Most fractional CFOs work from numbers somebody else is struggling to produce. We bring our own, so the advice rests on books you can actually trust.
A fractional CFO runs $6,500 to $15,000 a month on their own, and the accounting is still your problem to solve. The same money here buys the CFO and a senior accountant dedicated to your business, whose work that CFO supervises.
It never made sense to come in as the fractional CFO and then depend on numbers from an accounting team that was already struggling to get it done. You cannot forecast cash, defend a margin, or take a business through diligence on books you do not trust, and no amount of CFO experience fixes a close that is three weeks late.
So the accounting comes with the CFO. A senior accountant, dedicated to your business, whose work I supervise. That is what lets me spend my time on the decisions instead of chasing the numbers, and it means you are not left solving the accounting problem yourself before the CFO work can even start.
Other fractional CFOs hand you a plan and leave that part to you. You are getting the whole finance team for roughly what they charge to be the CFO alone.
A finance function is three jobs: someone doing the work, someone holding it to a standard, and someone deciding what to do about what it says. Most operators fill those one hire at a time, years apart. You can have all three from the start.
A senior staff accountant dedicated to your business, not a pooled team and not a ticket queue. They run the monthly close and the reconciliations, and produce reporting that consolidates across locations while keeping unit-level detail. They are also who you sit down with on your cadence call, weekly, monthly or quarterly.
Your accountant does not work unmanaged. Their work is reviewed by a CFO, the standard they work to is set by one, and anything that looks wrong escalates rather than sitting in your books until year end. That oversight is part of Accounting Services, not an add-on. What it does not include is that CFO working on your business with you, which is the layer above.
Jeff, working with you directly. Three tiers led by how often you meet, from a monthly CFO call up to weekly tactical calls, covering cash flow forecasting, KPIs, margin and menu work, budgets, and the financial story behind a sale or a raise. Take it from the start, or add it when you are ready, without changing firms.
These are typical all in annualized costs for the seats you would otherwise fill, inclusive of benefits and payroll taxes.
Records the activity, pays the bills, reconciles the accounts. Owns the data entry everything else depends on.
Analyzes the accounts and owns the close. Confirms the balance sheet ties and the P&L is reliable.
Holds the function to a standard and owns the statements. The seat most operators skip, and the one whose absence shows up at diligence.
Base, bonus and benefits, for a seat most multi-unit operators cannot justify filling yet.
A representative engagement, priced by the same tool a prospect uses. Bigger groups need more hands on the accounting side, and we scope that on a call.
Priced on what your books actually involve: locations, accounts, payroll headcount, sales tax states, inventory and integrations. Not per store. Up to $97,500 a year it is replacing a bookkeeper and a staff accountant.
Three tiers, from a monthly CFO call up to weekly tactical calls. A 15% bundled rate applies when accounting is taken alongside it.
These are estimates only. A full assessment of your business is necessary to confirm any final fees.
Operators who call us are usually already paying somebody. Almost always for one half of the problem.
One of our current clients runs multiple food and beverage locations, including franchise units, inside a larger multi-entity structure. We found a six-figure reconciliation discrepancy tied to how point-of-sale clearing accounts were coded, and we are now working a landlord renegotiation after their percentage rent structure quietly fell out of step with sales growth.
The tool prices the accounting layer on your actual books rather than on a package, and shows you what the equivalent seats would cost alongside it.
Build an Estimate, Starting at 3 LocationsThis opens the same tool every prospect uses, with three locations already set, so the first number you see reflects a multi-unit footprint. These are estimates only. A full assessment of your business is necessary to confirm any final fees.
Maybe we drop 30 minutes and I walk you through what it would look like for your business specifically.
Start a Conversation Get an Estimate Call: 704-497-3455