Fractional CFO Services

Hiring, training and retaining skilled finance staff is expensive, especially when needs fluctuate during the year. An outsourced model lets you bring in expert support when you need it most, without committing to a full-time salary, benefits or recruiting costs. You can ramp up during busy periods and scale back when things slow down, avoiding seasonal hiring or layoffs. Beyond the cost savings, a fractional CFO helps find ways to improve cash flow, boost efficiency and minimize tax liabilities, and connects the business with vetted bankers, venture capitalists, auditors and lawyers.

Many organizations bring in an outsourced CFO when an internal finance professional retires or resigns, when the company is growing rapidly, when it is entering new markets or raising capital, or when a full-time financial executive simply isn’t necessary. The need often surfaces through a specific pain point: a cash flow problem the owner can’t quite pin down, a company that has outgrown old financial processes, or retirement of a long-time CFO that reveals the need for new financial practices. In each case, an outsourced CFO lets management address immediate needs while keeping the flexibility to scale support as new opportunities arise.

An Adams Brown fractional CFO brings years of accounting, finance and business management experience to your leadership team. They can help with some or all of six strategic areas depending on what your business needs. For business insights, the CFO develops key performance indicators and dashboards, builds financial and operational improvement plans, and reviews your contracts and insurance coverage. In financial modeling and strategy, the CFO handles budgeting and forecasting, prepares enhanced reporting packages, runs scenario analyses, develops pro formas to support capital-raising efforts, projects returns on investment and performs ratio analysis

On the cash side, the fractional CFO models, manages and projects cash flow, monitors debt compliance, calculates working capital and handles regulatory filings. The CFO can also lead technology and process improvement by helping you select and implement accounting software and by designing the strategy behind your financial and accounting systems. Because a CFO works closely with people inside and outside the company, the role includes preparing for audits, serving as the liaison with your audit firm and managing relationships with stakeholders and internal team members. Finally, for owners looking ahead to a transaction or transition, the CFO supports strategic and exit planning, including mergers and acquisitions, buy-side and sell-side due diligence, and the design and execution of an exit plan.

Adams Brown provides these services across a range of industries, including agriculture, construction, dental and healthcare practices, local government, manufacturing, oil and gas, restaurants and not-for-profits. Whatever your situation, a fractional CFO integrates quickly with your team, so you see value from the start.

When cash flow is weak, the first priority is finding where cash is leaking and putting a process in place to fix it. An outsourced CFO might re-evaluate pricing and product mix, analyze gross profit by product so the sales team can emphasize higher-margin offerings, adjust owner payouts that are draining the business, reduce reliance on debt to fund operations, and use short- and long-term forecasts to plan for future cash needs. In one Adams Brown example, a service company that was maxing out credit cards to stay afloat adopted a weekly cash flow process and soon built a two-month cash reserve. On the cost side, the CFO looks past small savings like office supplies and focuses on the biggest drivers, cost of goods sold and labor, using break-even analysis to show where cost control will have the greatest impact.