Insights

Many SME owners now work with a fractional CFO in some form, often through part-time basis. You might have brought one in to steady cash flow, prepare for funding, support growth, or add senior financial thinking without recruiting a full-time director.

The results, though, vary widely. In some businesses a CFO quickly becomes a trusted partner; in others, they produce more reports while very little changes in how decisions are made.

The difference is rarely about technical ability. It is about how you use that relationship day to day. If you have ever sat through a finance meeting thinking you are still arguing about the numbers rather than what to do with them, you have seen the symptoms of a fractional CFO not being used as intended. The points below focus on practical steps you can take so your CFO improves the way your business thinks about cash, risk and growth and the way the numbers land in a report.

What should you put in place before your fractional CFO starts?

A CFO operates best at board level. To do that, they need solid basics underneath them. If those foundations are missing, they will spend too much time fixing data problems and not enough time helping you make better decisions at the right level.

Before they start, make sure you have those foundations in place. That means up-to-date bookkeeping and clean records, regular bank reconciliations, clear major balance sheet items and no large unexplained entries.

You should also be clear on the main questions you want answered in the next 12–24 months, whether that is "Can we afford to hire?" or "What would it take to be exit-ready in three years?". Finally, make sure there is a named internal owner for financial admin, so day-to-day tasks sit with a bookkeeper, finance assistant or office manager, not with the CFO. If your CFO spends their first few months chasing invoices or tidying reconciliations, you delay the conversations you really need to have.

What context does your fractional CFO really need?

Good financial leadership depends on context. Whether you describe the role as a part-time CFO or any other senior finance role, a spreadsheet alone will not tell your adviser why margin is under pressure or why lead times are slipping.

To get the best from your CFO, share more than historic accounts. Bring them into the picture on how you actually make money – the products, services or contracts that really drive margin, and the ones that feel busy but add little profit. Talk about operational realities such as capacity limits, project overruns and any points where quality or service are at risk.

The more honest and specific this context is, the more targeted and useful your CFO can be.

How often should you meet with your fractional CFO?

A fractional CFO is most effective when there is a clear rhythm to how you work together. In practice, that rhythm stops finance dropping to the bottom of the agenda whenever sales or operations shout louder. Without this, sessions can drift into one-off problem solving and the longer-term plan stalls.

A practical operating rhythm might include:

Monthly board-level finance sessions focused on performance, risks and the decisions that follow, rather than a simple read-through of reports.

Shorter check-ins between meetings tracking actions, update forecasts and deal with new information before it becomes urgent.

Quarterly planning cycles to refresh assumptions, adjust priorities and agree where to invest time and money next.

How should a fractional CFO work with your accountant and finance team?

Many SMEs already have an external accountant, a bookkeeper or an internal finance manager before they appoint someone into that role. To get full value, you need these roles to complement each other, not compete.

A simple way to think about it is that your accountant focuses on statutory accounts, tax, compliance and year-end advice, while a bookkeeper or finance assistant looks after day-to-day transactions, reconciliations, invoicing and credit control. The CFO sits above this, focusing on financial strategy, performance, funding, risk and board-level decision support.

To make this work in practice, agree who owns which processes and avoid duplicating tasks between your accountant, internal team and CFO. Create a single source of truth for financial data using a clear, shared system and standard reports. And make sure your accountant and CFO can speak directly when needed.

How can you track the impact of a fractional CFO?

Useful indicators might include cash visibility – how many weeks or months ahead you can see with a realistic forecast – and forecast accuracy, meaning how close actual performance is to the scenarios you planned for at the time.

You can also look at margin stability and working capital health, along with owner dependency, with decisions and information no longer locked in one person’s head.

You do not need a long scorecard. A short, agreed set of indicators that you review regularly gives you enough evidence to test whether the work you and your CFO do translates into better decisions, a more resilient business and a stronger Business Valuation.

How Evoke helps SMEs get the best from fractional CFO support

At Evoke, we work with SME owners who want financial leadership that changes how the business runs and improves the reports that support those decisions. We often bring a CFO on a fractional basis into a wider team alongside part-time Finance Directors and Commercial Directors.

Our starting point is understanding your current position, the stage of your business journey and the key decisions ahead. From there, we help you set up the foundations, context and rhythm that allow fractional financial leadership to work in practice.

We then stay involved to make sure plans turn into actions, and that you can see improvements in forecasting and cash and in how the business performs day to day.

If you are considering a fractional CFO or have one in place and want to get more from the relationship and see more impact in both the numbers and how your business runs, we are ready to talk.