A CFO for a few days a month
A growing founder-led company needs finance leadership long before it can fill a full-time CFO role. A fractional CFO from CFO Foundry brings it for a few days a month, with the platform that keeps the numbers in order between those days.
What is a fractional CFO?
A chief financial officer who works part of the time, for as long as the company needs one. The role is the same as a full-time CFO's: the numbers the company steers on, cash and financing, the forecast, the questions of the board and the bank, and the preparation for a sale. What differs is the time: a few days a month instead of every day.
What does a fractional CFO from CFO Foundry do?
- Sets up CFO Foundry in the company: the mapping of every account, the data room, and who delivers which file by when.
- Runs the monthly pack and its review: the reports, workbooks and decks every month, and one meeting on what moved, why, and what to decide.
- Keeps cash and the forecast in view: the 26-week cash forecast, the EBITDA forecast and the scenarios, rolled forward every month.
- Keeps good finance practice: monthly accruals, a register of one-offs, owner and company apart, intercompany in its own accounts.
- Prepares the company for a sale: adjusted EBITDA with evidence, the working capital peg, net debt and the data room, and at the table when the deal comes.
Which companies is it for?
Founder-led service companies in the DACH region, from agencies and consultancies to IT and engineering firms, typically with 20 to 250 people and often several entities, that have outgrown a bookkeeper and a tax adviser but have no finance function of their own yet. And companies that see a sale or a succession coming and want the numbers ready before a buyer asks.
What does a month look like?
- The books are closed: by the company's bookkeeping or tax adviser, as before.
- The exports arrive by a fixed day: trial balances, open items, hours, headcount, the pipeline.
- One build: the monthly pack and the data room are generated from the closed month.
- One review meeting: with the founder and the leadership team: what moved, why, and the two or three decisions the numbers ask for, minuted and revisited the next month.
Who else stays involved?
The bookkeeping and the tax adviser keep doing what they do: the books, the payroll, the tax returns and the annual accounts. The fractional CFO works from their output, not in place of it, and turns it into Controlling and steering: monthly reporting, the forecast, and the decisions the numbers ask for.
What happens when the engagement ends?
The company's own team takes over the monthly pack under a licence, with the set-up already done, and the fractional CFO stays on call by the day. The reports, the workbooks and the data room stay with the company for good.
How is it priced?
A monthly fee for an agreed number of days, set out in a written quote after a first conversation about the entities, the systems and what the company needs to see.
FAQ
What is the difference between a fractional and an interim CFO?
An interim CFO fills a vacant full-time role for a period, usually every day. A fractional CFO works a few days a month, for as long as that is useful, and is the right size for a company that does not need a CFO every day yet.
Does a fractional CFO replace the tax adviser?
No. The tax adviser keeps the books, the taxes and the annual accounts. The fractional CFO uses their figures to steer the company and to prepare it for a sale.
How many days a month does it take?
A few days a month, agreed in the quote. Around the first set-up, a close or a sale it can be more for a while.
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