Hiring guide
Fractional CFO company or solo CFO: how to compare the work
By CFO Index · Published
Choose between a fractional CFO company and a solo CFO by comparing who will do the work, what capacity is committed and what happens when that person is unavailable. A firm is not automatically a complete finance department, and an independent CFO is not automatically cheaper. Ask both to respond to the same brief.
Who are you actually hiring?
For a firm, ask to meet the person who will lead your engagement before signing, and identify any analyst or accounting support included. Clarify which meetings the senior CFO attends and which outputs they review. For a solo provider, confirm whether they deliver personally or bring in associates for part of the assignment. Record names, roles and the process for substitutions. A strong conversation with the firm's founder is not evidence that the founder will be available to do your work every week.
Compare committed capacity rather than team size
Ask each candidate to state the recurring meeting schedule, working time or deliverable commitment, and response expectations between meetings. Describe a realistic busy week: a delayed close, a board meeting and an urgent supplier decision. Who handles each item, and what would be rescheduled or charged separately? A large team can still have little capacity reserved for your account. An independent provider may have sufficient time for a narrow mandate. The useful evidence is the proposed service arrangement, not the number of people shown on a website.
When does a company-led service make sense?
Consider a team-based proposal when your brief contains several distinct workstreams that genuinely need different people. Hypothetical example: a UK business needs monthly accounting preparation, management reporting and senior help with an expansion decision. Ask the firm to show the hand-offs between those roles and price them explicitly. Check whether specialist help is included, available for an additional fee or supplied by an unrelated partner. The format is useful only if the proposed team covers the work you need; do not assume every CFO company also provides bookkeeping, tax or payroll services.
When can a solo CFO fit the brief?
Consider an independent CFO when you have a functioning accounting team and a defined senior-finance gap. Hypothetical example: a Netherlands-based company needs someone to challenge its forecast and run a monthly planning meeting, while its existing team prepares the records. A direct relationship with the person doing the analysis may suit that arrangement. Still ask about competing commitments, holiday cover and the boundary between advice and execution. If the mandate grows into daily operational work, agree how capacity or the delivery model will change.
Test continuity and handover before they become urgent
Ask what happens if the named CFO is ill, leaves the firm or ends the engagement. Who can access the working files, explain the current forecast and attend the next meeting? Agree that business records and maintained deliverables stay in company-controlled systems, with access appropriate to each role. Document assumptions and outstanding decisions so another person can understand the work. Neither a firm's replacement promise nor a solo provider's availability is a substitute for a usable handover process. Review the practical arrangements, including any extra transition charges.
Use one comparison sheet for both proposals
Create a row for each required output and columns for the named preparer, reviewer, deadline, included capacity, dependencies and fee. Add separate rows for onboarding, specialist work, urgent requests, cover and exit support. Mark anything unconfirmed as 'not specified' rather than awarding it to the larger provider by assumption. Compare the total recurring and one-off scope in the same currency and clarify the treatment of travel and applicable taxes. There is no defensible price comparison until the proposals describe comparable work.
What should be written down?
ICAEW describes engagement letters as a way to record the agreement and reduce misunderstandings. For your hiring process, ask for clear deliverables, responsibilities, fees, change control and termination arrangements. The comparison framework in this article is CFO Index's editorial guidance, not ICAEW's endorsement of a provider format or a ready-to-sign contract. Where you need legal advice about the agreement, use a qualified adviser. For cross-border work, separately confirm working language, time-zone overlap and the local services that require other professionals.
Should you choose a provider format before making a shortlist?
Only if your operating requirements genuinely rule one out. Otherwise shortlist both formats and use the same scope to test them. Relevant experience, the actual delivery team and a workable level of commitment matter more than the label. CFO Index separates company and solo listings to make that comparison easier; neither format receives an endorsement here. Confirm current availability directly with each provider. If a proposal leaves a responsibility unclear, resolve it before treating that proposal as the best fit.