At some point in your career as a business owner, you may hit a point when handling your own finances is no longer an option. It can happen for many reasons.
Maybe you aren’t financially savvy, and that’s now becoming increasingly clear as you have more numbers and reports to manage. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps your business is growing quickly, and you can’t keep up because of duelling priorities. It’s becoming harder to keep your reports up-to-date so you can make real-time decisions. Or maybe you’re simply ready to spend more time on running your business instead of managing your finances.
You understand the value of staying on top of your numbers, but you’d rather focus on other areas of your business because those other areas of business are what drew you to business ownership in the first place.
Bottom line: Whatever the case may be, outsourcing a CFO (Chief Financial Officer) should certainly be considered as a solution.
7 Benefits of an outsourced CFO
First things first, before you can decide if outsourcing your CFO makes sense for your business, we invite you to consider the value doing so delivers to your growing company and how that value supports both growth and efficiency. You have questions like… is outsourcing CFO services expensive? And how can an outsourced CFO improve my financial situation and overall business health? Let’s take a look.
1. Saves you money
For a small business, hiring an outsourced CFO will almost always be cheaper than hiring in-house. There are several good reasons for this.
- You may not need someone full-time, so it’s more cost-effective to only pay for the services you use. The average salary for a full-time CFO is over AUD $400,000, according to salary.com, with a low end being at least AUD$250,000.
- Outsourced CFOs often have access to technologies and other resources that might be cost-prohibitive for a small business, but the accounting firm can afford them because they spread the cost across many small business clients.
- You pay no relevant employment taxes.
- You skip the cost of recruiting, hiring, and onboarding.
- You don’t have to manage sick days, holidays, or decide who is in charge of finance in your in-house CFOs absence.
- Save you the time and money that business “growing pains” can cost because outsourced CFO services are ready to scale up or down based on your needs.
Even if you could justify a full-time CFO, it pays to explore outsourcing if you’re preparing to add a position or hire, because it could still save you money.
2. Saves you time
An outsourced CFO takes finances completely off your plate while at the same time keeping you informed through regular easy to understand reports so you understand your financial health and make decisions to improve cash flow, cut costs, and steer your company in the right direction.
An outsourced CFO has the industry and financial experience to help you avoid many financial pitfalls that could end up costing you time, money, and the trust of stakeholders and customers, such as:
- Mixing business and personal
- Not budgeting or ignoring your budget
- Losing track of cash flow
- Poor reconciliations to spot mistakes, careless omissions, or outright fraud
3. Dedication to your finances
An outsourced CFO is dedicated to your finances. They’re your partner in success, and they don’t take that responsibility lightly. To that end, they make sure the people, systems, safeguards, and technology are in place to keep everything up-to-date and accurate. They know all of the best practices and regulations as well as how to use money wisely to position you for long-term growth.
An outsourced CFO will quickly learn your business inside and out so they can see the big financial picture. These individuals live for the financials. It’s their only job, and because they don’t worry about other aspects of running a business, they can stay focused on it.
You can have confidence in the accuracy of your financials, as you continue to work distraction-free, knowing finances are managed and reports and financial insights are available as you need them.
4. Strategic planning partner
A CFO knows finance and how businesses succeed through healthy financial management. So whether you’re considering moving into a new market or investing in new automation software, you now have someone to bounce financial questions off of. They can help you understand how your business decisions impact financial health and cash flow, now and in the long run.
They can help you prepare for all stages of your business.
Assistance in all stages of your career
As your career as a business owner evolves, the role of your outsourced CFO will evolve too and might look a little different depending on the stage of your business.
You’re running a small business today, but with the right partner you can grow into a much larger operation, and your outsourced CFO provides the consistency and transparency you need to do that.
They can help you unlock the right growth opportunities by digging into the numbers to understand and leverage your full potential.
5. Starting out
When you’re just starting out, you’re likely to need more help with cash flow and tax support. You’re still trying to nail down the right structure for your business. You need someone who can help you adopt the right financial systems and oversee them in the long run. A CFO can help you with all of this.
6. Growing up
Once you have your business structure and financial systems in place with strong cash flow, you’re poised for growth and expansion. It’s time to start more seriously planning for the future.
Here your CFO puts their expertise and understanding of your company’s function and financial history to work with cash flow forecasting that allows you to see further into the future and consider how various business moves will impact cash flow in the short term and long term.
This requires more robust financial reporting, systems, analysis, and monitoring all managed by your CFO.
7. Moving on
You’ve built something here, but at some point, it’s time to decide what your next phase looks like. Do you sell your company and move on to your next venture? Do you want to sell your shares to a co-owner? Do you have an heir in mind?
This is a critical time for a company and succession planning should never be taken lightly even if you’ve had someone in mind and under your wing for a very long time.
Here too, your outsourced CFO team guides you smoothly through the succession planning process by:
- Maximizing business value
- Providing financial insight and guidance
- Delivering valuations
Ready to work with an outsourced CFO?
No matter where you stand as a small business owner, an outsourced CFO can be an added tool for growing your business.
At creditte, our CFO team works with growing businesses on an ongoing basis to bring clarity to the numbers and find strategic opportunities for the future of the business. Visit to learn how we can help you build a better business based on better numbers.
