Your external CFO: more than figures

You buy in the role of a finance chief instead of filling the position. We take care of planning, liquidity management, reporting and the preparation of decisions, to the extent your business needs, and for a fixed monthly amount. The terms ‘external CFO’, ‘fractional CFO’ or ‘interim CFO’ are also common; at heart they mean the same thing, although an interim mandate usually bridges a gap and ours is designed for the long term.

With us, a CFO mandate starts at CHF 600 per month, CFO Plus at CHF 1,200. The entry price is this low because the scope is clearly limited: CFO Basic means monthly reporting with key figures and a quarterly meeting, not a finance chief 2 days a week. As soon as a budget, rolling liquidity planning and monthly meetings are added, we are in the CFO Plus range and above. One important point: these are pure CFO amounts. The ongoing accounting is not included; it runs through outsourced accounting and is charged separately. We agree the scope in advance, so that it is clear what the amount covers.

It depends less on size than on whether decisions are coming up that someone should work through properly. In our experience, this starts from revenue of around one million, or when a bank asks for a budget and a projected income statement. Below that, good reporting from outsourced accounting is usually enough.

That depends above all on how much work arises permanently. An external CFO costs a fixed monthly amount for the agreed scope and pays off immediately, because you only pay for the days you need. Hiring your own means a six-figure annual salary plus social benefits, bonus, workplace and training, and it pays off when there is permanently enough work for a full position or a good half one. In return, an employee is in the building every day and also picks up what never ends up in a figure. The external CFO suits SMEs with CHF 1 to 10 million in revenue that want to work out their decisions properly; your own hire suits businesses from around CHF 20 million in revenue or with their own finance department.

We usually carry out the assessment within 2 weeks. If you need documents for a bank or an investor at short notice, tell us in the initial meeting; we then give that priority and clarify the rest afterwards.

We are contractually bound to confidentiality, beyond the end of the mandate; this is set out in section 3 of our general terms and conditions (AGB). We process personal data in accordance with the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (revDSG). Your figures stay in your systems; we work in them with our own access. For mandates in the same industry, we check beforehand whether there is a conflict of interest, and we decline if there is one.

That depends on the mandate. Many start with half a day per month for reporting and discussion and scale up when a project comes up. We agree the framework in advance.

Not necessarily, but it helps. If we keep the ongoing accounts, the figures are up to date and we do not first have to prepare them. Otherwise, we work with your existing reports.

If you wish, yes, as a guest or as an elected member. We prepare the financial documents and explain them so that non-specialists also understand the consequences.

In the direction it looks. Accounting looks back and makes sure that everything is correctly booked and declared. CFO services look ahead: what do these figures mean for the next 12 months, and what decision follows from them?