What Is a Fractional CFO?

What does a fractional CFO do?

A fractional CFO does the forward-looking work of a chief financial officer: forecasting cash, planning, reading the numbers and advising on the decisions that move money. "Fractional" describes how much of the role you buy, not a lighter version of the job. Typical fractional CFO responsibilities include:

• Cash flow forecasting. A rolling 13-week cash flow forecast, updated weekly, so a tight week shows up while there is still time to act.
• KPIs and reporting. A short dashboard of the numbers that run the business, reviewed with you every month in plain English.
• Budgeting and planning. An annual budget, and scenarios before a hire, a price change or a new location.
• Margins and unit economics. Which customers, products and locations actually make money.
• Financing. Lender-ready financials and projections when you refinance, open a credit line or take on debt, and tracking the covenants that come with it.
• Deals. Support through a raise, an acquisition or a sale, including due diligence.
• Finance oversight. Setting the standard the books must meet, so the bookkeeper and the tax preparer have what they need.

What a fractional CFO usually does not do is record transactions or file tax returns. Those are the bookkeeper's and the CPA's jobs, and the CFO depends on both being done well.

How is a fractional CFO different from a full-time CFO?

A fractional CFO is different from a full-time CFO in time, cost and commitment, not in the kind of judgment you get. A full-time CFO is an employee who is in the business every day and typically costs $200,000 to $400,000 a year in salary alone, before benefits, bonus and equity. A fractional CFO works under a contract for a set number of hours a month, usually for several companies at once, and is paid a monthly fee.

The trade-off is presence. A full-time CFO can run a finance team and sit in every leadership meeting. A fractional CFO works to a fixed weekly and monthly rhythm, plus on-call help, which suits a company whose finance work does not yet fill a full week. Once it does, a full-time hire is the right call.

How does a fractional CFO compare with a controller, a bookkeeper and a CPA?

A fractional CFO compares with a controller, a bookkeeper and a CPA by the question each one answers: the bookkeeper records what happened, the controller makes sure the numbers are right, the CPA handles tax and compliance, and the CFO decides what to do next.

The controller is the role most often confused with the CFO. A controller owns the accuracy of the past; a CFO owns the plan for the future. In a smaller company, the controller's checks often sit with a senior bookkeeper or with the CFO rather than with a separate hire.

A CPA is a licensed accountant who works side by side with the CFO: the CFO plans the year, the CPA files it. Korven is not a CPA firm; tax returns are prepared, signed and filed by our licensed CPA partner. For the full breakdown, read Fractional CFO vs Bookkeeper vs CPA.

When does a company need a fractional CFO?

A company needs a fractional CFO when its financial decisions start to carry more money than the owner can safely judge from the bank balance. The common triggers are:

• Cash feels tight even in profitable months.
• A lender, investor or buyer asks for projections that nobody can produce.
• A hire, a new location, a loan or an acquisition is on the table.
• Several companies, locations or bank accounts, and no single view of them.
• Margins nobody can explain by customer, product or location.

Korven works with established, owner-led companies, typically $2M to $50M in revenue. Revenue alone is a weak signal, though; the complexity of the business and the size of the decisions matter more.

How does a fractional CFO engagement work?

A fractional CFO engagement works on a set number of hours a month for a monthly fee, with a fixed rhythm of weekly, monthly and quarterly work. A typical engagement runs in four stages:

• Scope. The CFO reviews your books and the decisions coming up, then recommends the hours you need. At Korven, this is the Free Finance Review.
• Baseline. Access to your accounting system and bank, a rebuild of recent cash history, and agreement on the numbers that matter.
• Rhythm. The forecast updated every week, then a monthly review of results and KPIs and a strategy session on what changes.
• Re-forecast. Each quarter, results are checked against the plan and the next 13 weeks are rolled forward.

Across the market, a fractional CFO is billed in one of three ways: a monthly retainer for a set number of hours, by the hour (often around $300 an hour), or by the project for a single deal. Korven charges one flat monthly fee and never bills by the hour, so a call never runs a meter.

At Korven, the finance lead who scopes your engagement is the one who builds your forecast and sits in on your decisions: co-founder Azhar Jaffri, with 17 years of US finance experience across 10+ industries. Korven Consulting LLC is based in Richmond, Texas, and the work runs remotely for companies across the US. Local companies can read about our Fractional CFO in Richmond, Texas.

How much does a fractional CFO cost?

A fractional CFO costs $3,000 to $12,000 a month at most firms, and from $2,500 a month at Korven. Korven offers three levels, each one flat monthly fee:

Prices as of October 2026. Your exact fee is confirmed after a Free Finance Review of your numbers.

That is $30,000, $54,000 or from $90,000 a year. Clean books come first, because a forecast built on bad books is fiction: catch-up bookkeeping is $250 per month behind, and monthly bookkeeping starts at $750 a month. If you would rather have books, payroll and a CFO as one senior team, see the Korven Finance Office. The full breakdown is in How Much Does a Fractional CFO Cost?

Is a fractional CFO worth it?

A fractional CFO is worth it when a wrong financial decision would cost more than the CFO does: a hire you are not sure you can afford, a loan, an expansion, a sale, or cash that keeps catching you off guard. If none of that is on the table, clean monthly books may be all you need for now. The honest version, including when it is not worth it yet, is in Is a Fractional CFO Worth It? See what Korven covers in Fractional CFO Services.

What else do people ask about fractional CFOs?