When to hire a fractional CFO (and when not to)

Fractional CFO is the fastest-growing line on our engagement letter, and also the one we decline most often. The title is fashionable; the need is specific. Here is the framework we actually use.

Signs you are ready

You are making decisions a forecast should own: hiring against hoped-for revenue, quoting big contracts without margin models, wondering monthly whether cash covers payroll. Or outsiders now read your numbers — investors, lenders, an acquirer — and the reporting must stand up to people paid to find its weaknesses.

In both cases the work is strategy, not record-keeping: a thirteen-week cash forecast reviewed weekly, a pricing model with real contribution margins, a board pack that answers questions before they are asked.

Signs you should wait

If the books close late or wrong, fix that first — a forecast built on bad actuals is expensive fiction, and we would be charging CFO rates to do bookkeeping triage. And below roughly a million in revenue, most businesses need a great accountant and a quarterly planning conversation, not a standing CFO engagement. When that is the honest answer, it is the one we give.