Fractional Executive Advisory: Part-Time CFO Guidance from $2,500/mo

Do you need a CFO, or do you need a second opinion?

These are different problems carrying different price tags, so it is worth being precise about which one you have.

If closing the month takes three weeks, if reconciliations are behind, or if you cannot say what cash looks like thirteen weeks out — that is a reporting problem. Strategy laid on top of numbers nobody believes is worth very little, and the Fractional CFO Partnership exists to fix it: we own the close, rebuild what is broken, and put controller-level support underneath where the books need it.

Plenty of businesses have that part handled, though. The bookkeeper is good, the close lands on time, the numbers are trustworthy — and the owner still has nobody to think with. Should we raise prices? Can we afford this hire? Is that customer concentration a problem yet? What does this decision do to cash in Q3? Those are judgement questions, and answering them does not require anyone to rebuild your chart of accounts.

That is what Fractional Executive Advisory is: the same founding partners, the same seniority, without paying for plumbing you do not need. $2,500 a month.

What a month actually looks like

A standing working session with a founding partner — Chris Gauvin or Taber Wetz — prepared in advance against your own numbers rather than delivered from a template. Plus access between sessions for the decisions that will not wait until the calendar says so.

The recurring ground: pricing and margin, whether a hire pays for itself, whether to take on debt and on what terms, customer concentration and what it does to your valuation, and what any given decision does to cash three months out. Occasionally the most valuable thing in the hour is talking you out of something.

What it is not: a report you receive. We are not a productised firm producing templated deliverables. If what you want is a monthly PDF, there are cheaper places to get one.

It is also not a funnel into the bigger engagement. Many advisory clients stay on advisory for years because their books are clean and it is the right fit. If your situation genuinely calls for the full partnership we will say so — and if it calls for neither, we will say that too.

Which tier fits

One question decides it, and it is not revenue. Do you trust your monthly numbers?

Executive Advisory

$2,500/month

Your books are clean and current. What you need is someone senior to think with every month, who already knows your numbers.

Best for: $2M–$10M businesses with reliable bookkeeping and strategic questions they are currently answering alone.

Fractional CFO Partnership

$5,000–$10,000+/month

We own the numbers — monthly close, 13-week cash forecasting, lender and board reporting, with controller-level support underneath where the books need rebuilding.

Best for: $2M–$50M businesses whose reporting has not kept up with growth. See the full scope.

Fractional CMO Partnership

$2,500–$7,500/month

A separate discipline led by our marketing partner. Positioning, offer, channel mix, and the funnel maths that says which spend actually produced revenue.

Best for: businesses whose growth arrived without a repeatable system behind it. See the CMO practice.

Moving between tiers is a conversation, not a new engagement. Businesses commonly start on advisory and move up when growth adds entities, locations or complexity the reporting has to catch up with.

When we are not the right fit

Under about $2M in revenue. The maths rarely supports either tier at that stage. A good bookkeeper and a quarterly conversation with your CPA will serve you better, and we would rather say so than take the engagement.

Your books are a mess. Then advisory is the wrong product — you would be paying partner rates for judgement about numbers that are not yet reliable. Start with the CFO Partnership, get the close working, and step down to advisory later if that suits.

You primarily need tax filing. We are not a CPA firm. We will introduce you to CPAs we trust and stay out of their way.

You want someone who agrees with you. The whole value of an outside voice is that it is outside. We push back when the numbers say so.

Fractional Executive Advisory — Common Questions

What is a fractional executive advisor, and how is it different from a fractional CFO?

Both are senior finance leaders engaged part-time. The difference is scope, not seniority. A Fractional CFO Partnership means we own the numbers — the close, the forecast, the reporting — and rebuild whatever is not working. Fractional Executive Advisory assumes your books are already reliable and buys you the judgement layer on top: what the numbers mean, what to do about them, and what to do next. Same partners, less of the plumbing.

How much does fractional executive advisory cost?

$2,500 a month. The full Fractional CFO Partnership runs $5,000-$10,000+ a month depending on scope, and the Fractional CMO Partnership $2,500-$7,500. We price on scope rather than location, so the figure is the same wherever you are.

Is this the same as part-time CFO services?

In practice, yes — part-time CFO, fractional CFO and outsourced CFO all describe a senior finance leader engaged for part of a week rather than hired full-time. What differs between providers is seniority and continuity: who actually does the work, and whether it is the same person every month. Here a founding partner leads every engagement personally.

How do I know whether I need advisory or the full CFO partnership?

One question decides it: do you trust your monthly numbers? If the close is reliable, reconciliations are current and you can see cash clearly, the bookkeeping layer is done and advisory is the right entry point. If closing takes three weeks, or you cannot say what cash looks like in thirteen weeks, the CFO Partnership is what you need first — advice on top of numbers nobody believes is worth very little. We will tell you honestly which one your situation calls for, including when the answer is neither.

We are a small business. Are we too small for this?

The threshold is complexity rather than revenue. Advisory exists precisely for businesses that have outgrown a bookkeeper but cannot yet justify $5,000-$10,000 a month — typically from about $2M in revenue upward. Below roughly $2M the maths rarely supports either tier, and we will say so rather than sell you something.

What actually happens each month?

A standing working session with a founding partner, prepared in advance against your own numbers, plus access between sessions for the decisions that will not wait. Typical ground: pricing and margin, hiring and capacity, whether to take on debt, customer concentration, and what a given decision does to cash three months out.

Can we move up to the full CFO partnership later?

Frequently how it goes. Advisory suits a business whose books are clean and whose questions are strategic; when growth adds entities, locations or complexity, the reporting has to be rebuilt to keep up, and that is CFO Partnership work. Moving between tiers is a conversation, not a new engagement.

Do you work with businesses outside Texas?

Yes. We are a Dallas-Fort Worth firm and most of our clients are elsewhere. Advisory in particular runs entirely on a scheduled cadence, so location is irrelevant to how well it works — what matters is that the session actually happens every month and that decisions come out of it.

Not sure which tier you need?

That is a reasonable thing to be unsure about, and it is a short conversation. We will tell you which one fits — including when the answer is neither.

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