The First 90 Days With a Fractional CFO: What Should Happen, and When

In the first 90 days, a fractional CFO should give you four things you can see and use:

• By day 30: a 13-week cash forecast you trust and a written diagnostic of your finances.
• By day 60: a working 3-statement model and a monthly reporting pack.
• By day 90: a plan, either an annual operating plan or a fundraising plan, with the decisions it requires.

If you're 90 days in and can't say which week your cash is lowest, or what your model assumes, the engagement isn't working.

This guide sets out what should happen in each 30-day block and what you need to have ready before day 1. It also covers how the time is usually spent, the red flags to watch for, and how to judge the engagement at day 90.

What the first 90 days should produce

A fractional CFO who can't name these outputs on day 1 is selling hours, not results.

Before day 1: what to have ready

The first two weeks go faster when the CFO doesn't have to chase access. Have these ready, or grant access to them, before the start date:

• Bank accounts: read-only access to every account, including savings and card accounts
• Accounting system: QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite or similar, plus whoever keeps the books
• Payroll: the provider and the pay calendar
• Billing and revenue: the billing system, the AR aging and the top customer contracts
• Payables: the AP aging and any contracts with annual renewals
• Cap table: the current cap table and the terms of any SAFEs or notes
• Debt: loan agreements, especially any covenants
• History: the last four board decks, the last investor update and any existing model, however rough

Also book a weekly 30-minute slot with the founder for the whole 90 days. Most of the CFO's questions are small, and a fixed slot stops them from piling up.

Days 1–30: find out what's true and secure the cash

The first month is about finding out what's true before building anything on it.

1. Check the books against the bank. The cleared bank balance is the truth. If the accounting system disagrees, find out why before anything else.
2. Build the 13-week cash flow forecast. It's the fastest way to understand a business: every receipt and payment, week by week. It also tells you whether there's an urgent problem.
3. Interview the people who own the numbers. That means the founder, the bookkeeper or controller, and whoever runs sales.
4. Write the diagnostic. A few pages on the state of the books, the reporting, the model and the cash position. It should end with what to fix first.
5. Take the quick wins. These are usually collections from slow-paying customers, unused software, or a payment term that can be renegotiated.

If the books are a mess, say so in the diagnostic and fix that first. Months two and three slip by the time it takes. Building a model on unreliable books just produces unreliable answers more quickly.

Days 31–60: build the model and the monthly rhythm

The second month turns the diagnosis into the tools you'll run the company with.

• Build or repair the 3-statement model. Driven by a small set of assumptions you can explain: customers, pricing, churn, headcount and a few cost lines.
• Agree on the KPIs. Five to eight metrics, each with a written definition so the number means the same thing every month.
• Set the close calendar with the bookkeeper or controller. The books need to close on a fixed day each month, or the reporting will always be late.
• Send the first monthly reporting pack. KPIs, budget vs. actual, cash and runway, and a short list of what changed and what needs a decision.

By day 60, the founder should spend less time on finance than before the CFO started, not more.

Days 61–90: plan and decide

The third month uses the model to make decisions. Depending on where the company is, that's one of two things:

• An operating year ahead: an annual operating plan with targets, a budget, a headcount plan, monthly cash and a downside case with agreed triggers.
• A fundraise ahead: a fundraising plan. That covers how much to raise and when, the model and story investors will test, and a data room ready for due diligence. The venture firm CRV calls three months "a reasonable minimum lead time" to get the books and model ready before a raise, so this work can't wait until the raise starts.

Either way, day 90 should end with a short list of decisions, such as a hire to delay, a price to change or a raise to start, each with an owner and a date.

How the time is usually spent

Take a Series A software company with $3 million of ARR, clean but basic books and no fundraise in the next six months. A typical 90-day scope looks like this:

In our experience, the first month takes more time than the steady state that follows. That's because the CFO is learning the business and building tools from scratch. After day 90, the same company typically needs four to six days a month.

At $6,500 a month, the first three months cost $19,500. Compare quotes on what each one delivers by day 90, not on the monthly fee. The cheapest published tiers usually buy a monthly call rather than these deliverables, so check what a fractional CFO costs at each level before comparing.

Red flags in the first 90 days

• No written scope in the first week. If nobody has written down what you'll get and when, you're buying time, not results.
• No cash forecast by day 30. It's the first thing a good CFO builds, because it shows whether anything is urgent.
• Reports without recommendations. A pack that describes last month but doesn't say what to do about it is bookkeeping with nicer charts.
• "We need another month to understand the business" at day 60. The diagnostic should have done that by day 30.
• A model only the CFO can use. If you can't change an assumption and see the result, it isn't your model yet.
• Problems with the books left unmentioned. If the books are unreliable, the diagnostic should say so plainly, even when it's uncomfortable.
• Every question answered with "it depends." Uncertainty is normal, but a good CFO gives you a recommendation and the conditions under which it changes.

How to judge it at day 90

Ask yourself five questions:

1. Can I say which week our cash will be lowest in the next quarter, and by how much?
2. Do I understand what our model assumes, and could I explain it to an investor?
3. Does the monthly pack arrive on the same date every month, with comments I act on?
4. Do we have a plan for the next 12 months, including what we'll do if revenue comes in 25% lower?
5. Am I spending less time on finance than I was 90 days ago?

Five yeses means the engagement is working. Two or fewer means it's time for a frank conversation about scope, or about the fit.

If the answers point to a bigger need, such as a fundraise, a finance team or a debt facility, it may be time to think about when to hire a CFO full-time.