Outsourced CFO services are one of the services most hired by business owners. Outsourcing is a cost-effective and efficient option for businesses and nonprofit organizations. Learn more about the most popular outsourced CFO services below.
What is an outsourced CFO?
An outsourced CFO– sometimes called a virtual or remote CFO– is an executive team member in the role of a financial consultant or advisor. The outsourced CFO provides business, accounting, and financial guidance full-time, part-time, or for a specific project. Hiring an outsourced CFO puts an experienced and knowledgeable financial officer on your team who can provide information essential to making sound financial business decisions.
What types of businesses should consider an outsourced CFO?
An outsourced CFO is an ideal solution for many small to medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations. They bring a separate and impartial view of expenses, spending, purchasing, and the organization’s overall financial health. CFO services for startups include financial forecasting, initial set up of reporting systems and schedules, and strategic planning. Furthermore, an outsourced CFO can show you how to create a budget for your startup.
Outsourced CFO services for small business (SMB)
For many small businesses, not only does the owner run the day-to-day operations, they may also manage the accounting and financial functions: bookkeeping, cash flow, profitability, and cost control. Working in the day-to-day operations of the can make it difficult to take a broader view for business planning and growth. This can get in the way of analyzing and understanding the business’s financial health. CFO services for small businesses can be as simple as preparing monthly financial statements, to financial forecasting and strategic planning. In addition, an outsourced CFO can show you how to create a budget for your small business.
Nonprofit organizations
Executive Directors and CEOs of nonprofit organizations face many of the same challenges as business owners and often wear many hats. In addition, nonprofits face unique financial challenges, including restricted grant funding, managing multiple revenue streams and donor stewardship CFO services for non-profits include providing critical financial information to guide the Executive Director and Board in key decisions related to the financial health of the organization.
The best outsourced CFO services
While a there are numerous services provided by an outsourced CFO, most businesses and nonprofits benefit from these four most popular outsourced CFO services:
Preparation of financial statements
A good CFO will create a summary of your financials highlighting key indicators, red flags, and an overview of items that require further attention. Although the order of preparing financial statements can vary depending on the size and industry of your business, in general financial statements are prepared mid-month for the previous month.
Other essential duties a CFO may perform include:
- Review of the month’s bookkeeping entries and tasks for accuracy
- Preparing the income statement
- Preparing the balance sheet
The CFO will partner with your tax professional to ensure a smooth tax preparation process well before year-end. Not only can an outsourced CFO inform you of how to prepare for an audit of your financial statements, they can also manage the audit preparation process.
Strategic planning
Strategic planning is critical for a financially healthy business or nonprofit. A CFO helps plan strategy that directs the company forward. They can help you, as a small business owner, align your goals and strategic planning with your financial position.
An experienced CFO will look for business strategies to address the overall financial health of the business. Additionally, they possess an objective outside view of your business, making it easier to see the big picture and make tough decisions.
Budgeting
An outsourced CFO Budgeting can be time-consuming and requires a financial understanding of the business. For these reasons, many CEOs and owners dread the budgeting process. An outsourced CFO can ease the burden of stress in the budgeting process by reviewing spending, expenses, net income, cost of goods, purchasing, and other key indicators. Armed with this information, the CFO can act as a thought partner to develop goals and build your budget around those goals.
Projections
Another important role for a CFO is to develop projections. Projections are a tool to predict and anticipate future performance based on past performance. Furthermore, projections allow the owner to shift money as needed or make changes early in the year that will impact the bottom line.
As such, projections are performed and reviewed monthly to keep current trends and manage any pitfalls or challenges. For example, projections are performed on:
- Cash flow
- Sales
- Year-end financials
- Expenses
Can I afford outsourced CFO services?
Yes, outsourced accounting services provide expertise and quality at a level well below the cost of hiring full-time staff. In fact, depending on your geographic location, full-time CFO cost to a company can be $140,000 a year or more. In comparison, outsourced CFO pricing is much more cost effective.
Outsourced CFO is based on the level of services your entity requires. Considerations for the level of service you need include: size of your company, annual revenue, complexity of revenue/funding streams and business structure. Above all, it is good to find the CFO that best fits your organization and with whom you feel a trusted connection.
We can help provide the most popular outsourced CFO services.
In conclusion, we want you to be successful and run a financially healthy and sound business or nonprofit. As your outsourced CFO, we will ease the burden and stress of the most critical function in your organization which is accounting and finance.
Contact us to find out more and get an estimate of our CFO for hire rates. Take back control of your time and hire Capital CFO+. We have experience providing the most popular outsourced CFO services.
About Capital CFO+
Capital CFO+ LLC is based in Saratoga Springs, New York, providing bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services. Capital CFO+ helps small firms access the same economies of scale, efficiency, and expertise that large companies enjoy. Visit Pearl, our branch manager at capitalcfollc.com or LinkedIn for more information.
