How CFO services can help you achieve great financial health

Financial health is a huge part of achieving success for startups and small businesses. But getting in shape, and staying that way, is sometimes harder than you would expect.

Founders have to make decisions every day that can potentially impact their financial stability and the growth trajectory of their business. It can be a heavy load to bear, but leveraging CFO services is a quick and affordable way to lighten this burden. 

In this post, we'll look at the three levels of CFO support Forecastr offers, and examine how each of them helps support founders through the difficult task of achieving and maintaining great financial health.

Key takeaways:

• CFO services overview: CFO services provide businesses with financial planning, risk management, and reporting expertise without the cost of a full-time CFO.

• Essential CFO functions: Core services include financial model updates, financial analysis, dedicated financial analysts, monthly financial reports, and unlimited email support for consistent guidance.

• Benefits of fractional CFOs: Leveraging fractional CFO services helps businesses maintain financial health, handle special projects, and achieve optimal growth without hiring a full-time CFO.

• Special projects and expertise: CFO services can assist with various projects like accounting, business optimization, fundraising, and board relations, providing specialized support tailored to your business's unique requirements.

• Levels of support: Forecastr offers three tiers of CFO services—CFO Lite, Startup CFO, and Growth CFO—catering to different business needs, from basic financial maintenance to comprehensive financial management.

Table of contents

• What are CFO services?
• The essential elements of CFO services
• Getting financially healthy with CFO services
  

What are CFO services?

The role of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in a company is essential. They're typically responsible for financial planning, risk management, record-keeping, financial reporting, and more.

Not all businesses have the resources to hire a full-time CFO, however. This is especially true for startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). CFO services bridge that gap by providing you with access to the expertise of a CFO without the financial commitment of hiring one full-time. They can lead you toward better financial health at every stage of your business's growth.

Forecastr offers three different CFO service packages to meet your unique goals and needs. They range from CFO Lite to the comprehensive Growth CFO package. All three packages ensure that your financial planning, reporting, and analysis remain strong, transparent, and thoroughly documented.

Let's take a closer look at those three packages.

CFO lite: Your foundation for financial health

Our CFO Lite package focuses on financial hygiene and maintenance. This package is foundational for your financial stability. We maintain your financial model, updating it every month and helping you understand your company's key drivers and potential blind spots. This ensures you have clear visibility into your financial status at all times.

This package includes a dedicated financial analyst, a monthly 1 on 1 with your CFO, unlimited email support, and comprehensive monthly financial reports. We typically spend about four hours per month providing these services to our CFO Lite customers.

Startup CFO: Strategy and optimization for new businesses

Our Startup CFO package is the next level up, and it includes everything offered in the CFO Lite package with an added focus on strategic financial planning. This is geared toward startups looking to explore various scenarios, fundraising strategies, and business optimization opportunities.

We provide strategic guidance on accounting and bookkeeping, financial records review and cleanup, and strategic guidance on inventory management. We dedicate an estimated nine hours per month to your business at this level.

Growth CFO: Comprehensive financial management for scaling businesses

The Growth CFO package is our premium offering. It encompasses all services from the CFO Lite and Startup CFO packages while adding regular in-depth financial analysis.

We look deeper into your business, identifying growth opportunities, optimizing your business model, and managing your financial priorities. With this package, we also block time for special projects to support company efforts, such as metric tracking, pricing analysis, and input sensitivity analysis. We dedicate about fourteen hours per month to each of our Growth CFO customers.

The essential elements of CFO services

Regardless of the package you sign up for, every company we work with gets a suite of baseline services to help maintain great financial health. These include all of the following:

• A dedicated financial analyst is assigned to your company and becomes an integral part of your team, thoroughly understanding your business and providing customized feedback for your unique situation.
• Monthly updates to your financial model. Monthly updates keep your financial strategy aligned with your actual results.
• Financial review and analysis. We regularly assess your financials, identifying potential risks and opportunities as they arise.
• A 60-minute meeting to review your financials with your CFO. These routine meetings are structured to provide clear communication and alignment on your financial strategies.
• A comprehensive monthly Financial Health Report. This report gives you a detailed look at every aspect of your business's financial performance and provides a useful decision-making tool.
• Unlimited email support with your assigned financial analyst for support and guidance with any aspect of your financial planning and analysis.

Special projects a fractional CFO can handle for you

Beyond our core services, Forecastr CFOs can take on special projects to help with company initiatives and help drive your business forward.

Special projects are always customized to address specific financial challenges or goals your business is facing. There are several categories of special projects we can handle for you, and some examples are included below.

• Accounting and bookkeeping: We can help you avoid misinformed business decisions and potential regulatory issues. We review existing accounts and provide a clear, accurate picture of your financial situation. For businesses with physical goods, we can help you effectively balance stock levels and cash flow. Your financial records are meticulously managed for you, freeing you from any annoying accounting headaches.
• Business improvement and optimization: A growing business should always be on the lookout for ways to improve its operations. We support you in tracking metrics and OKRs, industry benchmarking, pricing analysis, input sensitivity analysis, and designing bonus and compensation plans. Our optimization services streamline your operations and lead you to a path of sustained growth and profitability.
• Fundraising support: Fundraising can be a pivotal success factor for startups and small businesses. Our CFO services provide fundraising support wherever you need it, including assisting with pitch deck development and coaching you on your pitch. We can also help you negotiate investment terms, manage your data room, build your investor pipeline, and do investor research. We can make your next fundraising round significantly less stressful and more successful.
• Board and investor relations: Managing relationships with your board and investors is crucial. We prepare slides for board decks, write financial updates for investor communications, and we can even attend board meetings. We serve as your financial liaison, helping you maintain strong relationships with your stakeholders.

Getting financially healthy with CFO services

Achieving good financial health can be a big challenge, but our team of fractional CFOs is committed to your financial success. Our CFO services packages empower you to enhance your financial decision-making and de-risk your future.

Having a dedicated CFO on hand to tackle special projects as needed can be a huge catalyst for your business's growth. We’re here to make finance accessible and lend you the expertise of an experienced CFO without the financial burden of actually hiring one.

If you're interested in seeing how our services can help you cost-effectively scale your business, book a demo today. When you partner with Forecastr, you can hand your finance function over to us and focus on doing what you do best - running your business.