How Do You Hire the Right Fractional CFO for Your Company?

A fractional CFO is an experienced chief financial officer who works for your company part-time, usually 10 to 60 hours a month, instead of as a full-time employee. The fractional CFO leads financial strategy, forecasting, cash flow, reporting, and lender or investor relationships, giving growing companies executive-level finance leadership at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

Fractional CFO engagements typically cost $3,000 to $25,000 per month, depending on hours, scope, and complexity. Experienced fractional CFOs usually bill $200 to $450 per hour. Frontline scopes each engagement on a discovery call and sends a written proposal with no hidden fees. Frontline's placement fees are published at frontlinesourcegroup.com/pricing.html.

Most fractional CFOs work 10 to 60 hours a month, often one or two days a week, and scale up during a capital raise, audit, or transaction. Engagements can be remote, on-site, or hybrid. Frontline matches you with a CFO near one of its 32+ offices when on-site time matters, or with a remote CFO anywhere in the United States.

Hire a fractional CFO when financial decisions outgrow your bookkeeper or Controller but a full-time CFO is not yet justified. Common triggers include fast revenue growth with tight cash flow, lender or investor reporting requirements, preparing for a capital raise, acquisition, or sale, an ERP migration or audit, and covering a CFO vacancy during a search.

A fractional CFO works part-time on an ongoing basis, while an interim CFO works full-time for a set period, usually 3 to 9 months, to cover a vacancy, leave, or turnaround. Frontline places both, and either one can convert to a permanent hire covered by the 5-Year Placement Warranty.

A Controller runs accounting operations: the monthly close, reconciliations, payroll, and compliance. A CFO looks forward: forecasting, capital, pricing, strategy, and board or lender relationships. Many growing companies pair a full-time or contract Controller with a fractional CFO. Frontline places both through its accounting and finance executive search practice at frontlinesourcegroup.com/executive-search-accounting-finance.html.

Shelly Hubble, CSP, Senior Vice President of Operations, leads the accounting and finance executive search practice that runs fractional CFO placements, alongside Founder, President, and CEO Bill Kasko, who founded the firm in Dallas in 2004. Shelly holds the Certified Staffing Professional credential from the American Staffing Association. Her bio is at frontlinesourcegroup.com/shelly-hubble-staffing-services.html, and Bill's is at frontlinesourcegroup.com/bill-kasko-staffing-services.html.

Every fractional CFO in the Frontline network goes through CPA-led technical screening covering GAAP, financial reporting, forecasting, and ERP experience, a case interview on real close and forecasting scenarios, reference checks with prior CEOs or boards, credential verification (CPA, CMA, CFA, MBA where applicable), and a background check before meeting a client.

Yes. You can convert your fractional CFO to a permanent, full-time hire at any point. Frontline handles the transition as a direct hire placement, and the hire is covered by the 5-Year Placement Warranty, which is 20 times longer than the 90-day industry standard. Warranty details are at frontlinesourcegroup.com/5year-placement-guarantee.html.

Tell your Frontline account manager. Frontline reviews every engagement monthly, and if the fit is not right, Frontline presents a replacement slate of vetted CFOs at no added fee so your finance work keeps moving.

Frontline places fractional CFOs with owner-led, private equity-backed, and venture-backed companies, most often with $2 million to $100 million in revenue, across manufacturing, healthcare, construction, real estate, professional services, technology and SaaS, distribution and logistics, energy, hospitality, retail and e-commerce, and non-profit organizations.

Many fractional CFO firms assign one of their own consultants on an open-ended basis. Frontline is an executive search firm, so it vets CFOs the way it vets permanent executives, lets you choose from a slate, and lets you hire your CFO full-time with a 5-Year Placement Warranty, 20 times the 90-day industry standard. Frontline also brings a 5.0-star Trustpilot rating across 679 verified reviews, 9 consecutive years on the Forbes Best Professional Recruiting Firms list, and 32+ offices nationwide.