Embedded financial leadership without the carrying cost of a full-time CFO. Weekly cadence in the operating room, not a quarterly consult dropped in from outside.
It rarely tells you what happens next: covenant risk, refinance timing, 13-week cash, or whether the business can absorb the hire you are about to make. Controllers close the books; they do not always speak banker or board language.
Fractional CFO work sits inside the same firm as your tax and specialty planning. Capital structure, entity moves, cost seg, and R&D credits all land on one desk, and the person in your monthly meeting helped set the tax strategy.
Best fit: Owner-led businesses scaling beyond a controller · pre-transaction prep · board-driven cadence
We map reporting cadence, lender relationships, forecast accuracy, and where decisions stall between the owner and the back office.
Typically 1 to 4 days per week embedded: weekly cash, monthly close review, KPI dashboard, and board or lender packages on a predictable rhythm.
Covenant tracking, refinance windows, AR/AP discipline, and scenario models for hiring, capex, or acquisition.
When you sell, borrow, or bring in equity, reporting and normalization are already in shape before diligence starts.
At $5M to $75M of revenue, a fractional seat often runs about one-third the fully loaded cost of an in-house CFO, with senior judgment on the calls that matter: bank renewals, margin by customer, and whether the forecast is lying.
Who this is forConstruction · Manufacturing · Distribution · Professional services · Closely-held operating companies