Virtual CFO
A senior finance mind on retainer, reading numbers our own team closed. Not a report that arrives, a standing conversation about what to do next.
PRICED BY THE HOUR OR FLAT
$50 to $80
An hour, or a flat monthly retainer. Most CFO engagements sit on top of an existing finance department engagement.
Book a free 30-min callYou are probably here because one of these is true.
Which version you need.
What changes here is how much of your attention we are in, and how far ahead we are working. The seniority does not change.
Monthly CFO
- A standing monthly session
- Forecast maintained
- Decisions quantified as they arise
Monthly, on retainer
CFO on retainer
- Everything in monthly CFO
- Budget built and held to account
- Rolling forecast, not an annual one
- Board and investor packs, walked through
- Available between sessions for decisions that will not wait
The usual shape
Raise or transaction support
- Everything above
- Investor-facing model built and defended
- Diligence questions handled
- Comparatives and history made consistent
Scoped around the event
What is in, and what is not.
Included in every CFO engagement
- A standing session on what the numbers say and what to do next
- Budget preparation, and holding the business to it month by month
- Rolling cash flow forecasting rather than an annual guess
- Board-format packs, and help walking a board through them
- Variance analysis with a view attached, not just the variance
- Financial statement review before anything goes to a third party
- Modelling for the decision in front of you: a hire, a price change, a raise
- Chart of accounts design, so the numbers answer the questions you actually ask
Not included
- A decision. We advise, you decide, and we will not pretend that line is blurry
- An officer role. A virtual CFO is not a director or an officer of your company and does not sign your accounts
- A statutory signature of any kind, on accounts, returns or filings
- Tax advice or tax planning. That belongs with your practitioner and we will say so
- Investment, legal or regulatory advice. We will tell you which specialist a question belongs to
Five stages, and it is a relationship rather than a deliverable.
A CFO who has to be handed the numbers spends the first week of every month working out whether to trust them. Ours reads a ledger our own team closed.
What you have at the end.
Named artefacts, not adjectives. Everything below is something you can open, forward or hand to a third party.
WHO DOES THIS WORK
A named senior accountant
ACCA-qualified · Virtual CFO engagement · Reviewed by Quality Assurance
CFO engagements are led by Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), working from books maintained by the same firm. That is the difference from a fractional CFO brought in cold: the numbers being interpreted were closed by the team sitting next to the person interpreting them.
$50 to $80 an hour, or a flat monthly retainer.
This is senior time on a recurring basis, so it is priced as a retainer rather than by the task. Where it sits on top of an existing engagement it is added to the monthly fee; where it is bought on its own it is hourly.
Price your ongoing bookkeeping insteadQuestions we get asked.
A fractional CFO is handed numbers they did not prepare and cannot vouch for, so the first part of every engagement is establishing whether the ledger can be trusted. Ours reads books our own team closed, reviewed at four levels before anyone sees them. That is time you are not paying for twice.
No. We advise, you decide. A virtual CFO is not an officer of your company, does not sign your accounts and does not carry a director’s duties. We will quantify the options and give you a recommendation with the reasoning attached, and the call is yours.
Answering a question about the numbers is reporting. Forming a view on a decision is CFO work. Your ageing worsened by twelve days is reporting; do not make that hire until Q3 is CFO. We hold that line on purpose, because blurring it means you are getting advice nobody has scoped or reviewed.
Yes: investor-facing models, comparatives made consistent, board packs, and handling the questions that come back. We have built financial models for investor pitches where funding was subsequently secured.
No. Tax belongs with a practitioner in your own country who knows the local law. We will tell you when a question is one for them rather than answering it approximately, and we will keep your books ready so their work is quick.
Not in revenue terms. What matters is whether there are real decisions to make and numbers good enough to make them from. If the books are not there yet, we will say so and start with the finance department rather than sell you advice on top of a shaky ledger.
More on getting senior finance without hiring.
Case studies are anonymised and figures are banded. Nothing here identifies a client.