For businesses and startups, the chief financial officer (or CFO) role is essential, as are the CFO services they provide. Outsourcing CFO services is a great way to delegate responsibilities when there is no in-house experience or limited in-house experience. When you outsource these responsibilities to a CFO firm, you can work with an expert to manage essential services like financial reporting, budgeting, year-end taxes, and much more.
Below are 17 of the top firms for outsourcing CFO services. Learn a bit about each and what they offer to see if they’d be a good fit for your business.
Top Firms for Outsourcing CFO Services
When you outsource CFO services to Preferred CFO, you can choose from an Outsourced CFO or a Fractional CFO. An Outsourced CFO is an expert who will join your team part-time or on a project-by-project basis to offer high-level CFO skills, including budgeting, problem-solving, cash flow issues, and more. A Fractional CFO offers similar expertise, but also helps with systems optimization and capital raising.
Preferred CFO also offers specialized CFO services for SaaS companies. In addition, they offer HR services to help with employee satisfaction. They aim to increase the value of your company, help you achieve financial growth, and create strategies for financial challenges.
Paro offers CFO services, including assistance in business strategies, project pricing, optimizing operations, contract creation, and corporate development. If you’re a startup, you also gain access to a wide array of services designed specifically for new businesses.
When you outsource CFO services to Paro, you’ll also benefit from their proprietary AI technology. This technology provides data-driven insights into the challenges your business faces and how you can improve processes to overcome them. By using a new employment category called “The Growth Platform,” businesses can get the help of a professional faster, allowing them to solve their challenges quicker. It also helps you find the best talent for your team by comparing key metrics like rates, skill level, and experience.
Zeni offers clients assistance with all of the financial aspects of the business. Because Zeni was designed for fast-growing startups, it uses AI-powered CFO services like financial projections and analysis, scenario modeling, actual spending compared to budgets, and assistance with board meeting presentations.
Additional services include bookkeeping, real-time reporting, bill pay and invoicing, yearly taxes and R&D tax credits, and employee reimbursement.
Their user-friendly dashboard allows you to easily check in on important metrics like your cash balance, operating expenses, revenue, and more in real time. Quickly access reports and forecasts and share them with other essential members of your team.
Accountancy Cloud provides CFO services for startups, including financial reporting, spending insights, forecasting and budgeting, payroll management. You will also have access to an R&D claim form builder. With the reports that you’ll receive, you can accurately forecast and create budgets to fit your business.
Through their online platform and user-friendly dashboard, you can review profit and loss statements, expenses, income, and more. They also offer specialized services tailored to fit tech companies, SaaS companies, eCommerce businesses, and food and drink startups.
Outsourcing CFO services to Ignitespot gives you access to help with cash flow forecasting, budget-to-actual reporting, break-even analyses, labor cost management, variable vs. fixed expense reporting, and debt planning and reduction strategies. With a more hands-on approach, experts will verify and analyze the data on your business to help you improve and grow.
IgniteSpot is ideal for companies that are ready to enter a growth phase. As a client, you will have the opportunity to have a weekly or monthly call with a CFO to identify growth opportunities and create a strategy. As a result of their interactions with growing businesses, they are now in the top 3,000 of the Inc. 5000 list.
Pilot is a CFO firm that helps businesses create accurate and effective budgets and implement strong financial strategies. They also assist with fundraising strategy and support, helping you to fine-tune your approach to fundraising opportunities, pitches, slide decks, and pitch sessions.
This CFO firm also offers a service package designed specifically for startups. Some advantages include services tailored to VC-backed companies, monthly statements showing your burn rate, and contact with advisors who are experts in startups and the growth stage. In addition to the services it offers, Pilot focuses on building a strong community of business professionals and using partners to help support you in your business.
EasyBooks offers clients a convenient bookkeeping app that helps users with foundational tasks like viewing finance reports, invoicing, and forecasting. They offer a free trial of 60 transactions for 14 days so you can get a feel for whether it’s the right fit for your business.
If you want simplicity and ease of use when outsourcing CFO services, EasyBooks is a great option. They avoid using jargon or complicated spreadsheets that will be difficult to navigate, making it a valuable tool for teams that may not yet have members experienced in finance. It also provides different tutorial videos on how to navigate their system.
GrowthForce offers services spanning three categories: bookkeeping, accounting, and controller. With the bookkeeping services, GrowthForce will manage your accounts payable and receivable, payroll, and sales tax filing as well as reconcile bank accounts and credit cards and build key performance indicator (KPI) scorecards.
The accounting services include weekly coding reviews, month-end close preparation, balance sheet reconciliation, bank reconciliation reviews, weekly and monthly KPI scorecards, and creation of activity-based costing. Their accounting industry has over 35 years of outsourcing experience.
The controller services include monthly financial reviews, disciplined month-end close, month-end accruals, balance sheet account reconciliations, fraud reduction, and cash flow forecasting.
B2B CFO is a great option for outsourcing CFO services when you want to improve cash flow, get bank loans, increase profitability, prepare to sell your business, or improve your business strategies. They’ve received several awards for their expertise, including awards from Forbes, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Inc. 5000, and more. Their latest award was an A+ award from BBB.
With 24 regional sites across the U.S., you can contact a professional in your area. You can even search through their CFO professionals by their certifications and experience, so you can find the exact right fit for you.
Wharfside Accountancy Services is a CFO firm offering services for limited liability (also called LLCs or LTD.) contractors and freelancers based in the UK. Depending on the stage you’re in, they offer packages that vary from helping you get set up as an LLC to assisting businesses with one or more shareholders.
CFO service offerings vary based on the package you choose. Available services include quarterly bookkeeping services for out-of-pocket expenses, monthly payroll, various tax forms, and more. You can schedule a free consultation to explore different strategies to help your company grow.
Level10 CFO operates on five core values: 1) Your interests come first; 2) They have the tough conversations; 3) They embrace technology; 4) They challenge the status quo; and 5) They like to laugh, even at themselves. These core values create a relationship where Level10 focuses first on advising and then on how to implement those insights with the latest technology.
Whether you’re interested in fully outsourcing CFO services or you’re just seeking an advisory partner, Level10 has options to meet your needs. They also work with companies from the setup and startup phases through late-stage challenges, like mergers and acquisitions.
CFO Selections is a CFO firm that offers a variety of services, including cash flow forecasting, budgeting and KPIs, financial processes, financial statements or monthly closings, financial team assessments, and more. They also offer services tailored to those preparing to buy or sell a business.
Their core values include integrity, balance, equity, and philanthropy, and these values play an important role in how they interact with their clients. This is proven by them receiving the Corporate Citizenship award for twelve years. You can contact them for a free, no-obligation assessment to see if they’d be a good fit for your business.
With NOW CFO, you can outsource CFO services like forecasting, funding, exit strategies, mergers and acquisitions, governance and compliance, and product pricing. They offer a “roll up our sleeves” work ethic to help your business thrive.
For a free consultation, you can fill out the contact sheet on their website. You will be put in contact with an account executive so that you can discuss your needs and see if NOW CFO is right for you. They have more than fifty locations around the U.S., but they also offer remote and onsite work if you’re in an area that is not near one of their locations. In 2023, they were listed on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies.
If you’re outsourcing CFO services but have limited experience reading financial reports and data, CPA on Fire is a great option. The data they collect is shared with you via an easy-to-use dashboard rather than complicated reports. You can customize this dashboard to track and make graphics of whichever key performance indicators you want to focus on.
They specialize in online businesses, helping you achieve scalable growth and increase profits. To tailor specifically to your needs, CPA on Fire allows you to customize which services they provide, so you can get exactly the right kind of help.
Pro Business Plans is a CFO firm that serves startup businesses and entrepreneurs with simple, custom business models as well as startup and existing businesses with more complex needs. They offer hybrid outsourced and in-house services from expert financial analysts and accountants. They offer assistance in 1,200 industries across more than 34 countries.
Their services include business plan assistance for startups, banks/SBA loans, and non-profit businesses. They also help you develop pitch decks and plans around obtaining venture capital and investors, so you can get the funding you need. To see if Pro Business Plans is a good fit for you, call for a free consultation.
Cohen & Company was named the “Best Accounting and Audit Services” in 2024 by Intelligence Fund Operations and Services Awards. Founded in 1977, Cohen & Company has been dedicated to helping public and private businesses excel. It lives out their four principles: 1) Great people first; 2) Teamwork; 3) Competitive spirit and courage; and 4) Adaptability and optimism.
Get help with accounting and business advisory services — financial reporting compliance, bookkeeping, retirement plan audits, and more — as well as tax services — tax planning, international taxation, business entity selection, and more.
In December 2023, Cohen & Company acquired Szymkowiak & Associates CPAs, a firm that was on our list of favorites for 2023. If you choose to outsource CFO services to Cohen & Company, ask for Todd Scherrer (formerly with Szymkowiak & Associates CPAs) and say that you were referred by Victor Cheng.
Peters, Johnson, Staley & Co. CPAs (or PJS & Co. CPAs) is a virtual firm that specializes in helping service-based businesses valued at over $1 million to grow and increase profitability. They specialize in many industries, including dental and medical, legal, and construction.
Services are available at three different levels: 1) Virtual CFO; 2) Virtual Controller; and 3) Virtual Accounting.
To see if PJS & Co. CPAs is a good fit for you, you can book a free “Discovery Call” on their website.
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