Before You Hire a CFO, Build the System
At some point, most growing service businesses start asking bigger questions. Can we afford to hire? Should we raise prices? What does next year look like? That’s usually when the idea of hiring a CFO comes up.
A good CFO can help answer those questions. But something has to come first: numbers you can trust.
A CFO is only as good as the numbers they’re handed
A CFO’s job is strategy. Forecasts, budgets, pricing, planning for growth. All of it is built on your financial data. If the data underneath is messy, inconsistent, or always a month behind, the strategy built on top of it will be too.
It’s like building a house. You pour the foundation before you bring in the designer.
Reconciled doesn’t mean correct
I recently did a cleanup for a client whose books were reconciled all the way through 2025. On the surface, everything looked fine. Money coming in and going out was categorized, and the bank accounts matched.
But once I dug into the numbers and compared them against other reports, something didn’t add up. The software’s workflows hadn’t always been followed. Invoices were created for clients, and then when the payment came in, the deposit was recorded as new revenue instead of being matched to the invoice it paid. Every one of those sales got counted twice: once when it was invoiced and again when the money arrived.
The total? $1.2 million in revenue counted twice.
Every month still reconciled. The cash was right. The picture of the business was not.
Now imagine handing those books to a CFO and asking them to plan for next year. Pricing, hiring, cash flow projections, all built on revenue that was overstated by $1.2 million. That’s why the system has to come first.
Signs you need to build the system first
Invoices go out late or inconsistently
Cash surprises you, in either direction
Your books are always a month or two behind
Payroll involves spreadsheets and manual steps
Your financial info lives in several different apps, and you’re not sure they’re talking to each other
You get a profit and loss report but don’t trust it enough to make decisions with it
Only one person really knows how things get done
This goes beyond bookkeeping
Bookkeeping records what happened. Accounting operations is the process behind it: how you invoice clients, collect payments, pay bills, and run payroll, plus how all the apps you use connect to your books. When that process is consistent and repeatable, good bookkeeping can actually happen. Your bookkeeper isn’t guessing or fixing the same problems every month, and your numbers come out right no matter who’s doing the work.
That’s the system I build, across four areas:
Your books: a clean, organized setup that gives you reports you can actually use
Getting paid: invoicing and collections that happen on time
Paying your vendors: a bill pay process with clear approvals
Paying your employees: payroll that flows into your books correctly
How it works
I work on a project basis, not an ongoing retainer. We look at where things stand, fix what needs fixing, and put a documented process in place that your team can run. When we’re done, your accounting operations give you numbers you can trust.
Then, when you’re ready for a CFO, they can spend their time building your strategy instead of cleaning up your books. That’s a much better use of their rate, too.
Not sure where you stand?
The free Accounting Operations Scorecard is a quick way to see how your systems stack up across all four areas. It’s a good first step whether you’re thinking about a CFO or just want more confidence in your numbers.
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