Many business owners hear the term fractional CFO but aren’t exactly sure what that means — or how it’s different from accounting or bookkeeping. A fractional CFO provides senior-level financial leadership on a part-time or flexible basis. Instead of focusing on recording transactions or filing tax returns, a CFO focuses on decision support: helping owners understand what the numbers mean and what to do next. What a Fractional CFO Is (and Isn’t) A fractional CFO...Read More

Most business owners have a revenue goal. It might be $1 million a month, $10 million a year, or simply 20% more than last year. What many businesses don’t have is a clear understanding of how much revenue they actually need to cover their costs and begin generating an acceptable profit. Those are two very different targets. A company can hit a record level of sales and still struggle to make money if margins have...Read More

One of the most frustrating situations for a business owner is looking at a profitable income statement and then looking at a bank account that seems to be telling a completely different story. Revenue is growing. The company is profitable. Nothing unusual jumps out in expenses. Yet cash isn’t accumulating the way you expected—or worse, the bank balance is declining. So where did the money go? In many growing businesses, the answer is working capital....Read More

A business can be growing and still becoming less profitable. Revenue may be increasing, the sales team may be producing record results, and the company may appear healthy from the outside. But if gross profit margin falls from 45% to 42%, that three-point decline can erase a significant portion of the benefit from all that additional revenue. The frustrating part is that declining gross margin rarely comes from one obvious problem. Pricing may not have...Read More

Most business owners know whether their company made a profit last month or last year. They can look at the bottom line of the income statement and see whether net income is positive. But that doesn’t necessarily answer a more important question: Is the business actually profitable? A company can report a profit while certain products, customers or locations are losing money. It can show positive net income while generating very little cash. The owner...Read More

Cash sitting in a business bank account can create two very different reactions. If the balance is too low, business owners worry about making payroll, paying vendors, or covering an unexpected slowdown. If the balance gets too high, they start wondering whether the money should be distributed, invested back into the business, used to pay down debt, or put somewhere else. So how much cash should a business actually keep in the bank? You will...Read More

One of the most common questions business owners ask when considering financial leadership is: How big does my company need to be before hiring a fractional CFO? It is tempting to answer that question with a specific revenue number. But revenue alone rarely determines whether a business needs CFO-level financial leadership. A $5 million company with predictable revenue, strong margins, simple operations, and stable cash flow may have relatively straightforward financial needs. Another $5 million...Read More

Hiring a fractional CFO sounds straightforward. You get CFO-level expertise without hiring a full-time CFO. But that explanation leaves an important question unanswered: What does the CFO actually do each month? For a growing company, fractional CFO services should be much more than reviewing financial statements or attending a monthly meeting. The CFO should create a financial management process that helps leadership understand what happened, anticipate what is coming, and make better decisions about what...Read More

Many small business owners assume a CFO is something they will need someday—after the company becomes much larger. That assumption makes sense when the only option is hiring a full-time CFO. But the fractional CFO model has changed that calculation. A fractional CFO gives a small business access to experienced financial leadership without requiring the salary, benefits, and long-term commitment of adding another full-time executive. The more important question, therefore, isn’t whether your business is...Read More

13-Week Cash Flow Forecast: How to See a Cash Crunch Before It Happens Most businesses don’t run out of cash because the owner wasn’t paying attention. They run into trouble because the financial information they were watching was looking backward. A profit and loss statement can tell you whether your business made money last month. A balance sheet can tell you how much cash you have today. Neither tells you what your bank balance may...Read More

Cash Flow Forecasting for Growing Businesses: How to See a Cash Shortage Before It Happens Growth can create one of the most dangerous situations in business: increasing sales while cash becomes increasingly difficult to manage. Revenue may be climbing. The income statement may show a profit. New customers may be coming in. Yet the owner still finds themselves wondering: Why does it always feel like we are short on cash? The answer is often not...Read More