Most firms will quote you a range and expect you to take it on trust. Nearly every published guide to fractional CFO pricing states a number and cites nothing — including the ones ranking at the top of Google for this question.
So this one does the opposite. Below are the rates seven firms actually publish, named, with the figures as they state them. Where they disagree, I have said so rather than averaging the disagreement away.
The short answer: in the US, $150–$450 per hour or $3,000–$12,000 per month, with most engagements landing at $5,000–$8,000 per month. In the UK, £700–£1,400 per day, with most 2026 placements at £900–£1,100, or £2,500–£8,000 per month.
The range is wide because "fractional CFO" describes two genuinely different products. That distinction, covered further down, matters more than any single number here.
What each firm publishes
| Firm | Hourly / day rate | Monthly retainer |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | — | $3,000–$12,000 |
| Graphite Financial | $175–$450 | $1,400–$2,800Early-stage$3,000–$12,000Established |
| Preferred CFO | — | $3,000–$10,000 |
| McCracken Alliance | $175–$350 | $5,000–$12,000 |
| CFO Recruit | $150–$350 | — |
| Lucrum Consulting | — | $899 · $1,599 · $3,400+ |
| FD Capital (UK) | £700–£1,400/day | £2,500–£8,000 |
Pricing notes and assumptions
- Pilot: States the average is $5,000–$8,000; pre-Series A "closer to $3K".
- Graphite Financial: Early-stage figure assumes 8–10 hours a month.
- Preferred CFO: "Most common" is $5,000–$7,000.
- McCracken Alliance: Monthly figure assumes 8 hours a week.
- CFO Recruit: Splits it: operational $186–$275, strategic $330–$600.
- Lucrum Consulting: Fixed tiers by call volume, not scope.
- FD Capital (UK): Most 2026 placements at £900–£1,100/day.
Every one of those figures is the firm's own assertion. None of the seven cites external research, a salary survey, or a dataset. That is worth knowing before you treat any single range as authoritative — including this summary of them.
Hourly rates
Three of the seven publish hourly figures, and they agree more than you would expect: $150–$350 is the common band, with Graphite extending the top to $450.
CFO Recruit is the most useful of the three because it splits the band by the kind of work rather than the seniority of the person:
- Operational CFO — $186–$275 per hour. Running the close, building reporting, managing the finance function's output.
- Strategic CFO — $330–$600 per hour. Capital structure, transactions, valuation, board-level decisions.
That split explains most of the apparent disagreement across sources. A $175 hour and a $450 hour are usually not the same person doing the same work at different prices. They are different work.
Hourly is the wrong structure for most engagements anyway. It prices the input rather than the output, and it penalises exactly the thing you are buying: a model that takes forty hours and prevents a bad pricing decision is not worse value than one that takes eighty. Use hourly for a diagnostic or a short, bounded piece of work. Beyond a few weeks, it starts working against both sides.
For ongoing senior finance support scoped around outputs rather than hours, fractional CFO services provide the relevant comparison.
Monthly retainers
This is where most ongoing engagements land, and the sources converge tightly:
| Source | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | $3,000 | $5,000–$8,000 | $12,000 |
| Preferred CFO | $3,000 | $5,000–$7,000 | $10,000 |
| McCracken | $5,000 | — | $12,000 |
| Graphite | $3,000 | — | $12,000 |
Four independent firms put the ceiling at $10,000–$12,000 and the modal engagement at $5,000–$8,000. For a US company, that is the number to plan against.
Graphite is the only one to publish a genuine early-stage tier — $1,400–$2,800 a month for 8–10 hours — which is a different proposition from the rest of the table and priced accordingly.
UK day rates
The UK market prices differently, and if you are British the US figures will mislead you. Finance leadership here is quoted as a day rate, and the title is usually finance director rather than CFO.
FD Capital, which ranks first in the UK for this service, publishes:
- £700–£1,400 per day as the standard range
- £900–£1,100 for the majority of their 2026 placements
- £1,800+ per day at the top, with significant experience
- £2,500–£8,000 per month on retainer, and £6,000–£12,000 for heavier time commitments
- £35,000–£70,000 a year at one day a week; £70,000–£145,000 at two
They also note that London engagements and PE-backed businesses sit at the top of those ranges while regional businesses with simpler requirements sit at the bottom. That is a real effect and it is larger in the UK than in the US.
The full-time comparison, and why the numbers disagree wildly
Every pricing guide anchors against the cost of a full-time CFO. The figures they use are irreconcilable:
| Source | Full-time CFO cost |
|---|---|
| Graphite Financial | ~$230,000 average US salary |
| Pilot | "more than $250,000 per year" |
| McCracken Alliance | $393,377 annually; 25th percentile ~$300,000 |
| FD Capital (UK) | £130,000–£200,000 before bonuses and on-costs |
A 70% spread between the lowest and highest US figure is not a rounding difference. It is the result of measuring different populations: a median across all company sizes produces something near $230,000, while CFO compensation at established mid-market and larger companies produces something near $400,000.
Use the number that matches the company you would actually be hiring into, which for most founders reading this is the lower end. And note what the salary figure excludes. FD Capital's 25–30% uplift for employer National Insurance, pension and benefits is the honest version; the equivalent US loading for payroll taxes, benefits and equity is comparable or larger. A $230,000 salary is not a $230,000 decision.
What actually moves your number
In rough order of how much they matter:
1. The state of your historical accounts. The single biggest variable, and the one founders never anticipate. If the books need reconstructing before anything can be built on them, that is weeks of work before the actual engagement begins. A clean set of historicals can halve an opening scope.
2. Operational versus strategic. Per CFO Recruit's split, the same title covers work priced two to three times apart. Be specific about which you need — and be suspicious of a quote that does not ask.
3. Complexity, not size. One revenue line in one entity is a fundamentally different problem from four products across three jurisdictions with intercompany transactions. Revenue is a poor proxy; structure is the real driver.
4. Whether a financing event is live. A raise or a debt process compresses timelines and raises the stakes on every figure. Both sources that mention it — Pilot and Preferred CFO — put transaction work at the top of the range.
5. Frequency. Monthly operating rhythm versus quarterly oversight is a straightforward multiple.
6. Geography. Pronounced in the UK, where London and PE-backed work sits at the top of the band. Less pronounced in the US, where remote engagement is now standard.
The thing the ranges hide: these are two different products
Put Lucrum's entry tier at $899 a month next to Preferred CFO's warning to "be skeptical of firms offering services below $3k/month" and you have a direct contradiction between two firms in the same market.
Both are being straight with you. They are describing different things.
Below roughly $3,000 a month, what is generally on offer is access — a scheduled call or two, someone to ask questions of, light oversight of numbers that someone else prepares. Lucrum is explicit about this: its tiers are priced by number of support calls, not by scope of work. For a founder who needs a sounding board and has a competent bookkeeper, that can be genuinely good value.
Above roughly $5,000 a month, what is on offer is output — a model that gets built, a forecast that gets maintained, a board pack that gets produced, diligence that gets prepared. You are buying deliverables and the judgement behind them.
Neither is better. But they are not substitutes, and comparing their prices as if they were is the most common mistake founders make in this purchase. Before comparing two quotes, establish which product each one is.
For established businesses that need the wider finance function managed as well as senior oversight, outsourced CFO services reflect that broader scope.
How to tell whether a quote is fair
Four questions that separate scope from hourly arithmetic:
- "What is the deliverable, and when do I get it?" A quote that cannot name outputs is selling availability. Price availability accordingly.
- "What happens if the historicals are a mess?" If the answer is not "we assess that first and re-scope," you will get a variation order later.
- "Which of my problems would you not take on?" Anyone who takes everything is selling hours. The most useful answer names something.
- "Is this operational or strategic work?" If the quote does not distinguish, it has not been scoped — it has been estimated.
And one signal from the other direction: a quote materially below the published bands is not necessarily bad, but it is necessarily a different product. Find out which one before you decide it is a bargain.
Frequently asked questions
Clear answers to the questions founders ask most often.
In the US, $150–$450 per hour or $3,000–$12,000 per month, with most engagements at $5,000–$8,000 monthly. In the UK, £700–£1,400 per day, with most placements at £900–£1,100, or £2,500–£8,000 per month.
$150–$350 is the common band across published sources. CFO Recruit splits it usefully: $186–$275 for operational work, $330–$600 for strategic and transaction work.
£700–£1,400, with the majority of 2026 placements at £900–£1,100 according to FD Capital. London and PE-backed engagements sit at the upper end.
Almost always, but the honest comparison includes employer costs. A UK full-time finance director at £130,000–£200,000 carries a further 25–30% in National Insurance, pension and benefits. A two-day-a-week fractional arrangement at £70,000–£145,000 a year is a fraction of the loaded cost, and it can be ended.
Three reasons: operational and strategic work are priced two to three times apart; the state of your historical accounts can double an opening scope; and below roughly $3,000 a month the market is selling access rather than deliverables, which is a different product at a different price.
Broadly the same bands. "Outsourced" usually describes a firm taking on the finance function for an established business, while "fractional" usually describes a part-time senior individual working with a startup. Pricing overlaps; the structure and the buyer differ.
Hourly suits a diagnostic or a short bounded piece of work. Beyond a few weeks, a retainer against a defined scope is better for both sides, because hourly prices the input rather than the output.
Graphite publishes $1,400–$2,800 a month for 8–10 hours, and Pilot puts pre-Series A "closer to $3K." Below that you are buying access, which may well be the right purchase at that stage.
What this costs at ControlFi
Every engagement opens with a diagnostic: a full read of your accounts, model, reporting and cash position, and a written assessment of what is sound, what is broken, and what it costs to fix — including, where it applies, a recommendation not to proceed.
You see the scope and the number before committing to anything beyond it.
Book a 30-minute finance review
Related
- Fractional CFO Services — what the engagement actually covers
- When should a startup hire a CFO?
- The 3-statement model: how to build one that survives investor scrutiny