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Fractional CFO Services: A Viable Solution to Financial Challenges

04/11/2023

When you’re running a small business, it can be difficult to find the time to keep track of your finances properly, especially when you’re on top of everything else that goes into managing your company. 

The solution could include hiring a fractional chief financial officer (CFO). A fractional CFO is a part-time CFO for small companies. They’re not full-time, fixed employees; instead, they work on a contractual basis for businesses that need help with their finances but don’t want to commit to a full-time CFO.  

The Valuable Role of a Fractional CFO 

If your business is growing rapidly, it may be challenging for a small team to handle all the duties associated with running a successful business. Fortunately, fractional CFOs are available to help meet the demand for additional financial assistance. They can guide everything from payroll management to tax strategies that help ensure compliance while saving money on taxes. Fractional CFOs can also assist you in analyzing your market and making critical decisions, such as whether to expand and when to recruit workers. 

What Services Can a Fractional CFO Provide? 

A fractional CFO can provide a wide range of services, depending on your needs, including: 

  • Creating budgets and financial plans 
  • Managing cash flow and investments 
  • Analyzing costs and identifying areas where you can cut expenses  
  • Helping you plan for your company’s future growth, including expansion and new product lines 
  • Managing the financial aspects of mergers and acquisitions 
  • Providing advice on tax issues and helping you find ways to reduce your company’s tax burden 

Who Should Consider Working with a Fractional CFO? 

Fractional CFO services provide many benefits for businesses that may be looking for: 

  • Reduced costs. The cost of hiring a full-time CFO can be limiting for many small businesses; however, fractional services allow companies to pay only for the hours they need without having to hire an entire department at once. 
  • More flexibility. Businesses can hire fractional services when necessary. This allows businesses to grow or shrink their finance staff as needed without worrying about hiring a full-time employee who may not be needed in the future. 
  • Increased expertise. Fractional CFO services are made up of experienced professionals. Small businesses can benefit from their expertise without the need to hire and train a new full-time employee whose knowledge and experience may be uncertain. 

Schedule a Free Consultation with an Oregon Certified Public Accountant Today 

If you’re looking for an Oregon fractional CFO to help your business grow and progress, contact the digital accounting firm Perpetual CPA. 

Our management team has over 35 years of combined experience in various financial specialties. We focus on helping companies improve cash flow and manage their finances so they can focus on what matters most: growing their business. 

If you’d like more information about our services or would like to schedule a free consultation, call us at (503) 217-4114 or use our online contact form. 

We serve Portland, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Wilsonville, Happy Valley, and the surrounding Oregon communities. 

 

Perpetual CPA 

111SW Fifth Ave. 

Suite 3150 

Portland, OR 97204 

(503) 217-4114 or (503) 217-6101 

Email: [email protected] 

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frequently asked questions

  • What Is A Virtual CFO & How Can It Transform My Business?
    • a. A Virtual CFO can be a much-needed sounding board, coach, and guide. Outsourced Virtual CFO is generally not just one person, but an experienced team of professionals providing a full-stack Accounting and Finance Department at a fraction of the cost that it would otherwise cost a business to hire even just one full-time CFO internally. The right virtual CFO service team, such as the one at Perpetual CPA, can deliver timely, detailed, comprehensive financial reporting, interpret the financial data, prioritize recommendations, give expert guidance on how to execute those recommendations, and ultimately give a better path to business success.
  • How can a Virtual Accounting Department help small businesses scale and grow?
    • a. A growing number of small businesses are opting to outsource services such as IT, human resources, or accounting. The benefit of a Virtual Accounting Department is that the company can reduce or increase services to accommodate current business needs. Because the service provider has multiple clients they can absorb fluctuations in workflow more easily than the average small/medium business can on its own.

      b. A Virtual Accounting Department can integrate with a company’s own accounting department to create a blended solution or provide a full-stack accounting department, including Accounting Staff, Manager, Controller, and Virtual CFO. By using a Virtual Accounting Department Small business owners don’t have to worry about hiring, training, figuring out compensation, and payroll compliance for the internal accounting team. Also as the business grows and new and more complex accounting and tax issues come up, the outsourced Virtual Accounting Department can provide all the needed expertise to facilitate continued business success.
  • What are the benefits of hiring a CPA firm?
    • a. Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) do a lot more than just crunch numbers and prepare taxes. They provide valuable expertise and strategies to help businesses and individuals achieve their business and financial goals. A CPA firm can help small businesses with management financial reporting, tax compliance, strategic business advice, and much more. Firms like Perpetual CPA, that specialize in helping small and medium-sized businesses achieve growth, can also provide Virtual CFO services, that help the business owners have the foresight into the short-term future cashflows and be able to more successfully navigate their business performance.
  • What are the best strategies for small business growth?
    • a. A business growth strategy is, simply, a plan of how a business gets from where it is today to where it wants to be in the future.

      b. Some of the questions to consider when coming up with a growth strategy are:
      i. Where will the business get new customers from?
      ii. How will the business expand into new markets?
      iii. What new products could the business offer?

      c. In reality, what happens with many small businesses, is that they generally achieve a specific level of business activity or sales and then the business growth trend flattens. In those cases, working with a firm like Perpetual CPA, which provides Virtual CFO services, can help small businesses avoid stagnation. Virtual CFO services, aside from providing timely accounting and tax reporting, can also provide valuable insight into the current performance of the business, as well as, foresight into the future cash flows for the business. Perpetual CPA Virtual CFO team helps small businesses interpret their financial information and come up with business strategies to help improve business performance and achieve growth.
  • What are the best strategies for small business risk management?
    • a. A risk management plan helps a business develop a detailed strategy to deal with certain risks that are particularly important for the businesses’ success.

      b. For many small and medium-sized businesses, the easiest way to develop and implement a business risk management plan is to work with a reputable CPA firm, such as Perpetual CPA. Large corporations invest a lot of resources and time into managing risk, which is a material factor that allows those large corporations to continue to generate billions of dollars in revenue every year. Small businesses, however, almost never manage any business risks, which is the major reason that over half of all the small businesses do not survive for more than 5 years. Generally, small business owners are not experienced corporate business professionals and lack the needed business knowledge, yet they often have to wear many hats while trying to get their businesses off the ground. In those situations, a CPA firm such as Perpetual CPA, can help small businesses better manage tax compliance risks, cash flow, internal controls, business administration, financial reporting, and much more.
  • What is Strategic Advisory and Virtual CFO? / How do Strategic Advisory and Virtual CFO services work?
    • a. When small businesses start spinning wheels, it is a good time to consider hiring a reputable CPA firm, such as Perpetual CPA, which can provide both Strategic Advice and Virtual CFO services.

      b. As a strategic advisor, the CPA firm will work with business management to improve the effectiveness and profitability of the business. They will look holistically at the business and find ways to operate the business more efficiently, increase customers through additional or improved marketing or improve customer touchpoints and service.

      c. As a Virtual CFO, the CPA firm is like a part-time version of a traditional CFO or Chief Financial Officer plus a full Accounting support team. They perform the tasks that in a larger organization would be performed by the CFO, Controller, and Accounting Staff such as preparing and overseeing the budget process, identifying and analyzing current and future trends, and developing strategies for the business growth.
  • How can timely financial visibility and management reporting help with better business decisions and growth?
    • a. A simple way to a successful business is to prioritize the timely financial visibility and management reporting as it means:
      i. Timely financial information and analysis are essential for making informed decisions, evaluating your company’s results, improving financial performance, and ensuring you are on the path to meet your strategic goals.
      ii. Management reporting is a source of business intelligence that helps business leaders make more accurate, data-driven decisions. But, these reports are most useful if they are available timely and the management receives proper interpretation of the business financial information.

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