Fractional CFO or a virtual CFO?
The short answer: in most cases these are the same job under two names, and the market does not agree on a definition for either. Here is what genuinely varies between providers, what to ask instead of trusting the label, and where the two words really do mean different things.
Are they the same thing?
Sometimes the same thing, often not, and the providers disagree about which; the word virtual is doing the hiding. Every fractional CFO works remotely some of the time, so by the plain meaning of the word they are all virtual. In practice the phrase is used by accounting firms and platforms to sell a packaged, subscription finance service in which a senior person may appear for an hour a month. Decide what you are buying by asking for days and names, not by the adjective.
Names in use for roughly this arrangement: Virtual CFO, or vCFO, Fractional CFO, Outsourced CFO, Online CFO, or remote CFO, CFO as a Service and Subscription CFO, in the platform versions.
What actually varies, whatever it is called
Ask these instead of trusting the label
- How many hours or days of a qualified former CFO's time does this tier include each month?
- Who exactly is my CFO, where did they last hold the seat, and will I meet them in person?
- What is produced for me each month, and what is decided with me?
- What happens when there is a raise, an audit or a sale: is that in the subscription or quoted separately?
- If the assigned person changes, do I get a say?
What a virtual CFO actually is
A CFO service delivered remotely, usually by an accounting firm or a platform, on a monthly subscription. At one end it is a fractional CFO who happens to work from elsewhere; at the other it is a software dashboard with an accountant on a monthly call, sold under a CFO title.
What each one owns
| A fractional CFO | A virtual CFO |
|---|---|
| The seat, and the judgement that goes with it, with the person in the room when it matters | Remote delivery, which suits a distributed company and costs less to run |
| Board and investor work that needs somebody who has done it before | The reporting layer: dashboards, management accounts, KPIs on a schedule |
| A stated number of days, so the price has a product behind it | Scale and continuity from a firm, with cover built in |
| The decisions: pricing, hiring, runway, the raise | A lower entry price for a company that needs numbers before it needs decisions |
What neither of them does
Neither replaces a bookkeeper, and a virtual CFO package frequently is one, rebadged. If the service is mostly producing your management accounts, that is valuable and it is not a CFO, and the price should reflect which one you are getting.
How each one fails
The fractional CFO: Being hired by a company that needed clean monthly numbers more than it needed strategy. A fractional CFO spending their days fixing the bookkeeping is a senior day rate doing junior work.
A virtual CFO: Being bought as a CFO by a company heading into a raise or a sale, where a dashboard and a monthly call cannot sit in front of investors, defend a forecast or run diligence.
What they cost, on the same basis
A fractional CFO charges £800 to £1,500 a day, and most engagements run one to three days a week. A monthly subscription, tiered by company size or turnover rather than by days, so the number of senior hours it buys is rarely stated and often small. The monthly and annual arithmetic for the fractional side, against a full-time equivalent, is on the cost page for this seat.
Pick a virtual CFO when
- Your real need is reliable management accounts and KPIs each month, and nobody is yet asking strategic questions of them
- The company is fully remote and the price of a subscription matters more than a named person
- Turnover is small enough that a day of senior time a month would be underused
We would rather say that plainly than win an engagement that was the wrong shape. Nobody pays us to list on the bench, so there is nothing in it for us either way.
When you want both
A common and sensible pairing: a virtual CFO package or outsourced finance team produces the numbers, and a fractional CFO decides what to do about them. The mistake is paying for the second and receiving the first.
Common questions
Is a fractional CFO cheaper than a virtual CFO?
On a like-for-like basis it usually is, because you buy the days you need rather than all of them. A fractional CFO runs £800 to £1,500 a day, most often one to three days a week. A monthly subscription, tiered by company size or turnover rather than by days, so the number of senior hours it buys is rarely stated and often small. But cheaper is the wrong question if the work genuinely needs the other one.
When should I pick a virtual CFO instead?
Your real need is reliable management accounts and KPIs each month, and nobody is yet asking strategic questions of them The company is fully remote and the price of a subscription matters more than a named person Turnover is small enough that a day of senior time a month would be underused
Can I have both?
A common and sensible pairing: a virtual CFO package or outsourced finance team produces the numbers, and a fractional CFO decides what to do about them. The mistake is paying for the second and receiving the first.