Hire a fractional CFO
A fractional CFO runs your finance function two or three days a week. Not a bookkeeper and not an accountant filing your returns: the person who owns the numbers, sits in the leadership meeting, and tells you what the business can afford before you commit to it.
What a fractional CFO owns
- Cash flow forecasting, and the runway conversation nobody else wants to start
- Board and investor reporting that survives a hard question
- Pricing, margin and unit economics, usually the first thing they rebuild
- Fundraise preparation: the model, the data room, the diligence answers
- Managing the bookkeeper, the accountant and the audit relationship
Signs you need one
- You are past about £1M revenue and still running the business off a spreadsheet
- A raise is coming and your numbers would not survive diligence
- You cannot answer what a customer costs you or what one is worth
- Your accountant tells you what happened, and nobody tells you what to do next
What it costs in the UK
Higher end for fundraise or exit work, and for regulated sectors.
Rates are set by the operator and paid to them directly. We are not in the payment path, and the operator never pays us a fee.
How this compares
A full-time CFO in London is £140k to £200k plus equity, and a company under £10M revenue rarely has enough finance work to fill the week. An accountant closes your books and files your returns, which is compliance rather than judgement. A fractional CFO is the seat itself, held part-time, and the same person stays as you grow.
What to look for
- They have held the seat before, not advised somebody who did
- Sector fit matters more here than most seats: SaaS, ecommerce and services have different economics
- Ask what they would want to see in week one, and listen for whether it is cash or vanity metrics
- Whether they have taken a company through the raise or the exit you are heading for
Common questions
- What does a fractional CFO cost in the UK?
- Most UK fractional CFOs charge £800 to £1,500 a day, typically two to four days a month for an early-stage company and one to two days a week for one at scale. That works out at roughly £2,000 to £12,000 a month depending on how much of the seat you need. The higher end is normal for fundraise work, regulated sectors, or a live exit process.
- When should a company hire a fractional CFO rather than a full-time one?
- The rough line is when finance decisions start affecting strategy but there is not five days a week of finance work to do. In practice that is often between £1M and £15M of revenue. Below that a good accountant plus a founder who reads the numbers is usually enough. Above it, a full-time CFO starts to pay for itself.
- How is a fractional CFO different from an accountant?
- An accountant records and reports what already happened, and files what has to be filed. A CFO decides what happens next: what to price, what to cut, when to raise, what the business can afford. Most companies need both, and they are not substitutes.
- How quickly can a fractional CFO start?
- Usually days rather than months, which is much of the point. Operators on our bench mark themselves available when they are taking on work, so the ones showing as available are actively looking now.
- Do I pay getoperators a commission on what I pay them?
- No. You contract with the operator directly and we are not in the payment path at all. The operator never pays us a fee either. We only charge if you ask us to run a search for you.
Operator Search: £999 to run, £2,500 if you hire
Can't find the right CFO, or haven't got the time to look? We run the search and put three vetted operators in front of you in five business days. Both numbers agreed before anything starts, and the operator pays nothing either way.
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