Fractional CFO Services for Shopify Brands

Quick answer

A fractional CFO for a Shopify brand turns Shopify, ad, inventory and bank data into three things: true profit per product, a weekly view of cash, and a plan for growth. It is a part-time senior finance leader, usually on a monthly retainer, for brands that have outgrown a bookkeeper but do not need a full-time CFO.

Shopify makes selling easy and finance hard. Sales, payouts, fees, refunds, ad spend and stock sit in different systems, and none of them shows what the business really earns. A fractional CFO connects them and tells you what to do next.

Where Shopify finance breaks

Five problems show up again and again in Shopify brands.

Payouts never match orders. Shopify pays out net of processing fees and after a delay, and refunds reduce later payouts. The bank balance and the sales report rarely agree, so the books drift.
Margin hides behind revenue. Gross margin ignores returns, shipping, payment fees, discounts and ads. Contribution margin per SKU is often far lower, and some products lose money.
Ad spend scales faster than cash. Meta and Google bills arrive weeks before the cash from those orders. Without a maximum CAC, growth can burn the cash you need for inventory.
Inventory ties up cash for months. Production lead times, minimum order quantities and supplier terms decide how much cash you need, not your sales report.
Short-term financing adds pressure. Repayments on products such as Shopify Capital come out of daily sales automatically, so cash gets tighter just when sales slow.

A bookkeeper records these. A fractional CFO models them and decides what to change.

What you get

A good engagement answers one business question per deliverable. This is how JGF's fractional CFO work maps to the Shopify problems above.

Service	Question it answers	What you get
Monthly management pack	What did we really earn last month?	A P&L, balance sheet and cash flow you can read, with a one-page KPI summary
Unit economics	Which products and channels make money?	Contribution margin by SKU and channel, CAC, LTV and payback
13-week cash forecast	Can we afford this purchase order?	A weekly view tied to payouts, supplier payments, VAT and payroll
Pricing, discount and stock strategy	What should we price, discount and reorder?	Margin and assortment analysis, with reorder timing
Marketing channel performance	How hard can we push ads?	A maximum CAC and results by channel (Meta, Google and others)
Budget vs actual	Are we on plan?	A monthly variance review with the three things to act on
Investor and lender reporting	Are we ready to raise or borrow?	A model, KPI reporting and data room support

Every engagement also includes a monthly call with a named senior CFO, and a KPI dashboard built around your business. The forecast, pricing and channel work sit in JGF's Strategic level, and investor work in its Executive level. (JGF pricing, Fractional CFO service)

What is not included unless scoped: bookkeeping cleanup, tax filing, audit sign-off and payroll. Keep a bookkeeper or accountant for those.

Examples from JGF's cases

Remilia Hair. A beauty brand selling on Shopify, Amazon and wholesale had 120–150 day production lead times, high minimum order quantities and expensive short-term loans draining cash. JGF built a 12-month runway tracker and a 5-year model, planned replenishment around the lead times, compared Amazon influencer campaigns with Shopify growth, and advised on restructuring the debt. The result was a brand with a clear path to solvency and a model ready for investors.

Feel My Skin. A skincare retailer with a Shopify store and physical shops could not say what it earned each month. JGF rebuilt 24 months of transactions and found stable monthly net profit of €20–27K and a 15–22% net margin, with 10 product categories producing 80% of revenue. An inventory system connected to Shopify and the shops' POS then kept the numbers current.

N1 Home. A furniture retailer had strong sales but weakening cash. JGF traced it to high returns caused by slow delivery, then built unit economics per product and an investor pitch in 8 weeks.

What it costs and when to hire

JGF engagements typically start at €1,800 per month, run month to month, and carry a 30-day money-back guarantee. Essential Finance covers the dashboard, the monthly close and a monthly CFO report. The Strategic and Executive levels are quoted after a free diagnostic call. That is a fraction of a full-time CFO's six-figure salary. (pricing)

You are ready for a fractional CFO when:

You cannot state last month's net profit with confidence.
Your bank balance and your P&L disagree.
Stock purchases are guesswork.
Ad spend is growing faster than cash.
Financing repayments take a growing share of daily sales.
You expect a loan, a raise or a sale within 12 months.

If two or more apply, the cost of not knowing is usually higher than the retainer.

How to choose

Ask any firm these questions on the first call.

How do you handle Shopify payouts and refunds in the books? The answer shows whether they understand ecommerce accounting.
Do you report contribution margin per SKU after returns, fees and ads? Gross margin alone hides losing products.
Does the cash forecast include lead times, minimum order quantities and supplier terms?
Who joins my monthly call? Ask for a named senior CFO, not a rotating junior.
What is excluded? Bookkeeping, tax filing and payroll are often separate.
How do I leave? Look for month-to-month terms and ownership of your models.