Advisory & CFO

Fractional CFO & Financial Planning

Most businesses need CFO-level judgement long before they can justify a CFO-level salary. Fractional engagement gives you the thinking when decisions demand it, without the fixed cost of carrying it year-round.

UK businesses
Accountancy practices

Discuss this service Engagement models

The problem

Good numbers, no interpretation

Plenty of businesses have accurate accounts and still make poor decisions, because nobody is turning the reporting into direction. Pricing goes unexamined, working capital tightens unnoticed, and funding conversations start three months too late.

Lenders and investors expect modelling and scenario analysis as a baseline.
Pricing and margin decisions are frequently made on intuition rather than analysis.
Cash pressure is almost always visible in the numbers before it is felt in the bank.

At a glance

Service line: Advisory & CFO
Delivered for: UK businesses and Accountancy practices
Typical cadence: Retained — An agreed number of days each month, with a consistent named lead. Project — Defined-scope engagements — a funding round, a model build, an acquisition appraisal.
Engagement models: Available per job, on ad-hoc hours, or through a dedicated resource. Compare models.

Scope

Where a fractional CFO earns their fee

Scope is agreed in writing before work starts and reviewed at each service review. Anything outside it is quoted separately rather than absorbed quietly and invoiced later.

Planning and modelling

Three-statement financial model with integrated cash flow
Scenario and sensitivity analysis on the decisions that matter
Annual budget build and quarterly reforecasting
Thirteen-week cash flow for tight liquidity periods
Unit economics, contribution and break-even analysis

Growth and transactions

Funding readiness — lender packs, investor decks and data room preparation
Business valuation support and equity modelling
Acquisition appraisal and financial due diligence support
Pricing strategy and margin improvement analysis
Capital structure and debt facility review

Governance

Board pack preparation and attendance
KPI framework design and performance reporting
Internal control and process improvement review
Finance team mentoring and capability building

Software

Platforms we work in for this service

We work inside your existing systems under named user accounts. If your stack is not listed, tell us — we will confirm honestly whether we can support it immediately or need a ramp-up period.

Excel
Power BI
Fathom
Futrli
Syft
Causal

The boundary

What stays with your firm

This matters more than the task list. A delivery partner that blurs this line creates regulatory exposure for you, so we state it explicitly on every engagement.

Yours, always

The client engagement and engagement letter
Professional judgement and final review
Sign-off, submission authority and the fee
Client advice and the client relationship

Ours

Preparation, processing and documentation
Internal second-person review before release
Turnaround against the agreed timetable
Rework at our cost where the error is ours

Questions

Fractional CFO — what firms ask

All FAQs

Can practices white-label this?

Yes. Several of the firms we speak to want to offer advisory services but lack the senior bench to deliver them. We supply the modelling and analytical capability behind your brand while your partner owns the client relationship and the advice.

Services that usually move together

Most firms start with one service line. These are the ones that most often follow.

See the full picture

Talk to us about fractional cfo.

Bring a real example — a live job, a difficult client file, a cycle you are behind on. A concrete case tells you far more about a provider than a capability slide ever will.

Book a scoping call See how we work

What to expect

No obligation and no minimum commitment to talk
A written proposal within five working days
A paid pilot before any long-term arrangement

Prefer email? hello@b4es.co.uk