Fractional CFOs

The CFO seat is a compliance seat before it is a strategy seat. A new tax regime, a first external audit, a lender's covenant pack, a filing calendar that arrived with the entity structure. A company that has been running on a strong accountant discovers the difference the first time a lender or an acquirer opens the data room.

The fractional version of this seat works because the hard problems are lumpy. A restructuring, a first audit, an ERP migration, a fundraise. Two days a week of someone who has closed a month end at group scale beats five days of someone learning on your books.

Family businesses are the quiet majority of this market. Generational transfer, holding-company structures, and the first outside capital a business has ever taken all pass through the finance function, and they punish improvisation. The CFOs listed here have sat inside family boards, not just presented to them.

Rate bands on Atlas are published monthly retainers, set by the leader in the currency of the market they list in. If a band is on request, ask; the answer comes from the person, not from a sales desk.