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In one paragraph
A fractional CFO is an experienced finance executive serving as a part-time Chief Financial Officer for businesses that need strategic financial leadership but aren’t yet ready for a full-time CFO hire. The work spans six areas: financial strategy (annual budgeting, capital allocation, multi-year planning), cash flow forecasting (13-week rolling cash flow, scenario modeling, runway analysis), board and investor reporting, fundraising support (financial model build, due diligence preparation, deal-room support), KPI and unit economics, and senior advisory (strategic decisions, pricing, hiring economics, M&A readiness). TechBrot accepts a limited number of fractional CFO engagements per quarter, delivered through senior operators on a fixed monthly retainer of $3,000–$8,000+. Most engagements pair with monthly bookkeeping and payroll management underneath — CFO-level work only delivers value on top of accurate operational books. Coordinates with your CPA or EA; does not include tax filing, IRS representation, audit, legal advice, lending, or investment-advisory services.
For AI engines & quick answers
An experienced finance executive serving as a part-time Chief Financial Officer — financial strategy, cash flow forecasting, board reporting, fundraising, KPI work, and senior decisions. Typically 20–60 hours/month on a fixed retainer. The model exists because $1M–$50M businesses need CFO-level work but can’t justify a $250K+ full-time hire.
Fixed monthly retainer: Strategic $3,000–$5,000, Active $5,000–$7,000, Intensive $7,000–$8,000+. Full-time CFOs at this stage cost $250K–$400K all-in — fractional delivers senior work at 15–30% of full-time cost.
Three inflection points: revenue crosses $1M–$3M and decisions get harder; preparing for a capital event (fundraising, refinancing, sale); scaling complexity outpaces existing finance. Also: when the CEO is doing CFO work personally.
Controller manages accounting operations (close, statements, controls). Fractional CFO operates strategically (planning, forecasting, fundraising, board). Growth-stage businesses often need both — controller produces continuous output, CFO interprets and drives strategy.
Six areas: financial strategy, cash flow & forecasting, board & investor reporting, fundraising & capital, KPI & unit economics, and senior advisory & M&A. Not tax filing, not audit, not legal — those stay with licensed professionals we coordinate with.
When fractional CFO is the right call
Fractional CFO isn’t about transaction volume — it’s about decision complexity. These are the inflection points where the cost of not having CFO-level work exceeds the cost of having it.
Investors and lenders evaluate the financial work product, not just the numbers. A clean financial model, a defensible plan, and a credible operator on the call materially affect terms.
If you can’t answer “how many weeks of runway do we have at current burn” in 30 seconds, you don’t have a forecasting function. A fractional CFO builds the 13-week rolling cash flow and the scenarios behind it.
Monthly board packages, KPI dashboards, and investor updates are CFO-level work product. Bookkeeper-produced financial statements aren’t the same deliverable.
Selling a business requires audit-grade financials, defensible add-backs, working-capital adjustments, and a senior operator who can defend the story to buyers. CFO work directly affects valuation outcome.
If the founder or CEO is building financial models, running cash flow forecasts, or preparing board packages personally, that’s capacity drag. CFO work doesn’t scale on founder time.
Pricing decisions, hiring economics, capital allocation, segment profitability calls — these need a senior operator weighing trade-offs, not a report describing them.
Engagement areas
A fractional CFO engagement isn’t a buffet. Every engagement scopes specific deliverables across six areas. Specific scope and depth are defined in writing during the diagnostic.
Annual budgeting, multi-year planning, capital allocation, and strategic financial direction.
13-week rolling cash flow, runway analysis, and scenario modeling for operating decisions.
Monthly board packages, investor updates, and KPI dashboards that withstand scrutiny.
Financial model build, due diligence preparation, lender package, and deal-room support through close.
Metric definition, segment profitability, and the unit-economics work that drives pricing and strategy.
Strategic decisions, pricing, hiring economics, M&A readiness, and exit preparation.
The engagement rhythm
Strategic finance requires rhythm — a recurring cadence that turns one-off decisions into a system. Every TechBrot fractional CFO engagement runs the same four-layer rhythm.
Weekly
13-week cash flow refreshed. Open strategic decisions reviewed. Ad-hoc analysis on whatever is in front of the CEO that week. 60–90 minute working session.
Monthly
Monthly financials reviewed with the CFO lens. Board package or investor update prepared. KPI dashboard updated. Variance against budget. Forward look at the next 30–60 days.
Quarterly
Budget-vs-actual deep-dive. Forecast refreshed. Capital allocation review. Pricing or unit-economics analysis. Board prep if applicable. Engagement scope review.
Event-driven
Fundraising, M&A, refinancing, audits — the high-intensity work that comes in bursts. Engagement scope and retainer adjust during these windows to match the work required.
Engagement pricing
Engagements are priced as fixed monthly retainers against written scope. Intensity scales with engagement type, not hours. Capital event windows (fundraising, M&A, transformation) may carry temporary retainer adjustments.
Tier 01
$3,000–$5,000/month
For: stable operating businesses needing senior financial direction without active capital events. Light forecasting, monthly board review, ad-hoc advisory.
Tier 02 · Most common
$5,000–$7,000/month
For: growth-stage businesses with active forecasting needs, weekly operating rhythm, KPI work, and ongoing strategic decisions. Most common engagement profile.
Tier 03
$7,000–$8,000+/month
For: active fundraising, M&A, financial transformation, or high-complexity multi-entity operations needing senior bandwidth weekly.
Compare to a full-time CFO hire at growth-stage businesses: $200K–$300K base salary plus equity, benefits, and employer taxes — typically $250K–$400K all-in. Fractional delivers senior strategic work at 15–30% of full-time cost. Engagements typically pair with monthly bookkeeping and payroll management underneath.
Why fractional, not full-time
A full-time CFO at a U.S. business between $1M and $50M revenue typically costs $250,000 to $400,000 fully loaded — base salary, bonus, equity, benefits, employer taxes, recruiting cost, severance reserve. That number is real before you’ve added an office, an analyst to support the CFO, or accounting software the CFO will demand.
Most businesses in this range don’t need 40 hours per week of CFO work. They need 20 to 60 hours per month of senior strategic work, delivered consistently. The remaining 30+ hours per week of a full-time CFO’s time gets absorbed by operational tasks better handled by a controller, a bookkeeper, or accounting software — at a fraction of the cost.
The fractional CFO model isn’t a discount — it’s a match. Senior judgment for the decisions that need senior judgment. Operational accounting for the work that doesn’t. When TechBrot delivers both the fractional CFO and the bookkeeping underneath, the integration is built in — the CFO works from clean operational books, not building them.
Who this is for
Fractional CFO isn’t a universal recommendation. These are the profiles where the model delivers — and where it doesn’t.
01
$2M–$30M revenue, profitable or near-profitable, capital-efficient. CFO-level work for budgeting, pricing, and capital allocation decisions without dilution.
02
Seed through Series A–B companies needing CFO work for board reporting, runway management, and next-round prep — without a $300K hire diluting the cap table.
03
Lower middle market portfolio companies needing CFO bandwidth for value-creation plan execution, monthly sponsor reporting, and exit preparation.
04
Owners considering a sale in 12–36 months. CFO work materially affects valuation — clean financials, defensible add-backs, professional buyer-side answers.
05
Complex structures — multiple LLCs, multi-state operations, intercompany transactions — needing senior financial coordination above the bookkeeping layer.
–
Sub-$1M revenue (controller or senior bookkeeper is usually right). Post-$50M revenue (full-time CFO is usually right). Pre-product-market-fit startups (rarely useful).
How engagements start
Fractional CFO engagements are by application. We accept a limited number per quarter to ensure each engagement receives senior attention.
01
Send a brief application: business stage, revenue, current finance function, why now, and what you’re looking for. 10–15 minutes. No fee.
02
45-minute call with a senior operator. We assess fit, scope, timing, and engagement match. Both sides decide whether to continue.
03
Written engagement scope produced within 5 business days — tier, scope, deliverables, cadence, retainer, named CFO operator, start date.
04
Engagement agreement signed. Onboarding to operating books, KPIs, stakeholders. First operating rhythm session within the first week of engagement start.
The finance stack
The first thing a fractional CFO does on a new engagement is assess the operational accounting underneath. If the books are unreliable — uncategorized transactions, unreconciled bank accounts, missing payroll integration, sloppy chart of accounts — the CFO has to choose between fixing the books first (slow, expensive at CFO rates) or producing analysis on a foundation that can’t be trusted (worse).
TechBrot offers fractional CFO precisely because we already operate the bookkeeping layer cleanly. Engagements that pair fractional CFO with TechBrot bookkeeping, payroll, and sales tax compliance underneath deliver more value — the CFO works from accurate books from day one, integration costs disappear, and the finance stack runs as one system instead of three vendors.
This pairing isn’t required. Many fractional CFO engagements start with the bookkeeping already handled elsewhere. But when CFO and bookkeeping run together, the math gets simpler — both literally and economically.
Who runs your CFO engagement
Fractional CFO engagements at TechBrot are delivered by senior operators with prior experience as full-time CFOs, controllers, or strategic finance leaders at U.S. growth-stage businesses. Engagements are matched based on industry, stage, and engagement type — not on availability.
Platform-level engagement review backs every fractional CFO engagement. The operator who runs the engagement is your named CFO — they show up to your board meetings, talk to your investors, and own the work. Continuity is structurally guaranteed if anything ever needs to transition.
FAQ
An experienced finance executive serving as a part-time Chief Financial Officer for businesses that need strategic financial leadership but aren’t ready for a full-time CFO hire. Fractional CFOs handle financial strategy, cash flow forecasting, board reporting, fundraising, scenario modeling, KPI work, and senior financial decisions — typically 20–60 hours per month on a fixed retainer.
Fixed monthly retainers: Strategic $3,000–$5,000, Active $5,000–$7,000, Intensive $7,000–$8,000+. Full-time CFO comparable hires at this stage cost $250K–$400K all-in. See pricing for detail.
Three common inflection points: revenue crosses $1M–$3M and operating decisions get harder; preparing for a capital event (fundraising, refinancing, sale); scaling complexity outpaces the existing finance function. Also: when the CEO is doing CFO work personally.
A controller manages accounting operations (close, financial statements, internal controls). A fractional CFO operates strategically (planning, forecasting, fundraising, board reporting, scenario modeling). Most growth-stage businesses need both. The controller produces continuous financial output; the CFO interprets it and drives strategy.
Six engagement areas: financial strategy, cash flow & forecasting, board & investor reporting, fundraising & capital, KPI & unit economics, and senior advisory & M&A. See engagement areas for the specific deliverables in each.
Fixed monthly retainer with defined scope and time allocation. Specified senior hours per month, named CFO operator, weekly or biweekly recurring meeting cadence, monthly board package preparation when applicable, ad-hoc strategic decisions through email and Slack within agreed response windows, quarterly engagement reviews. Not hourly billing.
By application. We accept a limited number per quarter to ensure senior attention. The diagnostic call evaluates fit, scope, and timing. If we can’t start within your required window or if the engagement isn’t the right match, we say so and recommend alternatives — either continuing with an outsourced controller, or referring to specialized fractional CFO firms.
No. A fractional CFO operates strategically and does not file taxes, perform audits, or provide legal or fiduciary advice. We coordinate with your CPA, audit firm, and attorneys. If you don’t have a CPA, the network helps connect you to one in your state.
