Fractional CFO CostHow fractional CFO pricing works
You're looking for fractional CFO pricing because the quotes in front of you aren't built the same way. One is a monthly number, one is an hourly rate and one is a project fee. Tax CFO Steven Palmieri leads this practice, and Steven and his team have a simple view. A price model is only fair if you can see what it rewards and what it risks for you, so we'll lay out the four common ones.
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The monthly retainer
A retainer is one amount each month for an agreed set of work. The CFO commits to being available and to doing certain tasks, and you pay the same whether the month is busy or quiet.
It rewards predictability. You can plan a budget around it, and you can ask questions without watching a clock. The risk is vagueness. If the retainer doesn't spell out what it covers, you can pay every month for something nobody can describe. A good retainer is a short list of deliverables, a start date and a note on what's billed separately.
The hourly rate
An hourly arrangement charges for time used. It rewards precision, since you only pay for hours that were worked, and it can suit a single, bounded question.
The risk is the meter. Owners tend to hold back questions when each one costs money, so problems get bigger before they're raised. And the same task can take very different hours depending on how tidy the books are, which makes an hourly rate hard to compare. Why a rate alone says little goes into that.
The fixed project fee
A project fee is one price for one defined piece of work. Examples include building a budget, preparing a loan package, or cleaning up a set of books. It rewards clarity, because both sides know the end point.
The risk is scope creep. If the project grows beyond what was agreed, one side absorbs the cost or the fee is reopened. Ask what's included, what counts as a change and who decides.
Equity
Some CFOs who work with young companies accept ownership in the business, alone or alongside a fee. The idea is that the CFO shares the risk. It rewards a long-term alignment, and it carries the usual risks of giving away part of a company, such as dilution and the question of who decides when. Whether any particular arrangement makes sense depends on the company, and you may want a lawyer to read the terms. We describe this model here only so you recognize it when it appears in a quote.
How a monthly fee with a written scope works here
We price the month. The fee is a monthly amount for work that's written down: the month closed and matched, statements prepared from it, a monthly read with you, tax planning as part of the work, and your questions during the month. You hear the amount before any work starts, along with the start date, so the quote can't drift.
If your books are behind, bringing them current is quoted as its own job. Setup work, such as setting up payroll with a provider, is priced as setup. What a monthly fee should include lists the items one by one.
Where the number goes
Fees are set in writing before work starts.
You won't find a fee figure anywhere on this page. What we charge depends on the work your books and your plans require. The first look is free, and the number follows it in writing.
Questions worth asking about any model
Who will actually do the work, and is their name on the quote? What happens if the work takes longer than expected, and who pays for it? Can the arrangement end if it isn't working, and how? Each answer shows you how a model behaves when things don't go to plan, which is when a price really matters.
Choosing between them
Ask three questions. Does the model reward you for asking questions or discourage it? Is the scope on paper? And what would make the number change? A retainer with a clear scope, a project fee with a defined end and an hourly rate on a bounded task are all reasonable. The same models, left vague, are where owners get hurt.
Inside the fee. A fair monthly fee should name its scope, its start date and what's billed apart, and a fee that's described that way can be compared with any other, whatever model it uses.
How is your quote built?
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.