Fractional Controller & CFO
Controller-grade outcomes and CFO-grade counsel, fractionally — the close by the 10th, margins by division, the cash forecast, the bank package — without paying for the idle hours.
Why fractional beats the full-time hire
You don't need 40 hours a week of controller. You need controller-grade outcomes: a close that lands by the 10th, KPIs by division or job, clean AP with approval guardrails, a bank package that doesn't require apologies. A full-time hire at this size means paying for idle hours to get the 15 that matter — that's waiting waste sitting on your own payroll.
There's also a candidate-quality problem nobody puts in the job posting. The $150K+ CFO a sub-$20M company can actually attract is usually a controller with a better title. The real CFOs at that price get bored, and the seat churns — and a churning finance seat costs far more than the salary line suggests: lost context, restarted projects, a lender watching the third new face in two years.
Fractional inverts the trade. You buy actual senior experience — sharpened across many companies' pattern library, not one — exactly at the dose your complexity requires. And behind the fractional controller or CFO sits a whole team, so nothing depends on one person's calendar.
What's included
- Controller: month-end close owned and landed by the 10th
- Controller: review layer over the bookkeeping — yours or ours
- Controller: margins by job, division, or location
- Controller: budget built and tracked, with a variance narrative — not just a variance column
- Controller: cash management and AP approval guardrails
- CFO: 13-week rolling cash forecast
- CFO: board, investor, and lender reporting pack
- CFO: capital strategy and banking/financing support
- CFO: pricing, hiring, and expansion analysis
- CFO: monthly strategy session with decisions documented
How Kaizen runs it
A controller's real product isn't heroics at month-end — it's standardization: a close and reporting rhythm documented well enough that it produces the same output on the same dates regardless of who executes it. That's what a lender trusts, what a buyer's diligence team can walk, and what survives any one person leaving.
Our fractional layer sits on top of the Kaizen bookkeeping system — QuickBooks Online, Ramp, Gusto, with automated close checks — so the senior hours go to judgment, not data wrangling. AI-augmented workflows do the assembly and the checking; the controller reviews and the CFO decides. The result is that a fractional hour here buys more than it would anywhere else.
Pricing
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between the controller and CFO tiers?
Controller is accuracy and rhythm — the close, margins, and controls. CFO is forward-looking — the forecast, capital, and strategy. Most clients start at controller and add CFO as the decisions get bigger.
How many hours do we get?
We don't sell hours — we sell outcomes with defined deliverables and dates. The close lands by the 10th, the forecast refreshes on schedule, the board pack ships. How many hours that takes is our problem, not yours.
Can you work with our existing bookkeeper?
Yes. A controller review layer over a good in-house bookkeeper is one of the most common configurations — they keep the daily work, we standardize the close and own the output quality.
What if we grow into needing a full-time hire?
Then you should hire one — and we'll help you recruit, onboard, and hand off a documented finance function. Inheriting a standardized close and reporting rhythm is exactly what makes that hire succeed.
Related services
Free 30-minute close diagnostic
We'll walk your current close and show you a sample close calendar and board pack — useful whether you engage us, hire, or do neither.
Or call us directly: +1 786 789 0969