Fractional CFO
A fractional CFO gives your company the finance leadership of a full-time chief financial officer for a fraction of the time and cost. You get someone who owns the numbers, tells you what they mean, and sits beside you when the bank, an investor or a buyer asks hard questions. We work alongside your CPA, who keeps tax and assurance work, while we run the finance function that steers the business week to week.
What you leave with
You run the company on a forecast you trust, with a finance lead who owns cash, margin and reporting and who answers to you.
Who it is for
- Owners of BC companies between roughly $500K and $30M in revenue who run on bank balance and instinct
- Companies growing faster than their bookkeeping, where nobody owns the forecast
- Businesses preparing for a loan, an investor round or a sale within the next two years
What we deliver
- A monthly close you can read, with a one-page summary of what moved and why
- A rolling forecast of revenue, margin and cash, updated every month
- A 13-week cash flow that tells you what is coming before it arrives
- Pricing, margin and cost decisions worked through with you, with the numbers behind them
- Board, lender and investor reporting prepared and presented
- A finance calendar covering close, payroll, remittances and renewals
- Direct access to Ali by phone, text and email, with replies within one business day
How it runs
01Diagnose
We read your last two years of financials, your bank activity and your current reports, then tell you what the numbers say and where they are wrong.
02Stabilise
We fix the close, the chart of accounts and the cash view so every later decision rests on clean data.
03Steer
We build the forecast, the KPI pack and the pricing model, then run a monthly finance meeting with you.
04Scale
As the company grows we design the finance team around you, hire or train the people and step back as the seat is filled.
Engagement and fees
Ongoing, by video, phone and on site in Metro Vancouver. Priced as a Fractional Executive seat at $25K to $60K per month, or as an Advisory Retainer at $8K to $25K per month where you already have a controller. Outcome-based, never hourly. Every engagement is scoped after a call and confirmed in writing. See consultations and fees.
What a fractional CFO actually does
A bookkeeper records what happened. A CPA reports and files it. A CFO decides what should happen next and makes sure the money is there to do it. In a company your size that means owning the forecast, setting prices with the margin visible, deciding when to hire, when to borrow and when to wait, and translating the whole thing into language a lender or an investor accepts.
Most owners in BC between $500K and $30M have never had this seat filled. The result is a business that is profitable on paper and short of cash in practice, or growing in revenue while margin quietly slides. The fractional model fills the seat for the days a month the company needs, not the five days a week it cannot afford.
How the engagement runs
The first month is diagnosis. We read everything, speak to your bookkeeper and your CPA, and come back with a written view of where cash and margin are leaking. The second month we fix the plumbing, which usually means the chart of accounts, the close process and the way revenue and cost are categorised.
From the third month on, the rhythm is a weekly cash review, a monthly close and finance meeting, and a quarterly reforecast. Ali leads every engagement personally and brings in the finance, data and systems specialists on his team by function when a piece of work needs them.
What it costs and what decides the result
Pricing follows the SAZ engagement bands, which are published and outcome-based. A Fractional Executive seat runs $25K to $60K per month depending on company size and the number of days required. An Advisory Retainer at $8K to $25K per month suits a company that already has a controller and needs direction rather than hands.
Two things decide whether this works. The first is clean books, which we will fix if they are not. The second is the owner's willingness to make decisions from the numbers once they are visible. We bring the numbers and the recommendations. You keep the decisions.
- Prepare your last 24 months of financial statements and bank statements
- Share access to your accounting software and your current reports
- Tell us what decision you are facing in the next 90 days
Industries where we run this most
Questions about this service
Do I still need my CPA if I have a fractional CFO?
Yes. Your CPA handles tax filings, year-end statements and any assurance work. We handle the operating finance function: forecasts, cash, pricing, reporting and systems. We work alongside your CPA and coordinate the year-end with them so nothing is done twice.
How many days a month do you work inside the company?
It depends on the size of the company and what is broken. Most engagements settle at two to six days a month after the first quarter, with a weekly cash check in between. The Fractional Executive band covers the heavier end and the Advisory Retainer covers the lighter end.
Can a fractional CFO work with a company doing under $1M?
Yes, usually through the Advisory Retainer rather than a full fractional seat. At that size the work is cash discipline, pricing and a simple forecast, and the cost of a full seat is hard to justify. A Strategy Session is a sensible first step.
Will you talk to my bank and my investors?
Yes. Preparing and presenting lender and investor reporting is part of the seat. We attend the meetings with you, answer the finance questions and follow up with the documents they ask for.
What happens when the company is ready for a full-time CFO?
We help you hire one. We write the role, interview the candidates and hand over the models, the close process and the reporting pack. The point of the seat is to leave the company with a finance function that does not depend on us.
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.