Fractional CFO
Part-time finance leadership for privately held, PE-backed companies. We stand up the finance function, run it alongside your controller, and give your sponsor and lenders numbers they can trust — without the cost of a full-time hire.
Stand Up the Finance Function
Post-acquisition or fast-growing companies often outgrow their accounting setup before they hire a CFO. We install the mechanics a PE-backed company needs and operate them day to day.
What we build:
- Reporting calendar & operating cadenceA monthly rhythm for close, forecast, and reporting so nothing is a fire drill — everyone knows what's due and when.
- Chart of accounts & KPI frameworkA chart of accounts and the 5–7 KPIs that actually reflect how the business creates value, mapped to how your sponsor thinks.
- Systems & data flow (ERP, billing, payroll)We connect the tools you already run so data flows cleanly into reporting instead of living in disconnected spreadsheets.
- Finance team structure & hiring planWe define the roles you need next and help you hire, so the function can eventually run without us.
Typically a monthly retainer scoped to your stage and the hours you need. We'll size it together on a short call.
Month-End Close, Done Right
We partner with your controller to make the monthly and quarterly close faster, cleaner, and more predictable — so the numbers are ready when the board and lenders ask.
How we help:
- Close checklist & timelineA documented close process with owners and due dates that shrinks the days-to-close month over month.
- Accruals, cut-off & reconciliationsWe tighten the judgment areas — accruals, deferrals, and account reconciliations — so results hold up under scrutiny.
- Actuals vs. forecast bridgeEvery close ties back to the forecast with a clear variance bridge, so surprises are explained, not discovered.
- Audit & diligence readinessClean, well-supported books mean lower audit fees and a far smoother next diligence process.
Available as part of a CFO retainer or as a focused close-improvement project.
Sponsor & Lender Relationships
We own the recurring reporting your equity sponsor and lenders expect and act as a steady point of contact when they have questions.
We handle:
- Monthly / quarterly sponsor packageA consistent reporting package — results, forecast, KPIs, and commentary — delivered on the sponsor's cadence.
- Lender & covenant reportingCompliance certificates, borrowing-base reporting, and covenant tracking prepared on time and tied to the books.
- Board meeting prep & materialsWe build the board deck and pre-brief you so the meeting is about decisions, not reconciling numbers.
- Ad-hoc analysis & data requestsWhen the sponsor or a lender needs a cut of the data, we turn it around quickly and accurately.
Who this is for
Privately held and PE-backed companies, typically $10M to $150M of revenue, that need finance leadership but not a full-time CFO. The common shape is a business with a capable controller handling accounting well, and nobody above that line owning the forecast, the lender relationship, and what the numbers mean.
You will recognise the situation if:
- A sponsor or lender is asking for reporting the company cannot currently produce.
- The controller is being asked strategic questions that are not a controller's job.
- Finance is accurate about the past and silent about the next twelve months.
- A transaction is coming — an add-on, a refinancing, a sale — and diligence would be painful today.
- A full-time CFO has been discussed and the honest answer is that the role is not yet a full week's work.
If what the business needs is someone to own the close, run AP and AR, and keep the ledger clean, that is a controller and hiring one is both cheaper and more appropriate. A fractional CFO sitting above an empty accounting function ends up doing bookkeeping at CFO rates.
What you actually receive
A fractional CFO engagement is judged on what exists at the end of it that did not exist before. These are the artifacts, and they stay with the company.
Finance operating calendar
One pageClose, reforecast, lender submission, sponsor reporting, and board dates for the year on a single schedule, with owners against each. Reporting becomes a routine with dates rather than a series of requests.
3-statement forecast model
Excel workbookThe linked P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow the rest of the reporting is built from. Driver-based, documented, and handed over to be maintained by your team.
13-week cash flow
Excel workbookWeekly liquidity visibility with revolver availability and covenant headroom, built where there is debt or a liquidity question and updated on a fixed weekly cycle.
Sponsor and lender package
PDF + workbookThe recurring submissions the credit agreement and the sponsor require, prepared on their schedule and tied back to the same figures management sees internally.
Close checklist and cadence
Checklist + timelineA documented close built with your controller: accrual policies, cut-off rules, reconciliation ownership, and the day each step is due. Usually the difference between a day-20 close and a day-8 close.
Finance team plan
Structure + hiring briefWhat the function needs as the company grows, in what order, and what each role should be accountable for — including an honest view of when a full-time CFO becomes the right hire.
How an engagement runs
Diagnose while building something useful
Read the credit agreement and the last four board packages, walk the close with the controller, and establish which numbers are actually reliable. One urgent artifact gets built inside the first month — the 13-week if liquidity is the pressure, the forecast model if it is not.
Install the cadence
The operating calendar goes live and the first full cycle runs against it: close, reforecast, reporting package, sponsor submission. This cycle is where the disagreements surface — about definitions, about who owns what — which is the point of running it early.
Run it, then hand it over
A recurring commitment sized to the company, commonly a few days a month, covering the monthly cycle, board preparation, lender relationship, and the analysis behind real decisions. The direction of travel is deliberately toward your team owning more of it.
What the first ninety days can look like
A specialty services business, $34M of revenue, six months after a majority recapitalisation. There is a controller and two accountants. The close lands around day 20, the forecast is an annual budget nobody has revisited since it was approved, and the sponsor has asked for monthly reporting the company has missed twice.
The credit agreement turns out to require a monthly compliance certificate the company has not been filing — the lender has not chased it, which is not the same as it not mattering. A first 13-week cash flow is built. The close is walked and three of the twenty days prove to be waiting on one intercompany reconciliation.
The three-statement model is built and backtested against the last two years. The close moves to day 12 by reordering steps and giving the intercompany reconciliation an owner and a deadline. The compliance certificate is filed, with the omission disclosed to the lender rather than quietly corrected.
The first monthly package goes to the sponsor on the calendar date, with variance commentary and a reforecast. The KPI set is cut to nine metrics with agreed definitions. A hiring brief for an FP&A analyst is written, because the recurring analytical load is real and belongs in-house.
At ninety days the company has a close that finishes in twelve days, a forecast that updates monthly, a cash view that reaches a quarter out, and a reporting obligation it is meeting rather than missing. None of that required a full-time hire — but the hiring brief now describes a role the business can actually define.
Common questions
What does a fractional CFO actually do?
+
A fractional CFO owns the forward-looking half of finance on a part-time basis: the forecast, cash planning, lender and sponsor reporting, board materials, and the analysis behind real decisions. A controller owns the accurate recording of what already happened. Both roles are necessary and they are not substitutes for one another.
How is a fractional CFO different from an interim CFO?
+
An interim CFO is a full-time placeholder filling a vacant seat, usually for six to twelve months while a permanent hire is found. A fractional CFO is a permanent part-time arrangement for a company that does not need the seat filled full time. The distinction is ongoing capacity, not duration.
How much time does an engagement involve?
+
Most settle between two and six days a month once the initial build is done. The first sixty days run heavier because artifacts are being created rather than maintained. The commitment is scoped to the reporting calendar and the transaction activity, and revisited rather than fixed permanently.
What does a fractional CFO cost?
+
Engagements are usually structured as a defined build project followed by a monthly retainer, and the range is driven by company complexity, debt and covenant obligations, reporting frequency, and whether a transaction is in progress. The comparison worth making is against a full-time CFO's fully loaded cost for capacity you would not use.
Do you replace our controller or accounting team?
+
No — the work sits above them and depends on them. A good controller makes this engagement far more effective, because the forecast is only as good as the close feeding it. Where the accounting function has real gaps, that gets named early rather than absorbed quietly.
Can you work with our sponsor and lender directly?
+
Yes, and it is usually the point. That means preparing and submitting the reporting package, being the person on the covenant call, and handling diligence requests. Management stays the relationship owner; I handle the volume of the numbers and the questions behind them.
What happens when we outgrow the arrangement?
+
That is a successful outcome rather than a failure. The engagement includes a view on when a full-time CFO becomes the right hire and what that role should be accountable for, and the transition is easier because the calendar, the models, and the reporting already exist and are documented.
How quickly can you start?
+
Usually within two to three weeks of an initial conversation. Where there is a live deadline — a covenant test, a diligence request, a board meeting — the first weeks are sequenced around that rather than around a standard onboarding order.
Related work
Need a CFO in the seat — part time?
Let's talk through where your finance function is today and what it needs next. Book a complimentary introductory call.
Schedule Consultation