5 Signs It’s Time to Hire an Outsourced CFO

As a business owner, finding time to get your finances in order while keeping up with the demands of daily operations quickly becomes impossible. Between maintaining your books to managing cash flow and expenses, there is just too much to keep up with. Because of this, you may be considering whether it’s time to hire a full-time CFO to manage your bookkeeping, accounting, and financial reporting.

While an in-house CFO makes sense for some large-scale enterprises, an outsourced CFO is often a much better fit for mid-sized businesses. This post outlines the five signs it’s time to hire an outsourced CFO rather than an in-house CFO for your business. Keep reading to see if any of the five signs resonate with you.

1. You Need a Clear Financial Picture

In business, cash flow is king. Understanding the differences in cash flow and revenue on a monthly basis can help you determine your next business move. You can’t expect to take risks or scale your business without knowing the total amount of money coming in each month.

If you find struggle to keep up with invoicing and expenses, it may be time to hire an outsourced CFO. An outsourced CFO can help you determine gaps between your cash flow and expenses, and ensure you stay financially solvent. Additionally, an outsourced CFO isn’t bogged down by daily operations, meaning they can provide clarity around your financial objectives.

2. You Need Help Maintaining Your Books

Along those same lines, it may be time to hire an outsourced CFO if you struggle to keep your financial books in order. Maintaining proper accounting practices and bookkeeping techniques is a significant pain for many business owners. Starting out, you may have felt confident doing your own bookkeeping and accounting, but over time, keeping up with the invoices and monthly expenses became overwhelming.

Finding an outsourced CFO who is also a certified public accountant (like our team at Cook CPA Group) can help you set up or better utilize accounting software. From there, an outsourced CFO can help maintain the accuracy of those books and prepare your quarterly tax filings.

3. You Need Regular and Custom Reporting

A benefit of having a CFO, whether in-house or outsourced, is the ability to get custom and regular financial reports. While many automated accounting software plans offer a reporting function, they’re often lacking in the customization department.

Having a financial pro provide you with detailed financial reporting can go a long way in scaling your business. Hiring an outsourced CFO means getting expert financial advice and detailed reporting to navigate difficult business decisions. Custom reports can include:

• Balance sheet
• Income statement
• Cash flow statement

While your accounting software may provide these reports, the likelihood is that you’re not getting actionable advice on the appropriate steps your business should take. Hiring an outsourced CFO can help you analyze these reports and develop an implementation plan to keep you on the right track to pivot your business for growth.

4. You Don’t Have Time To Do It All Yourself

As a budding business owner, you may have had time to pore over your financial statements and cash flow spreadsheets. But as an established business, you may feel like you need to tack on an extra day or two each week to tackle all your tasks. If this sounds familiar, it’s time to hire an outsourced CFO.

Outsourced CFOs take your tedious financial tasks to give you the time you need to focus on daily operations. Imagine never thinking about bookkeeping or keeping up with cash flow issues again! Now that’s a benefit all business owners can agree on.

5. You Don’t Have the Budget to Hire a Full-Time CFO

One of the biggest signs it’s time to hire an outsourced CFO is if you don’t think you have the budget to hire someone in-house. The benefit of hiring an outsourced CFO is that many offer services at an hourly or set monthly price. Because they aren’t stuck dealing with employees or daily operations, outsourced CFOs focus on just the numbers. Say goodbye to paying for benefits, sick leave, and vacation time!

Hiring an outsourced CFO saves you money without skimping on the results. With curated and tailored reporting and expert advice, hiring an outsourced CFO is the best of both worlds: cost-effective and custom to your business.

Outsource Your CFO Function To Cook CPA Group

If any of the above signs resonate with you, it’s time to hire an outsourced CFO. At Cook CPA Group, we have decades of experience helping businesses like yours increase cash flow, grow revenue streams, and set strategic financial goals.

When it comes to our outsourced CFO services, we leave no rock left unturned. We dig through the financial weeds of your business to identify gaps and opportunities to scale. Our founder, Evelyn Cook, is an expert accountant and finance professional with the strategic smarts to help your business be successful.

If you’re ready to hire an expert outsourced CFO, schedule a free consultation call with Evelyn. You’ll discover how Cook CPA Group will help you save on operational costs while making decisions that positively impact your business finances.