E-BOOK
When to Hire a Fractional CFO
Eight chapters on the triggers, what the engagement looks like, what it costs and what it does not cover. The role is not a bookkeeper with a better title and not a consultant with a slide deck: the deliverable is a finance machine the company owns, and the book is written so you can hold any hire to that, including ours.
- Eight chapters, from the triggers to going full time
- Honest costs: day rates, days per month, and the full-time comparison
- The interview questions that separate builders from presenters
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Who this e-book is for
Founders and MDs who suspect they have outgrown their current finance setup, are weighing a fractional CFO against a full-time hire, or are about to interview candidates and want the right questions.
You recognise the symptoms but not the diagnosis
Companies rarely need a CFO by size; they need one by symptom. Nobody can say next Friday’s cash position. Two versions of revenue appear in one week. The month closes in three weeks, so every decision runs on cold numbers. A hire or a big client decision is being guessed rather than priced. Two or more of those, and the question is only who does the work and for how many days a month.
You are comparing the cost against a full-time FD
The book prices it plainly: typically £800 to £1,500 a day for someone genuinely senior, at two to six days a month, so roughly £2,000 to £8,000 a month, against £120,000 to £200,000 plus employer costs for a full-timer. Then it prices the return the same way the hub prices everything: a CFO who releases £117,000 of working capital and prevents one covenant surprise has paid for years of themselves.
You are about to interview candidates
Chapter seven is the interview: show me a 13 week cash flow you built and ran, and let me see the actuals row, because a forecast without actuals against it was never used. Walk me through a close you shortened, day by day. Show me a board pack you wrote, where six pages is a good sign and forty slides is a warning. And the question that settles references: what stopped working when they left? The right answer is nothing.
FACTS
The day ten test
Whatever else is promised, a fractional CFO who has not produced a live 13 week cash flow by day ten is a bookkeeper with a better title. Cash visibility is the first thing the job exists to know, and the First 90 Days Checklist on this hub turns the whole build into a scorecard you can mark as it happens.
2 to 6
Days a month the engagement usually takes
Day 10
The deadline for a live 13 week cash flow
FACTS
What it does not cover
The fastest route to a disappointing engagement is expecting one person to be four. Bookkeeping and payroll stay with your bookkeeper; tax compliance and planning sit with your accountants; the auditor is independent by law; and a CFO on three days a month cannot also be the credit controller. The book states the split so you can agree it on day one, in writing.