Senior financial leadership without the senior hire.
A founder-led company usually outgrows its bookkeeper years before it can justify a full-time CFO. The gap shows up as a monthly report that arrives late, a forecast nobody trusts, and a board or lender package assembled the night before. Fractional CFO leadership fills that gap with the same person every month.
What the work is
The retainer covers the decisions a CFO is responsible for: what the numbers say, what to do about them, and how to show them to a board, a bank, or a buyer. Month to month that means owning the close calendar, producing management reporting the leadership team actually uses, maintaining a forecast with real driver logic, and planning cash and capital far enough ahead that nothing is a surprise.
How it runs
We set a cadence together: a monthly reporting cycle, a standing review with you, and heavier months when a board package, a diligence sprint, or a financing is in front of the business. The retainer is billed in advance and scoped in writing. You're buying senior judgment on call and a defined set of decisions supported, not a number of hours.
What changes
Within the first monthly cycle the report closes on a schedule and ties to source. Within a quarter the forecast reflects how the business actually generates revenue and consumes cost. From there the finance function grows with the company instead of trailing it, and when a buyer or investor arrives, the evidence is already there.
The work, specifically.
Management reporting
A monthly package built for decisions: P&L, balance sheet, cash, KPIs, and variance against plan, with the commentary a board expects.
Budgeting and forecasting
An annual plan and a rolling forecast with driver logic, sensitivity, and a documented link to the operating model.
Cash and capital planning
Thirteen-week cash, working-capital discipline, and a capital plan that anticipates what a raise or a credit facility will require.
Board, lender, and investor packages
Reporting that survives scrutiny from people whose job is to find the weak spot.
Executive dashboards
The handful of numbers that run the company, kept current and traceable.
Finance function design
Roles, systems, and controls sized to the company today, with a plan for the next stage.
Start with a fifteen-minute call.
We’ll talk about where the company is headed and whether this is the right work to do first. If it isn’t, we’ll say so.