A fractional CFO is an experienced finance executive who works for your company part time: a few days a month, on a retainer or contract, instead of a full-time salary. The pitch is compelling, CFO-level judgment at a fraction of CFO cost. Sometimes it is exactly what a startup needs. Often it is an expensive answer to a problem a founder could solve in an afternoon.
Here is the honest version of both halves.
What a fractional CFO actually does
The good ones do strategy, not bookkeeping. Typical scope:
- Fundraising support. Building the model investors will interrogate, shaping the story, sitting in diligence calls.
- Forecasting and scenario planning. What happens to cash if you hire three people, raise prices, or lose the big customer.
- Board and investor reporting. Turning your numbers into the packet a board expects, every quarter, on time.
- Pricing and unit economics. Margin analysis, pricing structure, cost of revenue.
- Financial operations. Overseeing the bookkeeper and accountant you already have, so nothing falls between chairs.
Note what is not on the list: entering transactions, filing taxes, chasing invoices. That is bookkeeping and accounting. If someone sells you CFO hours to do bookkeeping, you are overpaying by a factor of five.
What a fractional CFO costs
| Arrangement | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Hourly | €150 to €350 per hour |
| Monthly retainer, light touch | €2,000 to €5,000 per month |
| Monthly retainer, hands-on | €5,000 to €12,000 per month |
| Full-time CFO, for comparison | €12,000 to €20,000+ per month loaded |
The wide ranges are real: price scales with the person's track record and how messy your finances are. The full market picture — publicly listed rates with named sources, what moves the price, and the sizing math — is in how much does a fractional CFO cost. A useful rule: a fractional CFO engagement costs about as much as a mid-level hire. Judge it with the same seriousness you would judge what any hire really costs.
The honest test: do you need one?
Ask what problem you are hiring for.
You probably need one when:
- You are raising a priced round and the data room questions have gone past your depth
- Revenue passed roughly €1M to €2M a year and decisions like pricing, hiring pace, and cash management now have real stakes
- Your board expects reporting you do not know how to produce
- Money moves in complicated ways: multiple entities, currencies, inventory, debt
You probably do not need one when:
- You mostly want to know your runway, burn, and MRR. Those are arithmetic, not strategy. A runway model you keep current answers them for free, and that is precisely the job Plainhub does as you record what happens.
- You want someone to "own the finances" because looking at them makes you anxious. A CFO cannot absorb that for you; the founder who avoids the numbers with a CFO becomes a founder who avoids the numbers with an invoice attached.
- You are pre-revenue with a simple burn. There is nothing to be strategic about yet. Do the 30-minute monthly business review instead and keep the €4,000 a month.
If you do hire one
Three things separate good engagements from expensive disappointments:
Scope in writing. Deliverables per month: the forecast update, the board packet, the fundraise model. Vague retainers drift into invoiced availability.
Your numbers stay yours. You should still be able to answer runway, burn, and MRR from memory. The CFO adds judgment on top of numbers you both see, not a translation layer you depend on.
Start with a project. A fundraise model or a pricing review is a two-month test with a clear output. If the work is good, extend to a retainer. If it is slideware, you learned it cheaply.
The pattern worth stealing from companies that get this right: cheap tools keep the basic numbers live every day — that is the job of a runway model, or an AI agent grounded in it — and expensive judgment gets bought only for the decisions that deserve it.