey — thirty minutes, no obligation.