Fractional CFO Or Full-Time CFO?
Both give you a senior person who owns the numbers. The difference is what you pay for the seat, how fast it starts working, and what happens when that person leaves. Here is how we would decide, including the cases where we would tell you to hire.
Free 20-minute Leak Check; rough numbers are enough and no documents are required. For US-based service businesses doing $2M–$20M in revenue.
Most $2M–$20M service businesses should start fractional.
A fractional CFO is a senior finance leader you share with a small number of other companies, paid a monthly fee instead of a salary. A full-time CFO is an executive on your payroll who works only for you. At this size, the decisions that need a CFO — pricing, hiring, cash, tax, and eventually a sale — come up every month but not every day, so paying for every day buys you capacity you will not use.
That changes when finance becomes daily executive work: a finance team of several people to lead, lenders or investors who expect a CFO in every meeting, or a business that has grown past the range a shared model is built for. At that point, hire — and make sure the person inherits a working system rather than a blank page.
Where the two models actually differ.
Four signs the full-time seat has earned its cost.
We would rather tell you to hire than sell you an engagement you have outgrown. If two or more of these are true, a full-time CFO is probably the right next step.
Fractional first, full-time later, is not a dead end.
The usual mistake is hiring a full-time CFO into books that cannot support one. They spend their first year doing cleanup a bookkeeper should have done, and you pay executive rates for it. A fractional engagement installs the system first — a rebuilt chart of accounts, a reliable close, a forecast, a tax strategy, and targets set against the 60/15/15 framework. When a full-time CFO finally makes sense, they inherit a built system instead of a blank page.
If you are earlier than that and wondering whether you need a CFO at all, start with what revenue a service business should hire a fractional CFO at, or compare the roles in CFO vs. CPA vs. controller vs. bookkeeper.
Not sure which one you need?
Start with a free, 20-minute conversation using rough numbers — no documents required. You’ll leave with a directional 60/15/15 snapshot, likely profit and tax leaks shown in conservative ranges, and a one-page Leak Map. If a full-time hire is the better answer, we will say so.
Book Your Leak CheckFree 20-minute Leak Check for US-based service businesses doing $2M–$20M in revenue. No documents required.
Questions about Fractional CFO vs Full-Time CFO.
Clear answers to the questions owners ask before deciding what to do next.