How much does a fractional CFO cost?
A fractional CFO is normally billed as a monthly retainer, and the number is set by the complexity of your finances, not by your revenue. Entity count, number of sales channels, bookkeeping quality, reporting cadence and whether you are raising money move the price far more than turnover does. Compared with a full-time CFO in Europe, who costs €120K+ per year plus taxes and bonus, a fractional engagement gives you the same seniority for a fraction of that, month to month.
- Billing model
- Monthly retainer, month to month
- Main price driver
- Complexity, not revenue
- Full-time CFO benchmark
- €120K+ salary plus taxes and bonus
- Typical ramp
- First reporting pack inside 30 days
15+ years in finance: 100+ financial models built, €40m+ raised for clients, Forbes contributor and lecturer.
Founders ask for a price list. We do not publish one, and the reason is simple: two businesses with identical revenue can differ by a factor of three in the work required. One has a single legal entity, clean bookkeeping and one sales channel. The other has three entities, two currencies, marketplace payouts, a bookkeeper who is four months behind and an investor asking for a data room.
What actually sets the price
Entities and jurisdictions. Every extra legal entity adds a set of books to reconcile and a consolidation to maintain. Multi-country adds VAT logic and FX.
Sales channels. A single Shopify store is straightforward. Shopify plus Amazon plus wholesale plus a retail door means fees, payouts and returns all land differently and have to be normalised before any number is trustworthy.
Starting condition of the books. If bookkeeping is current and coded consistently, we can build reporting on top of it in weeks. If it is not, there is a clean-up phase first, and that phase is real work.
Cadence and depth. Monthly management accounts and one CFO call is a different scope from weekly cash calls, SKU-level margin reviews and board packs.
Whether something big is happening. A raise, a bank facility, an acquisition or an exit compresses timelines and raises the bar on documentation.
What is included in a normal retainer
- Monthly management accounts: P&L, cash flow and balance sheet you can actually read
- A rolling 13-week cash forecast, updated on a set day of the week
- Unit economics and margin by product, channel or client
- A monthly CFO call where decisions get made, not just numbers presented
- Direct access between calls for the questions that cannot wait
What sits outside it
Bookkeeping and tax filing are separate functions. We work alongside your accountant or bookkeeper. If you do not have one, we tell you what to look for and how the handover should work.
Fractional versus full-time, in money terms
A full-time CFO in the EU costs €120K and up in salary, plus employer taxes, bonus, equity and recruitment fees, and takes three to six months to hire. You also carry the risk of hiring the wrong profile. A fractional CFO starts within days, costs a fraction of that monthly, and you can stop at any time. What you give up is full-time presence, which most companies under roughly €20M revenue do not need.
How we scope it
The diagnostic call is where scope gets decided. We look at your current reporting, your entity structure and what decision you are trying to make, then propose the smallest engagement that answers it. If a one-off project is the honest answer instead of a retainer, we say so.
Related questions
Do you publish fixed prices?
No. Complexity, not revenue, sets the work, so a fixed list would either overcharge simple businesses or underprice complex ones. Scope and price come out of the diagnostic call.
Is there a minimum contract?
No. Engagements are month to month with no lock-in.
Is a fractional CFO cheaper than hiring in-house?
For most companies below roughly €20M revenue, yes. You pay for a fraction of a senior person's time instead of a full salary, taxes, bonus and recruitment fee.
What if my bookkeeping is a mess?
That is common. We scope a clean-up phase first, so the reporting that follows is built on numbers that hold up.
Written from our own CFO engagements: how we scope retainers, what we deliver in the first 30 days, and what founders actually ask on diagnostic calls. Third-party studies are cited only when we can link them.
- How we scope engagements – our published scoping factors
A free 30-minute call with a senior CFO. No sales pitch – just a clear read on where your money is and what to do next.