Finance team structure
The finance team in a growing company is built by accident. A bookkeeper is hired when the owner cannot keep up, an office manager absorbs payroll, the CPA is asked questions they are not paid to answer, and nobody owns the forecast. We design the finance function your company needs now and at the next stage, decide what stays inside, what is outsourced and what a fractional seat covers, and help you hire and set up the people so the function runs without you.
What you leave with
A finance function with the right roles for your size, clear responsibilities, the right mix of in-house, outsourced and fractional, and a plan for the next stage.
Who it is for
- Owners who are still the finance department
- Companies that have outgrown their bookkeeper and are not sure what to hire next
- Businesses deciding between a controller, a CFO and an outsourced firm
What we deliver
- An assessment of your current finance function: who does what, what is missing and what is done by the wrong person
- A structure for now and for the next stage of growth, with roles, responsibilities and reporting lines
- A sourcing plan: in-house, outsourced bookkeeping, fractional CFO and CPA, with the cost of each option
- Role descriptions, interview questions and a technical test for each hire
- An onboarding plan and a close calendar for the new team
- A handover from any fractional seat we hold to the people you hire
How it runs
01Assess
We map every finance task, who does it, how long it takes and whether it is done at the right level.
02Design
We draw the structure for your current size and the next one, and cost each sourcing option.
03Hire
We write the roles, screen and interview with you and test candidates on real work.
04Install
We onboard the hire, set the close calendar and review the first quarter.
Engagement and fees
A Workshop of two to four weeks at $30K to $80K for the assessment, the design and the hiring materials. Interviewing, onboarding and the first-quarter review run under an Advisory Retainer at $8K to $25K per month or as part of a fractional CFO seat. Every engagement is scoped after a call and confirmed in writing. See consultations and fees.
Who you need at each stage
Under roughly $2M, most companies need a good bookkeeper, in-house or outsourced, a CPA for year end and tax, and finance leadership a few days a month, which is what the fractional seat is for. Between roughly $2M and $10M, a controller who owns the close, the reporting and the systems becomes worth the salary, with the fractional CFO above them. Past $10M, or earlier for companies with investors or complex operations, a full-time finance lead starts to make sense.
These are patterns, not rules. What decides the structure is the complexity of the business, how fast it is growing and what the owner wants to stop doing. A company with two entities and inventory needs more finance capacity than a service company of the same revenue.
In-house, outsourced or fractional
Bookkeeping can be outsourced well. The close, the reporting and the forecast need someone who knows the business, which is why a controller is usually the first in-house finance hire. Strategic finance, which is pricing, funding, planning and the conversations with lenders and buyers, is the part most companies cannot justify full time and the part a fractional CFO covers.
The mistake is hiring the wrong level. A bookkeeper asked to build a forecast will struggle. A CFO asked to enter bills will leave. We write each role for what it will actually do, and we tell you honestly when the right answer is a part-time person or an outsourced firm rather than a hire.
Hiring finance people well
Finance hires are hard to judge in an interview because the work is specific and the candidates all speak the same language. We use a short technical test built from your own data: a bank reconciliation with a planted error, a variance to explain, a cash forecast to build from a list of facts. The test tells you more than the interview.
Once hired, the person needs a close calendar, a chart of accounts they understand, systems that work and a clear reporting line. Where we have held the fractional seat, the handover is part of the design. The point of the finance function is that it runs when we are gone.
- A list of every finance and admin task and who does it today
- Your growth plan for the next two to three years
- What you, the owner, want to stop doing first
Questions about this service
Should our first finance hire be a bookkeeper or a controller?
If the books are not current and reconciled, a bookkeeper, in-house or outsourced. If they are, and the problem is that nobody turns them into reports and decisions, a controller. A fractional CFO above either covers the strategic work until the company is large enough to hire it.
How is a controller different from a CFO?
A controller owns the accuracy and timeliness of the numbers: the close, the reporting, the systems and the controls. A CFO owns what the numbers mean and what to do about them: pricing, funding, planning, lender and investor relationships. Companies your size usually need the controller in-house and the CFO fractional.
Can our CPA firm be our finance team?
Your CPA firm is essential for tax and year-end work and some offer bookkeeping and advisory. What they usually cannot provide is someone inside the business every week who owns the forecast and the operating decisions. We work alongside your CPA and define the line between the two so nothing falls through.
Will you help us replace you?
Yes. Every fractional seat we hold comes with a plan for who takes it over and when. We write the role, help you hire, hand over the models and the routines and stay available for the first quarter.
Start with a finance review.
Ninety minutes with Ali on your cash, margin and pricing. You leave with the four numbers to watch and the two or three moves that change them, whether or not we work together.