What a Fractional CFO Actually Does (and When You Need One)
“Fractional CFO” is one of those terms that gets used more often than it gets explained. Owners hear it and picture either a luxury they can’t justify or a consultant with a slide deck. The reality is more practical than both, and for companies in the 10-to-25 person range, often more affordable than the problem it solves.
The job, plainly. A fractional CFO gives your business senior financial leadership for a fraction of a full-time schedule, and a fraction of a full-time cost. The work is the same work a corporate CFO does; only the hours are smaller: owning the cash flow forecast, pressure-testing pricing and margins, preparing the business for financing, and turning the monthly numbers into decisions.
A month in the life. In a typical month with a client this size, that looks like: a monthly close review. Not just “are the books right” but “what changed and why”; an updated 13-week cash forecast with the tight weeks flagged; one standing decision worked to conclusion; a price change, a hire’s timing, an equipment purchase; and being the finance voice in conversations with the banker, the insurance broker, or the landlord. It’s a rhythm, not a rescue.
What it isn’t. It isn’t a bookkeeper (that’s the record-keeping layer. Necessary, and different). It isn’t an auditor or a tax preparer. And it isn’t a full-time salary with benefits: that’s precisely the point. You’re buying the decisions, not the desk.
The signals it’s time. You’re asking growth questions your books can’t answer. Financing is on the horizon and your financials aren’t lender-ready. Cash surprises keep happening even though revenue is fine. Pricing hasn’t been revisited since the founding. You make payroll but couldn’t say what next quarter looks like. Any two of those together is usually the tell.
And when it’s not time. If the books themselves are behind or unreconciled, start there. A forecast built on unreliable records is fiction with a spreadsheet. (That sequencing; foundation first, direction second, is the same one we wrote about in the bookkeeper-vs-advisor piece.)
At Kyma Advisors, fractional executive support, CFO, COO, or product leadership, is one of several ways we work with growing businesses, alongside accounting and bookkeeping. If the signals above sound like your year, it’s a conversation worth having before budget season.