Fractional CFO · From $3,500 a month
Strategic financial leadership without the full-time cost
A part-time finance leader for companies from $1M to over $100M in revenue. One flat monthly fee, a written scope, and a person who sits down with you every month to go through the numbers. On site in the Central Valley, remote for Sacramento and Los Angeles.
Most requested
- Cash flow forecasting
- Budgeting
- Lender relations
- KPI dashboards
- Strategic planning
- Acquisition support
- ERP implementation
- Board reporting
- Finance team leadership
What you get
What every retainer includes
From $3,500 a month, four deliverables on a fixed cadence. You always know where cash, margin and the bank stand.
Monthly numbers pack
P&L, balance sheet, cash position and the six numbers that actually run your business, with written commentary. In your hands within ten business days of your close.
13-week cash forecast
A rolling thirteen-week view of the cash coming in and going out. Your bookkeeper updates it from our template each week and the consultant checks it.
Profitability and KPI reporting
A quarterly margin or pricing analysis, and the handful of measures you should be watching tracked month over month, so a bad trend shows up while you can still act on it.
Owner meeting and bank package
A working session with you every month and a one-page decision memo. Quarterly, a loan-terms check and a lender package that you read, sign and send.
The full scope
What your fractional CFO takes on
The work scales with your company's size, complexity and stage of growth. Pick your size.
Hands-on. Your fractional CFO takes on both the strategy and the tactical work behind it.
Financial Strategy
- Develop financial plans and growth strategies
- Create annual budgets
- Build rolling forecasts
- Develop KPIs and financial dashboards
- Analyze profitability by customer, product or division
- Cash flow planning and management
Banking & Financing
- Obtain lines of credit
- Negotiate banking relationships
- Assist with SBA loans
- Prepare lender reporting packages
- Support debt restructuring
- Manage covenant compliance
Finance Team Oversight
- Lead your controller and finance staff
- Improve the month-end close process
- Walk through your financial statements with you each month
- Set finance policies and procedures
- Work with your CPA firm on GAAP reporting
- Improve internal controls
Business Performance
- Analyze revenue and margins
- Reduce unnecessary expenses
- Improve working capital
- Develop pricing strategies
- Identify operational inefficiencies
- Support expansion initiatives
Mergers, Acquisitions & Transactions
- Acquisition analysis
- Due diligence support
- Business valuation coordination
- Sale preparation
- Investor presentations
- Data room management
Human Resources & Administration
- Create bonus plans
- Develop compensation models
- Assist with benefit cost analysis
- Participate in executive hiring
- Evaluate payroll structures
Technology & Systems
- ERP selection and implementation
- Finance software upgrades
- Financial reporting automation
- Dashboard deployment
- Process improvement initiatives
Board & Ownership Support
- Present financial results to ownership
- Prepare board packages
- Communicate with investors
- Strategic planning sessions
- Risk assessments
Executive-level projects. Your fractional CFO leads the big initiatives while your finance team runs the daily work.
Strategic Finance Leadership
- Enterprise financial strategy
- Long-range planning
- Growth and expansion strategy
- Capital allocation analysis
- Enterprise risk management
- Turnaround initiatives
M&A and Corporate Development
- Acquisition sourcing and evaluation
- Due diligence leadership
- Integration planning
- Divestiture projects
- Coordinate valuations with outside advisors
- Investor and lender negotiations
Capital Markets & Financing
- Debt refinancing
- Capital raises
- Syndicated credit facilities
- Private equity interaction
- Banking relationship management
- Treasury strategy
Executive and Board Support
- Board meeting presentations
- Executive team leadership
- Shareholder communications
- Board committee support
- Strategic planning facilitation
Financial Operations Oversight
- Lead large finance transformation projects
- Improve multinational reporting structures
- Optimize FP&A departments
- Redesign KPI frameworks
- Establish governance controls
Special Situations
- IPO readiness
- Post-acquisition integration
- Restructuring initiatives
- Succession planning
- Interim CFO leadership
- Turnaround management
Your retainer covers the four deliverables above. An ERP rollout, an acquisition or a capital raise gets its own scope and quote.
Best fit for a fractional CFO
- A growing company that cannot justify a $250K to $450K full-time CFO
- A private equity-backed company that needs financial leadership
- A manufacturer that needs stronger reporting and banking relationships
- A family-owned business preparing for succession
- A company pursuing an acquisition, a sale or a capital raise
- An organization that needs board-level financial expertise one to four days a month
What stays with your team
Your fractional CFO leads. Your bookkeeper or controller handles the daily processing.
- Accounts payable processing
- Journal entries
- Payroll processing
- Bookkeeping
- Bank reconciliations
- Routine AR collections
- Full-time controller duties
No bookkeeper or controller yet? Stardom places finance and administrative staff across the Central Valley, so we can fill that seat too.
How it works
Three steps to the first numbers pack
Scoping call
A short call with Lorenzo. What you have, what is missing, and whether a monthly retainer is the right answer. If it is not, we say so and tell you what is.
Match and engagement letter
We name your consultant and a named backup, put the scope in writing, and agree what sits outside it. Work starts on the first of a month.
First month
The consultant maps who holds what, builds your first numbers pack, and hands you a written list of what breaks first. Then it is the same rhythm every month.
Bridge CFO
Cover the seat while you search for the permanent hire
You lost a Controller, a Director of Finance or a CFO. The same retainer, from $3,500 a month, puts a finance leader alongside your team part-time, as management's finance adviser, while Stardom runs the search for the permanent seat.
The consultant covering the seat writes the scorecard for the permanent hire and joins interviews in an advisory role. If you want to hire them into the seat, ask in writing and the conversion fee applies.
The price
From $3,500 a month
- One flat monthly fee, set by your scope. No hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
- Billed on the first of the month, in advance, by ACH.
- Ninety-day initial term, then month to month on thirty days' notice.
- The scope is written into your engagement letter. Anything beyond it is quoted and approved before it starts.
- Your letter names a consultant and a backup. If we have to substitute, we do it within ten business days and the fee stops for any week you are without one.
Scoped and quoted separately
Bigger projects get their own written scope and a fixed quote, approved by you before work starts.
- ERP and system projects
- M&A and transactions
- Capital raises
- Catch-up and clean-up projects, as fixed-fee work
Tax returns and contact with tax agencies stay with your CPA firm.
Questions
What owners ask first
- Will you work with my bookkeeper?
- Yes. Your fractional CFO leads and your bookkeeper keeps the books. The CFO sets the monthly rhythm, hands over templates like the 13-week cash forecast, and becomes the person your bookkeeper brings questions to.
- Can you help us get a line of credit?
- Yes. Lender relations is one of the most requested pieces of work. Your fractional CFO builds the lender package, helps you negotiate with the bank, and keeps covenant reporting on schedule. The same goes for SBA loans.
- Do you work with larger companies?
- Yes. Above $100M in revenue, your fractional CFO focuses on executive-level projects: M&A, refinancing and capital raises, board and investor reporting, and finance transformation. Your controller and finance team keep running the daily work.
- How is this different from hiring a Controller?
- A full-time CFO typically costs $250K to $450K a year, and a full-time Controller is a six-figure salary before benefits. Most growing companies do not need either seat forty hours a week. A fractional CFO brings the same judgment on a monthly cadence, from $3,500 a month. If you decide you do need the full-time seat, Stardom runs that search too.
- What if I want to stop?
- Ninety days to start, then month to month on thirty days' notice. There is no long contract and no deferral to harvest or to a draw.
Start here
Tell us what is going on with the numbers
Lorenzo takes these calls himself. It is a conversation about your business, not a pitch deck, and it costs nothing.
- We reply within one business day.
- We do not look at your numbers before an NDA is signed.
- Prefer the phone? Call 559-218-5819.
Stardom Employment Consultants is not a CPA firm. Audit, review, compilation and tax work stay with your CPA firm.