CFO for Hire: How Fractional Finance Leadership Reduces Burn and Unlocks Growth in 90 Days
Hiring a CFO shouldn't drain your runway or take six months. If your board is asking for real-time cash visibility, your investors want clean financials, or your burn rate is climbing faster than revenue—you need senior finance leadership now, not next quarter.
A fractional CFO delivers board-grade expertise without the full-time cost or equity dilution. This guide shows CEOs and operators how to hire, onboard, and measure a fractional CFO in 90 days—so you can extend runway, tighten forecasts, and unlock growth with confidence.
Why Solace? We connect startups and SMEs to pre-vetted, outcomes-oriented finance executives—so you get profiles in days and proof in weeks, not months. That's the Solace advantage: affordable expertise, swift recruitment, and pay-for-precision.
What a Fractional CFO Actually Owns
A strong fractional CFO isn't a bookkeeper or controller. They:
Clarify cash position and runway: Build a 13-week cash flow model and scenario planning.
Own the forecast: Monthly P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow projections tied to board and investor expectations.
Build the board deck: KPI dashboards, variance analysis, and narrative that tells the growth story.
Drive cost discipline: Identify burn levers, renegotiate contracts, and optimize spend without cutting muscle.
Prepare for fundraising or M&A: Clean financials, data room readiness, and investor-grade models.
If your challenge spans revenue operations or pipeline predictability, pair your CFO with a revenue leader. You can quickly explore options when you hire a fractional CRO through Solace's pre-vetted network.
How to Choose the Right Fit (Week 0)
Define success outcomes:
"Extend runway by X months by Week 12," "Deliver board-ready financials by Month 2," "Reduce monthly burn by Y% without headcount cuts," "Close Series A with clean data room."
Ask for pattern-matching evidence:
Stage (pre-seed, Series A, growth), industry (SaaS, fintech, hardware), and prior outcomes (fundraising, M&A, turnaround).
Validate systems fluency:
QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite; familiarity with your cap table tool (Carta, Pulley); experience with your investor reporting cadence.
Insist on a first-30-day plan during interviews:
What will they audit? What dashboards will they build? What cost levers will they pull?
Found a candidate who fits? If you're also tackling product-market fit or technical debt, it can help to simultaneously hire a fractional CTO for roadmap clarity and engineering discipline.
Onboarding Sprint (Weeks 1–2)
Day 1–3: Access, audit, and alignment
Grant access: accounting system, bank accounts, cap table, board decks (last 12 months).
Audit current state: cash position, burn rate, runway, outstanding payables/receivables.
Confirm definitions: revenue recognition, COGS, OpEx categories, KPI tree.
Day 4–7: Cash flow model and scenario planning
Build 13-week cash flow forecast.
Model scenarios: base case, optimistic (faster sales), pessimistic (delayed funding or churn spike).
Identify immediate burn levers (subscriptions, vendor renegotiation, headcount timing).
Day 8–14: 90-day plan and board deck refresh
Deliver 90-day finance roadmap: forecasting cadence, cost-reduction targets, KPI dashboard, board reporting schedule.
Refresh board deck template: standardize KPIs (ARR, burn multiple, CAC payback, gross margin, runway).
Contract any specialist support needed (fractional controller, part-time AR/AP, tax advisor).
If marketing spend is a major burn driver, align early with a marketing leader—you can hire a fractional CMO to set CAC targets and demand-gen ROI guardrails.
Execution Sprint (Weeks 3–10)
Monthly close and forecast discipline:
Lock monthly close within 5 business days.
Deliver updated P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, and variance commentary.
Refresh 13-week cash forecast and runway projection.
Cost optimization without cutting muscle:
Renegotiate SaaS contracts (consolidate tools, annual prepay discounts).
Optimize cloud spend (AWS/GCP reserved instances, rightsizing).
Review headcount plan: hiring timing, contractor vs. FTE trade-offs.
Board and investor readiness:
Standardize monthly board deck: financial summary, KPI dashboard, variance narrative, forward guidance.
Prepare data room for fundraising: historical financials, cap table, customer cohorts, unit economics.
Model fundraising scenarios: dilution, runway extension, milestones to next round.
KPI tree and operating cadence:
Define and instrument: ARR growth, net revenue retention, gross margin, burn multiple, CAC payback, months of runway.
Weekly finance ops review: cash position, payables/receivables aging, forecast vs. actuals.
Monthly QBR with CEO: financial health, cost levers, growth investments, board narrative.
If your GTM needs cross-functional acceleration, combine leaders: for example, hire a fractional executive pod (CFO + CRO) for financial discipline plus pipeline predictability.
Measurement and Course-Correction (Weeks 6–12)
Watch leading indicators weekly:
Cash balance vs. forecast
Burn rate trend (absolute $ and burn multiple)
Payables/receivables aging
Revenue vs. forecast (ARR, bookings, collections)
Validate mid-sprint:
Adjust cost levers if burn is tracking above plan.
Refine revenue assumptions based on sales pipeline and churn signals.
Update board narrative to reflect new data.
By Week 12, expect:
Clean monthly close process (≤5 days).
Board-ready financial dashboards with variance commentary.
Extended runway (via cost discipline and/or revenue acceleration).
Fundraising-ready data room (if applicable).
Clear KPI tree and QBR cadence with CEO and board.
Lock the next 90-day plan:
Consider adding a product counterpart—hire a fractional CPO—to tighten product-market fit and align product investment with financial capacity.
What Good Looks Like by Week 12
Runway extended by at least 2–4 months (via cost optimization and/or revenue growth).
Monthly burn reduced by 10–25% without cutting core team or product velocity.
Board deck standardized: KPIs, variance analysis, forward guidance, and narrative that tells the growth story.
Fundraising-ready: Clean financials, data room prepped, investor-grade models.
CEO confidence: You know your cash position daily, your forecast is reliable, and your board trusts your numbers.
Avoid These Common Mistakes
Hiring a bookkeeper when you need a strategist: Fractional CFOs own the forecast, the board narrative, and the cost levers—not just transaction coding.
Skipping the 13-week cash model: Without weekly cash visibility, you can't make fast decisions on hiring, spending, or fundraising timing.
Measuring vanity metrics: Focus on burn multiple, CAC payback, gross margin, and runway—not just revenue growth.
Delaying board-deck standardization: Inconsistent KPIs and narrative confuse investors and slow decision-making.
How Solace Reduces Time-to-Impact
Pre-vetted leaders who have shipped at your stage, industry, and funding round.
Profiles in days, not months—no search fees or equity expectations.
Try-before-you-buy model, with flexible fractional, interim, or full-time paths.
Ready to accelerate?
If your immediate need is senior finance leadership, you can hire a fractional CFO through Solace. If your bottleneck is revenue process or pipeline predictability, start with hire a fractional CRO. For marketing efficiency and CAC discipline, explore hire a fractional CMO. And when technical proof or roadmap clarity are mission-critical, hire a fractional CTO. If you're still scoping, you can always begin with hire a fractional executive and we'll shape the right fit.
FAQ
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With Solace, you receive curated profiles within days, not months, and most engagements kick off inside two weeks.
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Commonly 1–2 days per week for 12 weeks to build the financial operating system, then taper to a strategic cadence (monthly close, board prep, fundraising support). Outcomes and KPIs are set up front.
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Focus on runway extension (months added), burn reduction (% or absolute $), forecast accuracy (actuals vs. plan), and board confidence (investor feedback, fundraising readiness).
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Yes. Start fractional, then expand capacity or convert to full-time if the fit is right and your stage/funding supports it.
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Pair your CFO with a revenue leader (CRO) for pipeline predictability or a marketing leader (CMO) for CAC discipline—a pod-based approach accelerates cross-functional impact.
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