Fractional CFO guidance
Staxiom doesn't place a dedicated CFO in your company. What we offer is the judgment layer a fractional CFO provides, cash-flow guidance, multi-entity strategy, board-ready numbers, folded into the same tier that already handles your bookkeeping and filing, not sold as a separate hire.
A fractional CFO picks up where bookkeeping and standard accounting stop: modeling runway and burn scenarios, preparing board-ready reporting, planning cash flow, advising on pricing and unit economics, and representing the finance function in front of investors, on a part-time or as-needed basis instead of a full-time hire.
It tends to fit a company that's outgrown a bookkeeper but isn't yet big enough to justify a full-time CFO's salary. The value is judgment applied to numbers that are already accurate, which is exactly why this level of guidance is only as good as the bookkeeping underneath it. Strategic advice built on a shaky set of books is advice built on a bad foundation, no matter how experienced the person giving it is.
In practice, not much of one. Both describe senior financial guidance delivered part-time or as-needed instead of through a full-time hire. "Fractional" leans toward a single person's time split across clients; "outsourced" sometimes implies a firm or team behind the work rather than one individual. Most providers, including this page, use the terms interchangeably, and the actual distinction that matters is narrower: whether the guidance is bundled with the bookkeeping and filing underneath it, or sold as its own disconnected engagement.
A disconnected engagement means re-explaining the business to someone new, on top of whatever the bookkeeper or accountant already knows. Bundled guidance skips that step, since the same team that closes the books every month is the one making the call on what the numbers actually mean.
Think of it as three layers stacked on top of each other. Bookkeeping is the input layer: every transaction categorized and reconciled, every month. Accounting builds on that: a real monthly close, a tax return that reflects what actually happened. CFO-level guidance is the layer on top of both: taking numbers that are already accurate and turning them into a decision, timing a raise, restructuring an entity, deciding what to cut when runway gets short.
Skipping a layer doesn't work. Strategic advice built on books that haven't been reconciled isn't strategic, it's a guess dressed up in a board deck. That's the reason this guidance is bundled with bookkeeping and filing rather than sold on its own: the layers only hold up in order.
It's also why a company that hires an outside advisor for strategy while its own bookkeeping is still a mess ends up paying twice: once for the advice, and again when the advice has to be redone once the real numbers finally surface.
Worth being direct about this: it isn't a named, dedicated CFO placed in the company. It's senior-level guidance folded into the Tier 3 tier, tax advisory (white-glove), layered on top of the same books and filing already being handled, not a separate engagement with its own onboarding.
Estimated tax, withholding, and cash-flow planning, so decisions get made with a real forecast, not a gut check.
S-corp payroll true-up and structure across more than one entity, kept coherent as the company grows.
Sessions built around decisions actually on the table, not a generic annual check-in.
Handled directly, included at this tier rather than billed as a surprise add-on.
Payroll and AP/AR management are included outright at this tier too, on top of everything in bookkeeping and tax filing. The point isn't to sell CFO work as a line item, it's that once the books and filing are handled well, the same team is positioned to give real guidance on top of them.
Worth being just as clear about the edges of it. This isn't a full outsourced finance department with its own dedicated staff, it's guidance layered on top of a bookkeeping and tax engagement that already exists. It isn't audited financial statements, a startup that needs a formal audit for a lender or an institutional investor needs a separate audit engagement, not this. And it isn't investment or M&A advice: the numbers get modeled and the tradeoffs get laid out, but the decision to raise, sell, or hold stays with the founder, the way it should.
Where it does help: turning "we should probably think about a Series A at some point" into an actual number, a real runway model, a real dilution range, a real answer on whether the current structure still makes sense once a second product line or a second state gets added.
One specific decision this guidance covers directly: whether to raise or bootstrap, and when. Seed vs. Series B, a priced round vs. a SAFE, each path costs differently in dilution, structure, and taxes, and the real numbers are worth seeing before the decision gets made, not after a term sheet has already set the terms.
This is the same ground the raising guide covers in more depth. If a raise is the live question right now, that's the faster starting point; this tool runs the numbers against your specifics.
There's no separate fractional-CFO fee to quote, because it isn't sold as its own product. It's included in the Tier 3 tier, starting at $1500/month, on top of bookkeeping and tax filing rather than instead of them. Full tier breakdown, including exactly where this guidance sits relative to Tiers 1 and 2, is on the pricing page.
For comparison, a full-time CFO is a senior salaried hire, a real, ongoing cost most companies at this stage aren't ready to justify. Folding the guidance into an existing advisory relationship is the middle step: real judgment, without a dedicated executive salary attached to it.
Moving into this tier from bookkeeping-only or bookkeeping-plus-filing isn't automatic, and it shouldn't be. It's worth it once there's an actual decision on the table that the guidance would change, not as a default upgrade just because the company got a little bigger since last year.
A few real signals, not a stage or a revenue number: heading into a fundraise and needing board-ready numbers rather than a spreadsheet assembled the week of. Running more than one entity and needing the structure kept coherent. Cash flow getting complicated enough that gut-feel forecasting stops being reliable. An investor starting to ask a question the founder can't answer with confidence.
Before any of that, bookkeeping and tax filing alone are usually enough, and paying for CFO-level guidance before there's a real decision to apply it to is guidance with nothing to act on yet.
A useful gut check: if the answer to "what does the board need to see this quarter" is a shrug rather than a document that already exists, that's usually the actual sign, more reliable than any headcount or revenue threshold.
A company heading into a Series A doesn't need a stranger showing up with a template. It needs a runway model built off books that already reconcile, a clean answer on dilution at a few different check sizes, and a cap table that doesn't have a surprise in it when a term sheet actually shows up. All three depend on the same underlying books, which is why this guidance is layered on top of bookkeeping rather than parachuted in separately a few weeks before diligence starts.
The same pattern holds for a smaller decision, like whether to bring on a second entity for a new product line: the question isn't answerable in the abstract, it's answerable once someone who already knows the books runs the actual structure and tax consequences against it.
None of it happens by guessing at a template pulled from somewhere else. It happens by starting from this company's actual numbers, which is the whole reason the guidance sits on top of bookkeeping that's already been done right, instead of arriving as a generic framework applied cold.
One co-founder also ran EY's West Coast R&D Tax Credit practice for thirteen years. The guidance behind this tier comes from people who've actually sat on the other side of a fundraise and a diligence process, not a generic template.
Guidance only holds up on top of bookkeeping and filing that are already accurate.
Runway, burn, and cash flow, built into something board-ready, not a rough estimate.
Raise timing, structure, multi-entity decisions, surfaced before they're urgent.
Modeling runway and burn scenarios, preparing board-ready reporting, planning cash flow, advising on pricing and unit economics, and representing the finance function in conversations with investors, on a part-time or as-needed basis rather than a full-time hire. It's judgment layered on top of the numbers, which only works if the books underneath are already accurate.
Staxiom doesn't sell it as a separate, standalone fee. This level of guidance, cash-flow guidance, multi-entity strategy, strategic tax planning sessions, is folded into the top advisory tier, which starts at $1,500/month and includes bookkeeping and tax filing alongside it. A firm selling fractional CFO work on its own, unbundled from bookkeeping, will price it separately and usually higher.
A full-time CFO is a senior salaried hire, dedicated to one company, usually justified once the finance function is complex enough to need someone in the room every day. A fractional arrangement gets the same category of judgment, scenario modeling, board reporting, investor-facing numbers, without the full-time cost, which is why most companies use it as the step before a full-time hire, not a permanent substitute forever.
Common triggers: heading into a fundraise and needing real board-ready numbers, running more than one entity, cash flow getting complicated enough that gut-feel forecasting stops being reliable, or an investor starting to ask questions the founder can't answer with confidence. Before any of that, bookkeeping and tax filing alone are usually enough.
Add your revenue and website for a full review, reviewed by a CPA who ran EY's West Coast R&D Tax Credit practice for 13 years.