Tell Me Why I Need A Part Time CFO

You are the owner or CEO of a medium size business. You already have an in-house accountant and an external public accountant. Why might you need another finance person?

Here are 8 reasons why a part-time CFO will be beneficial to your business:

1. DIFFERENT (BUT COMPLEMENTARY) AREAS OF EXPERTISE

CFOs will normally have substantial hands-on commercial business experience (see point 3 below). Accountants are more skilled in their areas of expertise, but typically don’t have that depth of hands-on operational commercial experience. The skill sets are different, but complementary. The three finance professionals, working together as a team, can produce substantial benefits.

 

2. BETTER INFORMATION

You need good information to make good business decisions. For example:

• FORWARD LOOKING reports, such as cash flows and order/sales forecasts
• NON FINANCIAL information such as key operational KPIs
• Customer, territory, sales channel, service and product profitability
• More frequent high-level timely reporting on key business indicators i.e. the weekly dashboard

CFOs can provide business intelligence reporting, specific to that unique business’s characteristics and challenges. They are generally more experienced at   “management accounting” i.e. providing the right information which management need to run the business. Management accounting is very different from what the tax accountant uses, or what generic software P&L reports provide.

 

3. COMMERCIAL SKILLSET

Most CFOs are professionally trained accountants, who then move to commercial roles. Normally it would take at least another 10 years of commercial experience to become a CFO. In these corporate roles, CFOs often partner with the CEO as their right-hand person, thus acquiring extensive commercial and operational experience. They often have project management, IT, risk management, internal controls/processes and administration experience.

 

4. BENEFITS FOR THE OWNER or CEO:

 The part-time CFOs:

• Can focus on finance, admin, and IT thus freeing up the CEO to focus on the business
• Pass on best practices and techniques learnt in corporates
• Be a sounding board, mentor and advisor
• Be a long-term relationship-based partner who takes the time to really know the business
• WORK WITH OWNER/CEO TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS AND AMBITIONS

 

5. FLEXIBLE CUSTOMISED ENGAGEMENT

• You pay for the level of engagement that you need, in contrast to the fixed high costs of a full-time CFO
• Both retainer and time spent fee structures are available

 

6. HIRE ONE, ……TAP INTO THE NETWORK

The CFO Centre has over 750 CFOs. When you engage with a CFO from The CFO Centre, you can effectively tap into this global network which has in excess of 10,000 years of experience and knowledge.

 

7. IMPROVED STAKEHOLDER CONFIDENCE

The CFO Centre are the global number 1 provider of part-time CFOs, Hiring a part-time CFO from The CFO Centre will give banks, suppliers and other partners added confidence to deal with the company.

 

8. VALUE FOR MONEY

Take advantage of experienced commercial professional, on a flexible structure determined by the client, at a fraction of the cost of a full time CFO.

 

SUMMARY

For SMEs who have grown in size and complexity, but not yet reached a size where a full-time CFO is required, the “part-time”, or  “on-demand” CFO could be the solution.

Written by Gary Campbell. Gary is a CFO with The CFO Centre in Victoria, Australia. He is particularly successful at profit improvement, financial turnarounds, reporting and risk management within manufacturing and distribution sectors. He can be contacted at [email protected], or you can contact us here