HOW WE WORKYOUR FRACTIONAL CFO, FROM DAY ONE TO DAY NINETY

You should know what the first ninety days look like before you agree to any of them.

This is the whole arrangement, in the order it happens: the first conversation, the two-week diagnostic, the written assessment you keep, the ninety days that follow it, and the rhythm the engagement settles into after that. One named fractional CFO runs all of it, with a bench of more than two hundred specialists — modeling, debt, systems, tax, transactions and eight more — brought in whenever the month needs them, at no change to the fee.
THE FIRST CONVERSATIONBefore anything is signedOne conversation about what the business does and what is actually bothering you.WEEKS 1–2The diagnosticTwo weeks inside the accounts, the close, the controls, the systems and the cash.WEEK 3The written assessmentWhat is sound, what is fragile, and the two or three things worth moving on first.WEEKS 4–12The first ninety daysThe close, the pack and the cash view onto a rhythm, then the priorities.EVERY MONTH AFTERThe running rhythmA close by the seventh working day, a pack by the eighth, and a published standard for everything in between.
REMOTE-FIRST · UNITED STATES AND CANADAON SITE WHEN THE WORK CALLS FOR IT
Before Anything Is Signed
01 / 06
The first conversation is about your business, and it is the same conversation whether or not you go further.
One hour on your business, and nothing else on the agenda. We ask what the business does, how the cash moves through it, what the last twelve months looked like and what is actually keeping you up. Roughly an hour. You can have it without committing to anything, and most people do.
WHAT WE ASK

How the money comes in and goes out, what your close looks like today, who does the finance work now, which outside relationships matter — your lender, your accountant, your board — and what would have to be different in a year for you to call this a good decision.

WHAT YOU GET FROM IT

A written note of what we heard and what we would look at first, sent within two working days. If we think your situation is better served another way, that note says so and names what we would do instead.

WHO IS IN IT

The CFO who would actually run your finance function, not a salesperson who hands you over afterwards. You meet them in the first hour, and if the fit is right that is the same person for the term.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

If both sides want to continue, we agree the diagnostic. That is the only decision on the table at this point, and it is a two-week one.

Weeks One To Three
02 / 06
Two weeks looking at everything, and one document at the end of it that is yours whatever happens next.
We do the hardest looking first, so the answers are right before anything is built on them. We would rather spend two weeks finding out what is actually true than six months discovering it a surprise at a time. Your lead runs it, and pulls in the firm’s specialists for the parts that need them — systems, tax, debt — so the assessment is written with all of it in view.
THE ACCOUNTS
Whether the numbers you make decisions on can carry the weight you put on them.
THE CLOSE
How long it takes, what holds it up, and what happens the week that one person is away.
THE CASH
Where it is, where it is trapped, and how far ahead you can currently see.
THE CONTROLS
Where money actually moves, who approves what, and where a single point of failure sits.
THE SYSTEMS
How much of your month is people re-keying numbers a system should already produce.
THE PEOPLE
Who does the finance work now, what they are good at, and what they have been asked to do without support.
THE OUTSIDE
Your lender, your accountant, your auditor, your board — what they are asking for and what they are getting.
THE PLAN
What the business is trying to do next, and whether the finance function can carry it.
What the week-three document contains
You keep it, and you can act on it with your own team, your accountant, or anyone else you choose.
01
What is sound
The parts of the finance function that are working, so you know what to leave alone.
02
What is fragile
Where a single absence, a single spreadsheet or a single relationship is carrying more than it should.
03
What it is costing
Named, and quantified in the terms of your own business — days of cash, points of margin, weeks of delay.
04
What we would do first
Two or three priorities, in order, with what each one would change and by when.
05
What we would leave
The things that are worth doing eventually and are not worth doing now, so the list stays honest.
The First Ninety Days
03 / 06
The order is deliberate. The rhythm comes first, then the priorities.
Nothing ambitious gets attempted while the close is still unreliable, because a priority worked on top of a broken close produces an answer nobody can trust. So the first six weeks buy you a close on a fixed date, a pack that explains itself and a cash view that reaches far enough ahead. By week six the close lands on a fixed day, the pack explains itself, and you can see twelve weeks of cash. That is the platform everything else gets built on.
WEEK010203040506070809101112
Weeks 1–2  ·  The diagnostic
Week 3  ·  The written assessment
By week 6  ·  The close lands on a fixed day
By week 8  ·  The pack explains itself
By week 7  ·  Twelve weeks of cash, visible
By week 10  ·  Controls around your payments
Weeks 6–12  ·  Your two or three priorities
Throughout  ·  Lender, board and advisers, one hand
Week 12  ·  The review, in writing
Put onto a rhythmThe priorities agreed at week threeRunning throughoutWritten and handed over
Your lead runs all of it. Where a line needs a specialist — the systems work, the lender conversation, a tax position — they bring in the firm rather than handing you to it.
The Running Month
04 / 06
Once it is running, the month has a shape, and every date in it is a date you can hold us to.
You always know when the numbers land, so you stop chasing them. Every date below is a working day, agreed before the engagement starts, and they hold in a good month and a difficult one. Between those dates you are not waiting for a monthly meeting to get an answer — the response standard on this page runs every day of the month.
DAYS 1–7
The close runs and finishes
Your books are closed to the same standard, on a calendar agreed in advance, with the reconciliations and the judgement calls documented rather than remembered. Complete by the seventh working day.
DAY 8
The pack lands
The month’s results with a written explanation of why each number moved — against last month, against plan, and against what it means for the next ninety days. Written in plain English, before you ask.
EVERY TWO WEEKS
The CFO session
Your CFO, on the two or three decisions that actually need making, with a recommendation on each and the reasoning behind it. Twice a month as standard, and on demand whenever something cannot wait for the next one.
EVERY WEEK
The cash view moves forward
The rolling forecast is rebuilt with the week’s actuals in it, so the number you are looking at is never last month’s number wearing this month’s date.
SAME DAY
Anything that blocks you
A close blocker, a lender deadline, an audit request. Your pod is on it the same business day it lands, and inside four hours on the premium standard.
WITHIN THE HOUR
Anything that stops the business
A payroll that will not run, a payment that failed, a bank or security incident. Thirty minutes, day or night, on the premium standard. This is the moment a finance function is actually judged.
THROUGHOUT
The outside conversations
Your bank, your lender, your auditor, your accountant, a buyer. Your CFO is in those conversations beside you as they happen, rather than briefed on them afterwards.
EVERY QUARTER
The board pack, and the coverage drill
The board and lender pack, built once to a standard both audiences accept. And your named backup runs your file for a cycle, so cover is something we have already done rather than something we promise.
The Service Standard
05 / 06
Every commitment on this page is a number, and every number is in the agreement you sign.
Most finance relationships are sold on adjectives — responsive, proactive, hands-on. Ours is sold on a schedule with dates in it. Two standards are published below. You choose which one your business runs on at the start, and it is written into Schedule 1 of the agreement, with a service credit attached if we miss the close date. Ask any other firm for the same page.
THE COMMITMENTSTANDARDPREMIUM
GETTING HOLD OF US
Anything you send is acknowledged4 business hours2 business hours
Payroll, payment, bank or security incident1 hour, 7am–8pm ET30 minutes, 24/7 on call
Close blocker, lender or investor deadline, audit requestSame business day4 hours
A substantive finance question1 business day4 business hours
Anything general or procedural2 business days1 business day
THE NUMBERS
Month-end close completeBusiness day 10Business day 7
Reporting pack in your handsBusiness day 12Business day 8
Bank reconciliations3 business days2 business days
Payables entered2 business days1 business day
CFO working sessionMonthlyEvery two weeks, plus on demand
CONTINUITY
Your named backup picks up your file4 business hours2 business hours
Coverage drilled on live filesTwice a yearEvery quarter
Service credit if the close date is missed10% of the month15% of the month
A calendar has two sides. Bank feeds connected, receipts in by the third working day and payroll data by the second are what let the seventh-day close hold — so those dates are agreed in the same document, and both sides can see them.
The Working Arrangement
06 / 06
Remote-first, across the United States and Canada, and on site when the work calls for it.
We hire for the sector, not the commute. Your lead has run finance in a business like yours before, which is only possible because we are not limited to whoever lives nearby. A distributor in Alberta and a contractor in Georgia both get a lead who has run finance in that business before, which would be impossible if the search were limited to a commute.
01
Where the work happens
Day to day, remotely — in your systems, on your calendar, at your close. Travel is booked around the moments where being in the room changes the outcome: the diagnostic, board meetings, a lender or investor negotiation, a transaction, and the first month of anything difficult.
02
How you reach your lead
Directly. Your CFO, your controller and a named backup who already knows your file — no ticket, no account manager, and no charge for the correspondence. Anything you send is acknowledged inside two business hours, and anything that stops the business is answered in thirty minutes, day or night.
03
What we work in
Your systems. We take the finance function as we find it and improve it in place. Where a change of system is genuinely worth it, that becomes one of the priorities with a case attached, rather than a condition of working together.
04
What your team keeps
Their roles. Your bookkeeper keeps the books and we set the standard they are kept to. Your accountant keeps preparing and filing and we bring them the position early. We arrive above the people already doing the work, and the first two weeks is spent agreeing who owns what, in writing.
05
What happens in a difficult month
The rhythm holds and the intensity changes. Through a raise, a covenant test, a cash squeeze or a transaction your lead is with you daily until it settles. In a bad month you get more of the firm, not a bigger bill.
06
How the scope keeps up
Reviewed at ninety days against what was written at week three, and then every quarter. As the business changes, so do your lead’s priorities. The work changes as the business changes. The fee does not.
ONE NAMED CFO
For the term of the engagement, from the first conversation onwards, as a written term
ONE NAMED BACKUP
A second person who already knows your file, drilled on it every quarter
ONE FIXED FEE
Monthly, with the firm’s specialists included as the work requires
ONE PUBLISHED STANDARD
Every date and every response time agreed before the engagement starts
What Happens Next

You have seen the whole calendar. The only decision in front of you is the first one.

Everything on this page follows from a conversation about your business, and that conversation commits you to nothing. If it goes further, the next decision is the two-week diagnostic, and the document it produces is yours whichever way you go after reading it.
BOOK A CONVERSATIONSEE THE FULL SCOPE
ONE HOUR · NO CHARGE · A WRITTEN NOTE BACK WITHIN TWO WORKING DAYS
THE HOURWhat the business does, how the cash moves through it, and what would have to be different in a year.
THE NOTEWhat we heard and what we would look at first, in writing, within two working days.
THE LEADYou meet the person who would hold the seat in that first hour, not after signing.
DIAGNOSTICTwo weeks, then a written assessment at week three that you keep either way.