How to hire a fractional CFO

Most founders approach this like a recruitment process, which is why it takes far longer than it needs to. A fractional engagement is not a hire. You are buying a scoped outcome from a senior operator, and you can stop it at the end of any month.

Step 1: name the decision, not the role

Write down the decision you cannot make with today's numbers. "Can we afford two more hires", "which channel actually makes money", "will we run out of cash in Q1", "are we ready to raise". That sentence is your brief. It also tells you whether you need reporting and controls first or commercial and funding work first.

Step 2: the five questions worth asking

1. What would you do in the first 30 days, given our situation? A specific answer means they have done this before. A generic one means you are the first.
2. Who does the work? The senior person on the call, or an analyst you never meet? Both models exist; you should know which you are buying.
3. What is outside scope? Bookkeeping, tax filing and payroll usually are. Clarity here prevents the most common disappointment.
4. Show me a real management pack. Anonymised is fine. If they cannot show you the artefact, you are buying advice, not deliverables.
5. What is the exit? Month-to-month, no notice games, and a clean handover if you later hire in-house.

Step 3: red flags

• A fixed price quoted before anyone has looked at your books
• A twelve-month contract required up front
• Guaranteed outcomes: growth, valuation, funding
• Reluctance to talk to your existing accountant
• One person claiming to own compliance, bookkeeping and strategy at once

Step 4: how pricing works

Expect a monthly retainer, priced by complexity rather than revenue: number of entities, sales channels, quality of the bookkeeping, reporting cadence and whether you are raising. A full-time CFO in Europe costs €120K+ per year plus taxes and bonus, so a fractional retainer buys the same seniority for the days you actually need it. See the detail in how much a fractional CFO costs or run the numbers in the CFO cost calculator.

Step 5: what the first 30 days should produce

A reporting pack you can read without a translator: P&L, cash flow and balance sheet, a rolling 13-week cash forecast, a first cut of contribution margin, and a written list of what is broken and in what order it gets fixed. If month one is all discovery and no artefact, ask why.

How it works with us

The 30-minute diagnostic call is the whole selection process. We look at your reporting, your entity structure and the 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 that.