Fractional CFO CostIs a fractional CFO worth the cost?

What changes for an owner

Three things tend to change. You know the number, meaning where the business stands this month, from books that were checked. You make choices in time to matter, with months still left to act. And the return stops being a surprise, because it comes from the same books you've been reading all along.

Those are changes in how you operate, not dollar figures. Whether they're worth a fee depends on how much you rely on guesses today.

The cost of guessing

It's hard to price what you didn't see coming. But you can picture it. A hire made without a cash view. An estimate paid late because nobody knew the number. A purchase made in December that would have looked different in October. A lender conversation that began with books that didn't match the bank. None of these has a number attached here, and we won't invent one. They are situations, and you can tell which sound familiar.

Find out if it's worth it

When it isn't worth it yet

Sometimes the honest answer is not yet. If your books aren't being kept, bookkeeping comes first, and that's a smaller and different fee. If you have few decisions ahead, and a once-a-year return does what you need, a CFO's monthly read may be more than the business uses. And if what you want is a signed outside report on your statements, you'd be shopping for a different kind of firm.

There's a smaller first step in nearly every case. Get the books kept, get them checked, and see if questions begin to pile up.

How to find out before you pay

A free first look is the cheapest test. You bring what you have. We go through what a CFO would do for a business like yours, and what the fee would cover. You don't pay for that conversation, and you don't have to sign afterward.

Compare it with the cost of a full hire on the full-time cost page, and with the inclusions on what moves the price.

A no is a fair answer

Once the price is in front of you, yes or no are both reasonable. We'd rather hear a clear no than a reluctant yes. If it's no, you still leave with a list of what to fix in your own records, and you owe nothing.

What we'll do on the call

We'll listen to what you're deciding. We'll tell you what a month would look like. We'll name the fee for your case in writing after the look, and we'll say what's included and what's billed apart. Tax planning sits inside it, so that is one less line to weigh.

Inside the fee. For this page's subject, a fair fee is one you can weigh against a decision you actually face, with its contents named, so that worth becomes a judgment you make, not a claim someone makes for you.

Hear a fair no

Take it to Steven