Most growing businesses have a bookkeeper who records what happened and an accountant who files the taxes. What they do not have is someone whose job is to look forward: to tell the owner what the numbers mean and what to do about them.
That is the job of a chief financial officer. A full-time one is expensive and more than most companies under $20 million need. A fractional CFO is the same level of person, working with you part time for a monthly fee.
Bookkeeper, accountant, CFO: who does what
| Role | Looks at | Answers the question |
|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper | Last week | What did we spend and receive? |
| Accountant or CPA | Last year | What do we owe in tax, and are the books correct? |
| CFO | The next 3 to 24 months | Are we making money on the right things, and will we have the cash? |
You need all three. They are not substitutes for each other, and a good fractional CFO works with your bookkeeper and CPA, not in place of them.
What a fractional CFO does in a normal month
- Turns the books into management numbers. Profit by service, by customer and by location, on one or two pages you can read in ten minutes.
- Forecasts cash. A rolling 13-week view, so tight weeks are visible long before they arrive.
- Owns the scorecard. The handful of numbers that tell you each week whether the business is on course.
- Tests decisions before you make them. Can we afford this hire? What happens if we take this contract? Should we buy or lease?
- Deals with the bank. Prepares what lenders ask for and speaks their language.
- Runs the monthly review. Sits down with you and your managers to go through results and agree what changes.
Six signs you need one
- Your financial statements arrive weeks after month end, and you mostly ignore them.
- You cannot say which customers or services make you the most profit.
- Cash is a surprise. Some months are fine, some are frightening, and you cannot predict which.
- You are about to make a large decision, such as a hire, a location, a loan or a big contract, and you are going on instinct.
- Your bank or an investor is asking for reports you do not have.
- You are thinking about selling or handing over the business in the next few years.
One of these is normal. Three or more means the business has outgrown its financial setup.
What it costs compared with hiring
A fractional arrangement is a monthly retainer with no salary, benefits or recruiting fee. Blackex Command, our fractional CFO and COO service, starts at $5,000 a month. The right comparison is not the fee against zero. It is the fee against the cost of the decisions you are currently making without good numbers.
Where to begin
You may not need a CFO yet. A free BOI Snapshot will tell you whether financial clarity is your biggest gap or whether the first fix is somewhere else, such as pricing or collections.