What happened?
Review actual results against budget, forecast, and prior periods, together with the performance measures management uses to run the business.
CFO Advisory
CFO Advisory for clearer financial decisions.
Strengthen cash visibility, keep forecasts current, explain performance, and bring disciplined financial analysis to significant business decisions.
A dependable foundation for a forward view
When the numbers are dependable but the view ahead is not.
CFO Advisory sits within the firm’s broader Client Accounting Services relationship. It is most useful when the records and monthly close are reasonably dependable, but owners and executives need a stronger forward view and financial analysis connected to the decisions ahead.
A dependable close is the foundation. When reconciliations, reporting, or close discipline need attention first, an Accounting Operations Assessment can identify the right starting point. The guide to fractional CFO advisory and controller support explains when each capability may be useful.
This may be timely when
- Management has difficulty anticipating cash requirements.
- Budgets become stale as business conditions change.
- Leadership cannot clearly explain margins, profitability, or operating variances.
- Hiring, pricing, capital expenditures, financing, or expansion require disciplined analysis.
- The company has accounting personnel but lacks senior financial perspective.
- Management reporting does not connect results with the decisions ahead.
A decision-oriented financial process
Answer the four questions management needs each month.
The value is not a larger stack of reports. It is a repeatable process that directs attention to the changes, causes, outlook, and decisions that matter.
Why did it happen?
Analyze operating variances, margins, profitability, working capital, and the customer, product, project, or location-level drivers behind the result.
What is likely next?
Update cash-flow and rolling financial forecasts, test assumptions, and show how current performance changes the outlook.
What should management consider?
Evaluate the financial implications of pricing, hiring, spending, financing, capital investment, expansion, and other significant choices.
What the client receives
Working materials built around the decisions ahead.
The recurring output is shaped around the company’s economics, reporting needs, available information, and management priorities.
Performance review
Monthly management reporting, actual-versus-budget or forecast analysis, KPIs, variance analysis, and margin or profitability views.
Forecast and cash view
Cash-flow forecasts, rolling financial forecasts, working-capital analysis, and scenarios that make timing and tradeoffs visible.
Decision support
Financial models, focused analyses, management-review meetings, recommendations, and follow-up on financially significant priorities.
Reporting or analysis for a board or lender can be incorporated when appropriate, with the content and review cadence defined around management’s needs and the engagement scope.
See the work in practice
See what useful monthly financial reporting can look like.
The fictional three-page Monthly Business Review connects financial results to operating causes, cash implications, the outlook, and accountable management follow-up.
A disciplined financial rhythm
Keep financial review and planning connected.
A recurring cadence keeps results, assumptions, forecasts, and priorities current as the business changes.
Set the priorities and baseline
Confirm the accounting foundation, the decisions ahead, and the measures, forecasts, and analyses management needs.
Review performance and outlook
Examine results, operating drivers, cash implications, and updated forecasts on an agreed schedule.
Refresh the view as conditions change
Update scenarios, decision analyses, and priorities so the financial conversation stays relevant.
Practice leadership
Finance perspective informed by operating and investment experience.
John W. Halloran, Jr., CFA leads the firm’s CFO Advisory practice. His background includes private equity investing, strategy consulting, and senior management roles, including serving as a chief financial officer.
What to expect
Is CFO Advisory the same as fractional, virtual, or outsourced CFO services?
Those terms are often used for similar forward-looking financial support. Our CFO Advisory service focuses on financial analysis, forecasting, reporting, and recommendations. The firm acts in an advisory capacity; company leadership retains management authority and responsibility for decisions and results.
How reliable does our accounting need to be before CFO Advisory begins?
The records and monthly close should be dependable enough to support forecasts and analysis. If reconciliations, close discipline, or reporting remain unreliable, the better starting point may be accounting operations improvement, controller support, or an Accounting Operations Assessment.
Can CFO Advisory work alongside our controller or accounting team?
Yes. The work can complement an internal bookkeeper, accounting manager, controller, or other finance staff by adding forward-looking analysis and a recurring management-review process. Responsibilities and information requirements are established at the outset.
How often does a CFO Advisory relationship meet and update forecasts?
The cadence depends on the company, the reliability of its close, and the decisions management needs to address. Many relationships use a monthly reporting and review cycle, with cash forecasts, scenarios, or decision analyses updated more frequently when conditions require it.
Strengthen the financial view behind the decisions ahead.
Share where forecasts, cash visibility, performance reporting, or decision analysis fall short. We’ll discuss the finance capabilities the business needs next.
Discuss Your Financial Priorities