Sightline Capital

Fractional CFO

A partner who has run finance in a company your size, two to twelve days a month. Monthly board pack, cash forecast, bank relationship and pricing decisions — without a $280,000 salary.

Two people in suits reviewing printed bar charts at a meeting table, one holding a red pen

Who this is for

  • Companies between $5M and $50M revenue with a bookkeeper or controller but no CFO
  • Owners who find out about a cash squeeze from the bank, not from their own forecast
  • Businesses preparing for a lender review, a raise or a sale in the next two years

How the work runs

  1. First month

    We rebuild the monthly close so the numbers arrive by the eighth working day, and set up the cash forecast.

  2. First quarter

    The first board pack, the budget, and a written list of the three things costing you the most margin.

  3. Every month after

    A review meeting with the owner, the pack, the forecast and whatever the month throws up — a lender call, a big quote, a hire.

Most owner-managed companies reach $10M in revenue with the same finance setup they had at $2M: a good bookkeeper, an outside accountant who sees the numbers once a year, and an owner who carries the cash position in their head. It works until it doesn’t — a big customer pays late, a covenant is tested, or a buyer asks for monthly EBITDA for the last three years.

A fractional CFO fills the gap between the bookkeeper and a full-time finance director. You get someone who has sat in the chair, for the days you actually need, at a fixed monthly fee.

What changes in the first 90 days

The close gets faster and cleaner. You see gross margin by product line, not just in total. You know what cash will look like in thirteen weeks, and you know it on Monday morning rather than when the bank calls. Your lender gets a short, well-built quarterly pack and stops asking for extra information.

How we price it

The retainer is fixed for the number of days in the letter, usually four to six a month after the first quarter. If a month needs more — a refinancing, an acquisition — we quote the extra days before we do them.

A wooden-framed whiteboard with to-do, in-progress and done columns and sticky notes for a tax report

A recent engagement like this one

A pen pointing at a printed rate table beside a calculator and a closed laptop on a walnut desk

Manufacturing 64 staff, $18M revenue

Freeing $2.1M of cash from a precision machining shop

Days to turn an order into cash

Before

71 days

After

38 days

“I used to find out we were tight when the bank called. Now I know on Monday what the next thirteen weeks look like.”

M.R., owner — precision machining, Ohio

Talk to the partner who ran it.

We will walk you through what we did, what it cost and how long it took — with the client’s details left out.

Book a first call

Or call +1 (212) 555-0142

A fixed quote within three working days

One call, then a one-page scope and price in writing. No obligation, and an NDA before you send us anything.

Or call +1 (212) 555-0142 — a partner answers.