Fractional CFO
Fractional CFO for multi-unit operators.
Senior finance leadership across your locations, brands, and units, without the cost or the commitment of a full-time hire.
A multi-unit business does not fail for lack of revenue. It fails when the finance function cannot keep pace with the footprint: when no one can say which units are actually making money, when capital gets allocated on instinct, and when the consolidated number nobody trusts arrives three weeks too late to act on.
I work as a fractional CFO for founders and multi-unit operators who need that discipline now and do not need a full-time hire to get it. The seat is the same one a permanent CFO holds: capital allocation, unit-level economics, the reporting cadence the business runs on, and the calls in the room with operating leadership. The difference is that you bring me in for the work the business actually needs, at the level of involvement it needs.
When to bring me in
What is usually breaking.
Most operators reach for a fractional CFO when one of these is true. If more than one is, the work is overdue.
- 01You are growing unit count faster than your finance function can keep up with it.
- 02Every brand or region keeps its own numbers, and no one agrees on the consolidated read.
- 03Capital is being allocated on instinct because there is no unit-level economics you trust.
- 04The board or sponsor wants visibility you cannot produce on their timeline.
- 05Acquisitions are landing faster than diligence and integration can absorb them.
- 06Cash decisions are being made in the rearview mirror rather than ahead of the position.
The work
What the engagement covers.
The engagement is scoped to the seat, not to a deliverable. It runs through the same four-stage method I bring to every engagement (read the business, frame the plan, build the systems, and compound the result), applied across the financial, operational, technical, and organizational domains that decide how a multi-unit business scales.
Capital allocation and the call in the room
Financial and strategic clarity that turns instinct into a capital allocation decision the team can defend. I am in the room with founders and operating leadership for the choices that shape the next stage of growth, not reporting on them after the fact.
Unit-level FP&A and reporting
Weekly unit-level P&L, labor, and pacing built for operators to use, not just for Finance to read. A consolidated read across brands that holds, so leadership argues about the decision rather than about whose number is right.
Board and sponsor reporting
The timely, defensible line of sight a board or PE sponsor expects: reporting that survives the capital conversation rather than complicating it. Forecasts and scenario models that give ownership a basis for the bets they are already making.
M&A diligence and integration at roll-up pace
Quality-of-Earnings diligence and a unit-economics read that informs valuation as an input to the deal, not a validation after it, with integration planning connected to the findings before close.
Proof
Multi-unit finance leadership, in practice.
Anonymized engagements across PE-backed multi-unit operators, hypergrowth franchises, and operator-owned businesses. The proof below maps directly to the work above.
View all engagements- 01
FP&A team built during 4x location growth. Weekly unit-level dashboards. EBITDA consistency held through scale.
National multi-unit franchise. Grew its location count roughly fourfold during the engagement.
FP&A buildout / Forecasting & planning rigor / Unit economics framework
- 02
FP&A function built from scratch. ERP selected and implemented. New brands integrated within six months.
PE-backed multi-brand franchisor. Multi-brand franchise system in an active growth phase, adding brands through acquisition.
FP&A buildout / ERP selection & implementation / Unit economics framework
- 03
Gross margin expanded and EBITDA stepped up materially. Finance team made leaner while revenue grew.
PE-backed multi-unit operator. Multi-brand, multi-unit platform assembled through acquisition.
Margin transformation / Cash & liquidity / M&A diligence
- 04
13-week liquidity forecasting held within tight tolerances. Proactive cash decisions. Vendor payables managed as a strategic lever.
PE-backed multi-unit operator. Multi-brand portfolio, many locations, active lender relationship.
Cash & liquidity / Forecasting & planning rigor
- 05
QoE process built and run internally at roll-up pace, across a steady flow of acquisitions.
PE-backed multi-unit operator. Active roll-up strategy across a multi-brand portfolio, with multiple transactions per year.
M&A diligence / Unit economics framework / Post-close integration
- 06
Enterprise-grade data warehouse and AI analytics built for an operator-owned franchise, run by one person, no BI team. Daily operating intelligence at a scale where nobody builds this.
Operator-owned multi-unit franchise. Small business: operator-owned and run, not PE-backed, not venture-funded.
Operating intelligence / Data infrastructure
Questions
Frequently asked.
The same things a full-time CFO does (capital allocation, unit-level FP&A, board and sponsor reporting, cash and liquidity, M&A diligence) on a part-time or interim basis scaled to what the business actually needs. For a multi-unit operator, the center of gravity is unit-level economics: making the per-location numbers trustworthy and timely enough to allocate capital and run the portfolio against them.
When the business needs CFO-level judgment but not a full-time seat, typically below the scale that justifies a permanent executive comp package, or during a period where the work is intense but finite. A fractional arrangement also fits when you want senior finance discipline installed and a team built to own it, rather than a permanent dependency on one expensive hire.
Both. Recurring engagements run across PE-backed multi-unit operators, hypergrowth franchises, and operator-owned businesses. The lens is the same in each: I am a franchisee myself, so I read a team and a business before I read a P&L, whether the sponsor is a fund or the founder.
By fixing the data layer before the report, not after. That usually means a unit-economics framework that defines what is measured and who owns it, a chart of accounts and close calendar that actually consolidate, and reporting built on a trusted single source rather than spreadsheet-stitching that nobody believes by the time the meeting starts.
The fastest way to find out if we are a fit is a short conversation. Tell me about the work you are trying to do.