💭 What is a Fractional CFO?

Heard the term Fractional CFO before and want to learn what it means? I’ll explain below!

💸 What is a Fractional CFO?

A Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO) works for multiple clients at once, on a part time basis.

In my case, I do this remotely and can spend anywhere from 5-10 hours per week working with a client, depending on requirements.

This is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses as they may not need a full-time CFO, but would love to level things up with high-level finance strategy, systems support and a detailed monthly board pack with finance & KPI analysis.

These companies already have an accountant, but they feel something is "missing" in finance.

🤔 How are they different to accountants and bookkeepers

Note that the below is an extreme simplification - in reality, each role does a multitude of other things to add value to their clients (and some people can do all of the below combined)

The bookkeeper reconciles bank transactions and ensures monthly accounting journals are correct. They make sure the data is clean.

The accountant handles your accounts and tax returns, ensures you are compliant with HMRC and focuses on making you tax-efficient.

The fractional CFO focuses on budgets, forecasting, KPI analysis, M&A and board/director strategy support.

🖼️ 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗮 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗙𝗢 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀?

This is all about the past, present and future.

• Analyse the past to determine the financial performance, margins and key risk & opportunity areas.

• Control the present with budgeting, cash flow forecasting and monthly reporting

• Define the future with financial forecasting & business strategy

🏆 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴?

The ability to scale and provide you more support during critical growth phases and assist with M&A (buying another company).

Most Fractional CFOs have either built and sold a business, or are used to operating at board/director level. They provide a fresh perspective to your board meeting to provide strategy and troubleshoot problems

Create a beautiful monthly board pack with custom finance analysis and commentary, explained in a way you can understand.