Engagement
A fractional CFO from CFO Foundry runs your monthly pack and the data room.
How it is priced
A monthly fee for an agreed number of days.
Getting started
4 ways to work with CFO Foundry
The ways differ in how long CFO Foundry stays at your side and what you hold at the end.
The four ways in
Either a fractional CFO from CFO Foundry runs it for you, or your own team runs it under a licence.
Continuity
After an engagement, your team takes over the monthly pack under the annual licence. The set-up is already done.
How it is priced
An annual licence per company; support by the day.
Licence with Set-up
An operator sets CFO Foundry up in 4 to 8 weeks; then your team runs it under the annual licence.
How it is priced
A fixed set-up fee by number of entities, plus the annual licence.
Transaction Readiness Sprint
A fixed project before a sale: data room, adjusted EBITDA, working-capital peg and equity bridge.
How it is priced
A fixed fee by number of entities and months of history.
Run for you by a fractional CFO from CFO FoundryRun by your team, under a licence
Pilots and data integration runs are billed by the hour. Get a Quote
Path 1
Engagement
The engagement runs in five stages, from the first assessment to transaction readiness.
What happens
Each stage in detail below.
Who it is for
Founder-led companies without a strong finance function.
What you have at the end
- A monthly pack the company reads and acts on
- The mapping, the data map and the cadence, documented
- A data room that fills with every close
Who does what
Fractional CFO
Your team
Brings the engine, sets up the mapping and the data room structure
Agrees the intake: owners, shapes, dates
Runs the close and generates the monthly pack
Delivers the agreed files, month after month
Leads the monthly review and holds the discipline
Reads its own numbers and takes the decisions they ask for
How it continuesInto continuity, once your team takes over the monthly pack.
A monthly fee for an agreed number of days.Get a Quote →
Path 2
Continuity
The monthly pack carries on after the engagement ends.
What happens
- 1
Handover
your team runs the build with the fractional CFO beside it
one or two closes Your Team Runs It from Here
- 2
The Monthly Pack
your team delivers the files, runs the build, reads the pack
monthly - 3
On Call
The fractional CFO answers questions and fixes mapping issues
as needed, by the day - 4
Annual Review
The fractional CFO reviews the mapping and the data map with your team
once a year
Who it is for
Clients during or after an engagement whose team takes over the monthly pack.
What you have at the end
- The same monthly pack, produced in-house
What the licence covers
Running CFO Foundry for the company's entities, at one list price per company whoever runs it; the price follows the number of entities.
Who does what
Fractional CFO
Your team
On call, by the day
Delivers the files and runs the monthly build
The annual review of the mapping and the data map
Reviews the pack and keeps the intake on its dates
How it continuesFor as long as the company wants. Before a sale, a sprint builds on the same data.
An annual licence per company; support by the day.Get a Quote →
Path 3
Licence with Set-up
The set-up is a shorter route to the same monthly pack.
What happens
- 1
Data Assessment
what the exports contain, which entities, how much history
1 to 2 weeks - 2
Mapping
every account to the standard chart, per entity
1 to 3 weeks - 3
Formats and Handover Paths
an intake format per source; who delivers which file, by when
1 to 2 weeks - 4
First Full Pack
generated and reviewed together
1 week - 5
Training
your team runs the build and reads the pack
1 to 2 sessions Your Team Runs It from Here
Who it is for
Companies with their own CFO, or that want CFO Foundry running without one.
What you have at the end
- Your team runs the monthly pack under the licence
- The mapping, the formats and the data map, documented
Who does what
Operator
Your team
The assessment, the mapping and the formats
Provides the exports and the history, names the owners
Reviews the first pack and trains the team
Runs the monthly build from then on
The annual review; on call, by the day
Keeps the intake on its dates
How it continuesUnder the annual licence, as in continuity, with the annual review.
A fixed set-up fee by number of entities, plus the annual licence.Get a Quote →
Path 4
Transaction Readiness Sprint
The work a buyer will check is done in advance, in a fixed scope.
What happens
- 1
Intake
trial balances, ledgers and history loaded, entities mapped
1 to 2 weeks - 2
Quality of Earnings Base
adjusted EBITDA, every add-back documented
2 to 3 weeks - 3
Working Capital Peg
the normal level from the monthly history
1 week - 4
Net Debt and the Equity Bridge
from adjusted EBITDA to equity value, with the buyer's view
1 week - 5
Data Room in Order
the checklist complete, every file linked
alongside, 2 to 4 weeks You hold the data room and the bridge
Who it is for
Companies preparing a sale that do not want a monthly mandate.
What you have at the end
- A data room in order
- Adjusted EBITDA with documented add-backs
- The working capital peg, net debt and the bridge to equity value
- The reports and workbooks behind every figure
Who does what
Fractional CFO
Your team
Builds the reports and the bridge, documents the add-backs
Provides the exports, the contracts and the reasons behind one-off items
Prepares the data room
Answers the open points before a buyer asks
How it continuesInto an engagement through the sale, or a licence for the team.
A fixed fee by number of entities and months of history.Get a Quote →
Stage 01
Assessment: how is the company set up financially?
Mostly listening and reading. Entities, countries and currencies. The accounting setup: your internal finance staff and the external Steuerberater, when the close actually lands, whether one month is comparable to the next. What the founder and the leadership team see today, how old it is when it arrives, and how far ahead cash is visible.
And the data map: which sources exist beyond accounting, what shape they are in, who owns them. Trial balances, payroll and HR data, operational hours from time tracking, the sales pipeline, cost centres.
The stage ends with
A written assessment with a prioritized plan, and a first CFO Foundry pack generated from your last trial balances. Unpolished by design: it shows what your data can already say and exactly where it falls short.
Stage 02
Implementation: change what has to change, introduce what is missing
Chart of accounts and bookings. Clean up what grew by accident, agree booking conventions with the Steuerberater, accruals booked every month. A negotiation as much as a task.
The structures the reports need. Cost centres that match how the business runs, project and client structures where contribution will be measured, HR data in a defined shape, the pipeline export agreed with sales.
The mapping. Every account mapped once into the engine. From here on, every report is generated from the data.
The handover paths. For each data source an owner, a shape, and a date in the month. Written down, agreed with the people who deliver.
The stage ends with
The first full monthly pack, reviewed together: every view, from your real systems, on a date that was promised.
Stage 03
Cadence: a rhythm the company holds
Data lands by a fixed day. Close. The pack is generated and distributed. Then one review meeting: what moved, why, and the two or three decisions the numbers ask for. Decisions minuted, revisited next month. The forecast rolls forward, so a miss surfaces while the quarter can still be changed.
Just as important: your people learn the rhythm. Internal staff and the external accountants deliver without being chased, and the team starts reading its own numbers. That takes months of habit, and it is what makes everything durable.
Stage 04
Deepening: the same rhythm carries more weight
Planning. An 18-month projection on drivers measured in the company's own history, and scenarios before a large decision.
Pricing from delivery cost. What an hour costs, what it sells for, what each project and client contributes.
The cost base. Vendor and software spend, contracts, tooling that fits your size. Bringing AI into financial operations and reporting where it earns its place.
Board and bank reporting from the same figures. No parallel spreadsheets.
Stage 05
Transaction Readiness: the numbers a sale relies on
The stage runs whether or not a sale is planned. When a sale comes, the work is already under way. One-off and shareholder-related costs are documented as they occur: documented then, they get accepted; reconstructed later, they get challenged. The data room grows as a by-product of the monthly pack.
And when a transaction is live, the numbers get defended: during diligence and after it, through the earnout and true-up mechanics where real money still moves.
From day one
Built for handover
Handover is part of every stage, so your team can run the process.
Stays with you
The Output
The reports, the Excel exports, the data room. Ordinary files, built from your data, yours for good, including everything ever generated.
Stage zero: a conversation
Which entities, which accounting systems, what you need to see. After that call, both sides know whether this fits.
Get in Touch