FRACTIONAL CFO SERVICES
Where your numbers become a growth plan.
Prudent’s fractional CFO team turns reliable books into a financial strategy you can act on: cash flow forecasts, KPI dashboards, profitability analysis, and banker-ready reporting. Two engagement models. Fractional CFO runs alongside your monthly close as an ongoing strategic partner. Project CFO handles defined one-time engagements for capital raises, M&A diligence, and major decisions. Both services are built on the bookkeeping foundation.
STRATEGIC AREAS COVERED:
8+
Cash flow, KPIs, profitability, budgeting, pricing, capital planning, M&A prep, and board reporting.
IS THIS YOU?
If any of these sound familiar, you’re in the right place.
We see three kinds of CFO situations most often. Find the one that sounds like yours.
FRACTIONAL CFO & PROJECT CFO
Two ways to engage a CFO. Most clients use both at different moments.
Fractional CFO is the ongoing engagement: a monthly heartbeat of forecasts, dashboards, and strategy reviews. Project CFO is the one-time engagement for major decisions: a capital raise, an acquisition, a facility expansion, a banker negotiation. The same team handles both.
Fractional CFO
Ongoing strategic finance. Monthly heartbeat.
A dedicated fractional CFO runs alongside your monthly close. Cash flow forecasts updated every month. KPI dashboards built around how your business actually runs. Monthly strategy reviews where decisions get talked through before they happen. Profitability analysis by product, service, location, or customer. Your CFO is reading the exact same books your bookkeeping team closes.
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Cash flow forecasting and scenario planning (13-week and 12-month views)
- Monthly KPI dashboards and management reporting
- Profitability analysis by product, service, location, or customer
- Budgeting and financial modeling for growth, hiring, and investment
- Monthly strategy review with your dedicated CFO
Project CFO
Strategic finance for one-time decisions and major events.
Sometimes you need a CFO for a defined project, not an ongoing engagement. Capital raise preparation. M&A diligence (buy-side or sell-side). A bank covenant negotiation. Lease-versus-buy modeling on a new facility. Project CFO engagements are scoped, priced, and delivered within a defined timeframe. Most projects wrap inside 6 to 12 weeks.
WHAT’S INCLUDED:
- Capital raise preparation and investor-ready financial reporting
- M&A diligence support (buy-side or sell-side)
- Banker and lender negotiations, covenant compliance
- Scenario modeling for major decisions (facility expansion, acquisition, restructuring)
- Strategic financial planning for milestone events
WHAT YOU’LL SEE
Real reporting. Built around how you actually decide.
The work product is what makes a fractional CFO useful or not. Prudent’s deliverables are built around the decisions you are actually making, not a generic template. Below: the standard outputs of the ongoing engagement, plus the project-specific deliverables for one-time work.
Recurring deliverables
WHAT YOU SEE EVERY MONTH
- Cash flow forecast (13-week and 12-month) updated every month
- KPI dashboard customized to your business (revenue, gross margin, labor cost, retention, whatever drives your model)
- Profitability analysis by product, service, location, or customer
- Budget vs. actual reporting with variance commentary
- Monthly strategy memo flagging decisions worth reviewing before they happen
- Monthly CFO deliverables, cash flow forecast services, KPI dashboard small business, budget vs actual reporting
Project deliverables
BUILT FOR SPECIFIC EVENTS
- Investor-ready financial package (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, KPIs, projections) for capital raises
- M&A diligence package: financial review, quality of earnings, normalization adjustments
- Banker presentation materials and covenant compliance reporting
- Scenario model for major decisions (facility, acquisition, restructuring) with sensitivity analysis
- Investor-ready financial package, M&A diligence package, banker presentation services, scenario modeling deliverables
BETTER TOGETHER
What CFO work makes possible when it’s reading your real numbers.
Most fractional CFOs spend the first month trying to figure out whether the books they were handed are accurate. Prudent’s CFO team does not, because the books were closed by Prudent’s bookkeeping team. The strategy work starts on day one because the foundation is already there.
CFO + Bookkeeping
Once your books are reliable and Managed Accounting is established, fractional CFO is the natural next step up the model. Forecasts, dashboards, and strategy memos are built on the numbers your bookkeeping team already closed. No reconciliation hunt before the work can start.
CFO + Tax Advisory
Strategic decisions (a new property, an equipment purchase, a major hire, a facility expansion) get reviewed for tax impact in advance, not in retrospect. Your CFO and your tax advisor read the same numbers and meet together with you when the decision is on the table.
CFO + Payroll
Labor is usually the largest line item on a small-business P&L. Your fractional CFO is reading the same payroll data your books reflect, so hiring forecasts, headcount planning, and labor cost analysis run from one source.
WHO WE SERVE
Industry-specific KPIs. Industry-specific decisions.
Prime cost for restaurants. Job profitability for manufacturers. Property-level NOI and IRR for real estate. Program-cost ratios for nonprofits. Inventory turn and margin by channel for retail. Each industry has KPIs most generalist CFOs do not surface, and decisions most generalist CFOs do not know to flag. We do.
Health & Human Services
Care for your patients. We’ll watch the books.
Professional Services
Time, billing, and profitability, finally aligned.
“We went from dreading tax season to barely thinking about it. Prudent doesn’t just close our books, they tell us what to do next.”
John T
Restaurants & Hospitality
Tip credits, COGS, and weekly P&Ls dialed in.
Retail
Inventory, sales tax, and seasonality, handled.
WHY PRUDENT
What you get that you can’t get from a generalist fractional CFO.
Built on books your team already maintains
Most fractional CFOs spend their first month assessing whether the books they were handed are usable. Prudent’s CFO team starts on day one because the books were closed by Prudent’s bookkeeping team.
Two engagement models. One team.
Most fractional CFO firms only do ongoing engagements. Most consultancies only do project work. Prudent does both, with the same team, so the relationship persists across project work and the project work informs the ongoing engagement.
Industry depth
Prime cost for restaurants. Property-level NOI for real estate. Job profitability for manufacturers. Restricted-fund ratios for nonprofits. Generalist CFOs surface the standard P&L. Prudent’s CFOs surface the KPIs your industry actually runs on.
In practice since 2007
We have run capital raises, sell-side diligence, buy-side reviews, lender negotiations, and facility-expansion decisions for hundreds of small and mid-sized businesses. There is not a CFO engagement type we have not delivered before.
What's the difference between Fractional CFO and Project CFO?
Fractional CFO is an ongoing monthly engagement: forecasts, dashboards, monthly strategy reviews, profitability analysis. Project CFO is a one-time engagement for a specific event: a capital raise, an M&A diligence process, a banker negotiation, a major facility decision. Most clients use both at different moments in their growth.
When does a business actually need a fractional CFO?
Most commonly between $1M and $10M+ in revenue, when strategic decisions are happening faster than gut can keep up with and a full-time CFO ($150K to $300K+ all-in) is still overhead the business cannot justify. A fractional CFO running 10 to 25 hours a month gives you the finance leader without the salary.
Do I have to be on your Managed Accounting tier first?
It helps but is not required. The work is significantly faster and tighter when Prudent’s bookkeeping team is already closing your books on Managed Accounting, because the CFO can start strategic work on day one instead of spending a month figuring out whether the books are reliable. We can still run a Fractional CFO engagement on books closed by another team, with a setup phase to confirm the foundation
How is a Project CFO engagement structured?
Project CFO engagements are scoped, priced, and delivered within a defined timeframe. Capital raises typically run 8 to 12 weeks. Sell-side diligence runs 6 to 10 weeks. Buy-side reviews run 4 to 8 weeks. Each engagement has a written scope, a fixed price, a defined deliverable, and a delivery date. No hourly billing.
Will my CFO be a real person, or a rotating team?
Real person. Every Fractional CFO engagement is led by a dedicated fractional CFO who knows your business. The team behind them includes specialists in industry-specific KPIs, scenario modeling, and project delivery. You always call one person.
Can you help us prepare for a capital raise?
Yes. Capital raise preparation is one of the most common Project CFO engagements. We prepare the investor-ready financial package (historical financials, projections, KPI rationale, normalization adjustments), build the financial model, and support banker presentations and investor Q&A. Most raises wrap in 8 to 12 weeks of CFO time.
Can you do sell-side or buy-side M&A diligence?
Yes, both. Sell-side: we prepare the financial package, quality-of-earnings adjustments, and the data room for buyer review. Buy-side: we review the target’s financials, surface risks, and translate the diligence into a decision memo. Both are scoped as Project CFO engagements.
How long are most ongoing Fractional CFO engagements?
Multi-year. Most Prudent CFO clients stay because the engagement runs alongside the monthly bookkeeping work and the strategic relationship deepens over time. Engagements are month-to-month, but most clients have been with us for years.
How does pricing work?
Fractional CFO engagements run on a fixed monthly fee scaled to hours of strategic involvement and reporting depth. Project CFO engagements are quoted up front as one-time engagements with a defined scope, deliverable, and delivery date. No hourly billing on either model.
Will my fractional CFO sit in board meetings or investor calls?
Yes when needed. For Fractional CFO clients with a board or investor cadence, your dedicated CFO attends quarterly board meetings and is available for ad-hoc investor calls. For Project CFO clients preparing for a raise, the CFO can attend investor pitches and Q&A sessions as part of the engagement scope.
The first step is a 30-minute conversation.
We learn what your business is deciding, walk through how Fractional CFO or Project CFO would actually run for your specific situation, and send back a real quote with a real timeline. If you are not ready for a fractional CFO yet (most early-stage businesses are not), we will tell you that and point you to the right next step.
