Fractional CFO Services

Most growing businesses reach a point where the numbers are being produced but nobody senior is interpreting them. Decisions about pricing, expansion, borrowing and hiring get made on instinct because the person who could model them properly has not been hired yet.

A fractional engagement puts an experienced CFO into your management team for a committed number of days each month. We take responsibility for the financial agenda: what the forecast says, whether the cash position supports the plan, which parts of the business are actually profitable, and what the board needs to see.

The engagement is designed to scale with you. As your own finance capability grows, our involvement changes shape — from leading the function, to overseeing it, to advising the person who now runs it.

When a business is ready for this

The need is usually recognised from the symptoms rather than the job title. The ones we are called about most often:

• Management accounts arrive several weeks after month end, by which time the month cannot be influenced.
• Nobody can say with confidence what the cash position will be in thirteen weeks.
• Pricing has not been revisited since the business was materially smaller.
• A bank or investor has asked for a forecast, and producing one took a fortnight and an external favour.
• Profitability is known at company level but not by product, branch, contract or customer.
• The board receives a profit and loss account and very little else.
• The founder is still, in practice, the finance function.
• A facility, funding round or transaction is coming and the numbers are not ready to be examined.

None of these means a business needs a full-time Chief Financial Officer. Most mean it needs CFO judgement applied regularly and predictably — a different and considerably less expensive proposition.

What the role covers

The engagement is responsibility for the financial agenda, not a set of tasks. In practice that falls into four areas.

Planning and forecasting

Building the budget and the rolling forecast, and then using them: modelling a price change, a new branch, a hire, a facility or an acquisition before the decision is taken rather than explaining the result afterwards. Scenario and sensitivity work so the board can see what happens if the central assumption is wrong.

Reporting and interpretation

Management accounts that arrive early enough to act on, with commentary that says what changed and why. A dashboard of the measures that actually drive your business rather than a standard template. Board and investor reporting that answers the questions before they are asked.

Cash and working capital

A thirteen-week cash forecast maintained as a live document. Debtor, creditor and inventory cycles examined for the cash trapped in them. Covenant headroom monitored where facilities exist, and funding requirements identified early enough to be arranged calmly.

Controls, systems and the finance team

Approval limits and segregation of duties proportionate to the size of the business. Review of the accounting system and chart of accounts so the reporting is possible at all. Supervision, structuring and mentoring of the existing finance staff — one of the most common outcomes of an engagement is that your own team becomes capable of more.

The first ninety days

The shape of the opening period varies with what we find, but the sequence is consistent.

Weeks one and two — diagnostic. We review the last twelve to twenty-four months of accounts, the current reporting pack, the accounting system, the finance team's structure, and any facility or shareholder agreements. We meet the people who produce the numbers and the people who use them. The output is a written assessment of what is working, what is not, and what we propose to address first.

Weeks three to six — reporting on a rhythm. The priority is a monthly pack that arrives on a fixed date and can be trusted. That often means correcting the chart of accounts, fixing the month-end close, and agreeing which measures matter. Until reporting is reliable, everything built on it is guesswork.

Weeks seven to twelve — forecast, and the first real decisions. With clean history we build the forecast and the thirteen-week cash view, and start using them on the questions the business is actually facing. By the end of the first quarter the board should be deciding from the same set of numbers the management team is working to.

What you receive

Deliverables are agreed in the engagement letter. A typical engagement produces:

• Monthly management accounts with written commentary and a variance analysis against budget.
• A rolling thirteen-week cash-flow forecast, updated monthly.
• A KPI dashboard covering the measures specific to your business.
• A monthly action list, with owners and dates, carried forward and reviewed.
• Quarterly: a rolling reforecast, a board pack, and a profitability review by product, branch or customer.
• Annually: the budget, the supporting model, and input to the strategic plan.
• Ad hoc: decision papers and models for the specific questions that arise — a price change, a facility, a lease, a hire, an acquisition.

How the engagement runs

Engagements are structured as a committed number of days each month, agreed in advance and set out in the engagement letter alongside the reporting cadence, the meetings we attend, the deliverables above and the basis of our fees.

The number of days is not fixed in advance of the diagnostic. It depends on the state of the current reporting, the size and capability of your finance team, the complexity of the business and how much falls to us rather than to them. We would rather scope it accurately than quote a figure we later have to revise.

Delivery is on-site, remote or a combination, according to what the work needs. Board and management meetings are ordinarily attended in person where the business is in Nairobi. Reporting and modelling work is usually done remotely.

You deal with the adviser named in the engagement letter. Engagements are reviewed at agreed intervals, and the shape changes as the business does — most commonly by reducing as your own finance capability grows.

What is not included

Being clear about the boundary protects both sides.

• Statutory audit. We do not audit, and we cannot audit a business we provide financial leadership to. Where an audit is required it is carried out by an independent firm.
• Bookkeeping and transaction processing. We supervise and improve the function; we do not replace it.
• Tax compliance and filing. We work with your tax adviser on the financial consequences of decisions. The returns are theirs.
• Regulated services. We do not provide legal, investment-management, trustee or virtual-asset services, and we do not advise on the merits of particular investments.
• Guarantees. We do not guarantee funding, transaction completion or investment returns. We prepare a business to be assessed properly; the decision belongs to the lender, investor or counterparty.

How this compares

To hiring a full-time CFO. A full-time appointment at this level carries salary, bonus, benefits, recruitment cost and notice risk, and most businesses at this stage cannot fill the role's capacity. A fractional engagement gives the same seniority for the portion of it the business actually uses, and can be scaled or ended without a redundancy.

To your accountant or auditor. Compliance work looks backwards and is largely defined by statute. Our work looks forward and is defined by the decisions in front of you. The two are complements, not substitutes, and we work alongside your existing firm rather than displacing it.

To a financial controller or finance manager. A controller runs the function — close, controls, accuracy. A CFO sets the financial agenda, models the decisions and answers to the board for them. Many businesses need both, and one of the more common outcomes of an engagement is a properly supported controller.

To a consulting project. A consulting engagement delivers a report and departs. This is an ongoing management role with a rhythm, accountability for the financial agenda, and presence in the meetings where decisions are actually taken.

How engagements are scoped and priced

Fees are a fixed monthly amount for the agreed days, quoted after the initial conversation and, where the position is unclear, after a short diagnostic. What drives the figure is the state of your current reporting, the complexity of the business, the capability of the existing finance team, and the cadence you need.

Fees are reviewed at agreed intervals rather than varying month to month, so the cost is predictable. We do not charge success fees on funding or transactions within a fractional engagement — the advice should not have a stake in the answer.

Questions we are asked

How quickly does this start working? Reliable reporting is usually in place within the first six to eight weeks. Forecasting and the decision work follow it, because they depend on it.

Do we need to change accountants? No. We work alongside your existing accountant or auditor, and in most engagements that relationship is unchanged.

What if we already have a finance manager? That usually makes the engagement more effective, not less. The work shifts towards oversight, structure and mentoring, and the days required are often fewer.

Is this only for companies of a certain size? No. The determining factor is the weight of the decisions being taken, not turnover. A smaller business facing a transaction may need more CFO input than a larger one in a steady state.

Can it be ended? Yes, on the notice set out in the engagement letter. That is much of the point of the arrangement.

What happens when we are ready for a full-time CFO? We help you specify the role, assess candidates on the technical side, and hand over. Reaching that point is a successful outcome, not a lost client.