In business, there is a 3rd function that many business owners are not familair with. This would be a finance role like a fractional CFO. Their job is to use data, financial modeling, forecast, and planning to help answer your more complex money questions and help you look ahead in your business. This role complements and is in addition to your bookkeeping and accountant.

It depends on their background, experience and expertise in financial management. Most bookkeeper do the categorizing, reconciliation and generating accurate financial reporting. Accountants are mostly focus on tax filing (some tax strategy and planning) while some provide payroll services but mostly audit the accuracy of your books and focus on the present and past. Some accountants are able to do CFO work depending on their past experience and skillset.

A CFO is trained and has the ability and skillset to manage the uncertainty in the future forecasting and projections of the business finances. CFO play an active partnership role with the CEO/owner and leadership team to help make financial decisions by analyzing the data and brining the key insights and takeaways. We also set target, financial goals, KPIs, financial systems and processes to ensure the financial rhythms of the company are aligned.

Ask about the providers credentials, past experience, and expertise. As them if they have work with your industry before and what exactly will they be providing as part of the scope of work.

Typical scope of CFO is a financial review and advisory meeting at least monthly, forecast by month for current year, actuals vs budget comparison, gross margin analysis, financial strategy, develop a growth plan, financial performance monitoring, financial reporting, and many more deliverables depending on the support level. If you are just getting % allocations like profit first, that must just be an expensive bookkeeper.

There are companies dedicated to teach bookkeepers how to inflate their prices by providing this allocations and an automated monthly financial report.

Real CFOs like us assume the responsibility at the leadership team level to help drive the finance function of the company by growing revenue, profits, and owner’s compensation every year. Setting strategic financial direction, helping owner’s overcome obstacles, pivoting when needed, and planning proactively for the future. We become a business partner to the owner and are able to advise based on past expertise and experience.

Client Advisory Services are provided by accountants or professionals that can bring some compliance and insights into what the numbers are telling you. They can share some data and walk you through and explaining the numbers in the past and present. Accountants don’t handle uncertainty or risk well given they training is focus on tax and compliance not business growth.

CFOs thrive in uncertainty, know how to handle it, and can map out a strong intentional forecast for future growth along with the detail steps it takes to get you there. CFOs think proactively, strategically, evaluate all options, and run scenarios before making a recommendation. We are using past and current data to plan for what comes next and get ahead of risk while identifying opportunities that don’t currently exist. We become your co-pilot in driving the business forward as a trusted advisor.

We start by creating the company goals for the year and review and pay financial results to spot trends and opportunities to improve. We assess for gross margins, compensation structure, owner pay, profits and ensure we have save for quartely estimates taxes while maintaining the right level of cash reserves. We actively partner while driving the financial agenda for the company. Discussing topics in our financial meetings such as how many more employees we need to hire, pricing strategy, sharing financial performance insights, providing allocations and department budgets to ensure we have control financial health and control.

We do more than just profit first for your growing business. As the owner you are not off the hook, you do have to take action to help achieve the financial goals of the company. You will have so much financial clarity to know exactly what to focus on and ideas would be discuss on the best way to solve problems for the business.

Fractional CFO leader turns financial information into clarity and better business decisions. They set the strategic financial direction for the company, implement financial processes and systems, provide data insights/visibility, manage budgets, compare Actuals vs Budget, measures profitability, provide financial analysis for any data driven decisions before they are made, and support the owner by asking the tough questions.

A CFO partnership is not a short term, quick fix investment. We work with client between 6 and 12 months to shift the profitability and make sustainable long lasting changes to their business.

Our goal is to support our clients at the level they need for where they are at. We will recommend a few ways we can work together and you get to decide which option is right for you. We kick off with a project to define your financial projections and goals for the business. We collaborate on drafting yearly priorities for your business based on our experience and what your numbers are telling us. We review your numbers at least monthly to ensure you are on track to your goals and if not we discuss strategic actions you can take to change the direction and achieve the desired goals.

For those clients looking for support, but are not ready to commit to CFO retainer services, we do offer one-time project based support. Check out our Projections [Click Here].

Our Framework: cash, capacity, planning, pay, and profit

• Cash: this is the oxygen for your business, without it you will be out of business. We help you build a runway to ensure to can handle the ups and down in business

• Capacity: understanding what your team is able to deliver and at what point you need to hire more team to support your growth. Reviewing margins and optimizing to ensure profit remains in your business

• Planning: forecasting and proactive planning the goals you want to achieve and how to achieve them. Creating a detail plan to drive action and results.

• Pay: prioritizing paying yourself as an owner and having left over profit to rewards your team for their performance

• Profit: this is the metric that keeps you in business and allows you to continue to invest in growth. Profit allows you to take advantage of opportunities and invest in the support you need to get to the next level of growth.

Established business 2-3yrs in business, growing, has at least 10-15 employees, has financial complexity not being answered by your accountant or bookkeeping team, want CFO expertise to understand their numbers, run scenarios before making decisions, need a financial plan for their growth, want to understand hiring decisions and compensation structure, etc.

For smaller businesses that need support, we offer one-time project based support. Check out our Projections [Click Here].

Depending on your level of support, we will spend between 1-2 hours a month on zoom calls and email through out the month. Most of the work is done asynchronus and online via google sheets collaboration. We do require active participation, but the goal is to take financial management off your plate.

If you have been spending countless hours working on your numbers, feeling confused, stuck or in a rut not being able to make progress on profit, cash in the bank, or paying yourself, we will help guide you on how solve those profit problems and get more out of your business.

Quickbooks online admin or accountant access, EHR access, CRM, payroll systems like Gusto, and any spreadsheets you have previously created. We will create a financial tracker where we record all your numbers, goals and progress. We review that financial tracker every call to understand, monitor, and track what is happening in your business.

You will have pre-schedule meetings with agendas to make progress and discuss priorities. Your CFO will be available to schedule calls and over email as well. We respond to client emails and requests within 24-48hrs.

Yes, we only hire experience CFOs that have corporate background and have had several roles in various companies from corporate to small and medium size businesses.High quality of our work is showcase and a top priority when supporting our clients in a high touch and no more than 7-10 clients for each CFO. This allows our CFO to focus on each client and have time to implement as well as provide client support in between calls.