Bookkeeping & Accounting
Monthly reconciliations, AP/AR, and financial statements in QuickBooks, Xero, Sage 50 or Zoho Books, reviewed by a US-based manager.
CFO-level strategy without the CFO salary.
CFO-level financial strategy, without the CFO salary
Rolling cash flow forecasts, KPI dashboards, board packs and investor-ready financials, led by someone who has done the job. A fixed monthly retainer with defined deliverables, not an hourly meter.
A fractional CFO is an experienced finance executive engaged part-time, usually on a fixed monthly retainer, instead of hiring a full-time CFO. They own forecasting, KPI reporting, budgeting, board and investor reporting, and the financial side of major decisions. Veris provides this for businesses from pre-revenue to roughly $10M in revenue.
What's included
The full scope of fractional cfo
Everything below is in the standard engagement. If something you need is not here, say so on the call and we will price it in or tell you it is out of scope.
- Cash flow forecastingA rolling 13-week cash forecast with scenario planning, so the question "can we afford this hire" has an answer before the meeting.
- KPI dashboardsThe five to eight numbers that actually run your business, tracked monthly against target rather than admired quarterly.
- Board and investor reportingBoard packs and management accounts in the format investors expect, prepared before the deadline rather than the night before.
- Budgeting and reforecastingAn annual budget built bottom-up, then reforecast quarterly so it stays a tool rather than a document.
- Strategic planning supportPricing decisions, hiring plans, expansion and acquisition modeling, with the numbers behind each option laid out.
- Fundraising and due diligenceA financial data room, diligence responses and the models investors will actually interrogate.
How it works
The process, start to finish
- Financial health reviewA deep read of your current financials, unit economics and cash position. You get the findings whether or not you continue.
- Build the infrastructureKPIs defined, dashboards built, reporting cadence set, and the forecast model stood up.
- Ongoing partnershipMonthly or quarterly CFO engagement, in your leadership meetings, with the reporting arriving on schedule between them.
What you receive
- A rolling 13-week cash flow forecast
- A monthly KPI dashboard
- Board pack or management accounts on your cadence
- Annual budget with quarterly reforecasts
- Investor-ready financials and a data room when you raise
Who this is for
- Businesses from pre-revenue to roughly $10M in revenue
- Founders preparing for a raise or a sale
- Companies whose board reporting is currently a scramble
- CPA firms offering advisory under their own brand
Before you send us anything
How we handle your data
The same controls apply to every engagement, whether you are a sole trader or a 40-partner firm.
- Encrypted file transferClient files move over encrypted channels. Nothing sensitive travels as an email attachment.
- Role-based accessStaff see only the engagements they are assigned to. Access is revoked the day it is no longer needed.
- NDAs and DPAs as standardA mutual NDA and a data processing agreement are signed before the first file moves, not after the pilot goes well.
- US-managed reviewA US-based manager reviews work before it reaches you. The review layer is the product, not a courtesy.
When do you actually need a fractional CFO?
Not when revenue hits a particular number. The trigger is when financial decisions start being made faster than your reporting can inform them.
Concretely, the signals are: you are about to raise and cannot produce a model an investor will interrogate; cash is tight enough that timing matters but you have no forecast beyond the bank balance; you are considering a hire, a price change or a new location and are guessing at the impact; your board asks for numbers you assemble by hand the night before; or the business is profitable on paper and short of cash and nobody can explain the gap.
That last signal is usually a timing problem rather than a profitability one. Under the accrual method, income is recorded when it is earned, not when the cash arrives, as IRS Publication 538 sets out, so a business can report a profit for months while its customers still owe it the money. A cash flow forecast is what shows the gap before it becomes a crisis, which is why a rolling 13-week forecast is a standard deliverable in every engagement. The SBA’s guidance on managing business finances treats cash flow projection as a basic part of financial management for the same reason.
If none of those are true, you probably need clean monthly bookkeeping and not a CFO, and we will tell you that on the call.
Fractional CFO, controller, or bookkeeper?
Three different jobs that get used interchangeably, which is why businesses hire the wrong one. The distinction is about time horizon.
| Role | Looks at | Owns |
|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper | The past | Recording transactions, reconciling accounts, producing the statements |
| Controller | The present | Close process, controls, accuracy, compliance, the accounting function itself |
| CFO | The future | Forecasting, capital, pricing, board and investor relations, the financial strategy |
What does a fractional CFO cost?
A fixed monthly retainer, sized to the scope, with the deliverables and their dates written into the engagement letter.
We do not bill hourly for CFO work, and the reason is behavioral rather than administrative. Hourly billing makes founders ration the questions they most need to ask, and a CFO you avoid calling is worth very little. A retainer with named deliverables means the value of the engagement does not depend on how many times you pick up the phone.
Primary sources referenced on this page
Fractional CFO: questions we get asked
Who actually does the work?
A CFO-level practitioner leads the engagement. Analysts support them on the modeling. You are not paying a senior rate to have a junior learn on your business.
How is it priced?
A fixed monthly retainer sized to the scope, with the deliverables and their dates written into the engagement letter. No hourly billing, so asking a question does not cost you anything.
Do we need you to do our bookkeeping too?
It helps, because a forecast built on unreliable books is guesswork with a spreadsheet around it. If your existing bookkeeping is clean, we will work from it. If it is not, we will say so before starting.
Related
What usually goes with this
Year-End Reporting
Closing entries, general ledger reconciliation, annual financial statements and a handoff package your tax preparer can file from.
Books Cleanup
Catch-up bookkeeping, reconciliation backlogs, transaction reclassification and chart of accounts reconstruction, at a fixed price.
Get a fixed quote for fractional cfo
Book a free 30-minute call. We will scope the work, quote a fixed fee, and tell you honestly if a different service is the better fit.
- +1 (929) 600-0884
- info@verisfinancials.com
- We reply within one business day