Fractional CFO and Finance Director Services for £1m+ Businesses
A fractional CFO or finance director gives your business senior financial leadership for part of the month, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time FD. For most owner-managed businesses between £1m and £20m, that is the right amount: enough to run proper forecasts, challenge the numbers, manage cash and prepare for the bank or investors, without a six-figure salary.
Our service is built around a regular performance meeting, monthly or quarterly, in person or by video, with two partners: a Chartered Tax Adviser, who reviews your figures for tax efficiency, and a former Group Financial Controller, who reviews them for business performance. Both attend every meeting, and your board meetings too if you want us there. You get finance director thinking and tax strategy from the same table, for one fixed fee. Between meetings, we are on the end of the phone when a decision comes up.
Monthly or quarterly performance meetings
Both partners at every meeting
Partners who have built businesses past £1m
Fixed monthly fee
What does a fractional FD or CFO do?
A finance director makes sure the people running a business have accurate numbers, understand what they mean and use them to make decisions. In a large company that is a full-time job. In a business turning over a few million pounds, it usually is not, but the decisions are just as important and the margin for error is smaller.
A fractional FD does the same job for part of the month. You may also see it called a part-time FD, virtual FD, outsourced CFO or fractional CFO. In the UK these titles are largely used interchangeably for the same arrangement: senior finance leadership, on a flexible basis, for a fixed fee.
What our fractional CFO and FD service includes
We agree the scope with you, but for most clients it covers:
- Monthly or quarterly performance meetings built around a full management accounts pack
- Budgets and rolling forecasts for revenue, costs, staffing and capital spending
- Cash flow forecasting and working capital: debtors, creditors, stock and the timing of tax payments
- Profitability analysis by revenue stream, product, customer and site, so you know where the money is made and lost
- Pricing decisions, tested against real margins rather than gut feel
- Financial controls that protect the business as it grows: approvals, segregation of duties, payment security
- Board packs and investor reporting
- Bank relationships and finance raising: overdrafts, loans, asset finance, invoice finance and equity
- Tax strategy built into every decision, from profit extraction to group structure
- Building your finance team: recruiting, training and supervising your bookkeeper or finance staff
- Preparing for a sale or investment, so the numbers stand up to due diligence
Your performance meetings
Every meeting follows the same discipline. Before it, you receive your management accounts pack with a written summary, revenue stream analysis, budget comparisons, cash forecast and tax position. In the meeting we cover:
- Performance against budget and the previous period
- Revenue streams, products or customers that are underperforming, and what is driving it
- Costs that are rising faster than sales
- Cash: the forecast for the months ahead and any pressure points
- Tax: your projected liability and the planning still open to you
- Decisions coming up and what the numbers say about them
- Actions agreed, with owners and dates, reviewed at the next meeting
See what goes into the pack on our management accounts page.
Your finance leadership team
- Hussein Bhaiji FCCA CTA, Managing Partner. A Chartered Tax Adviser with over 20 years of UK tax expertise, including time at HMRC and at top 10 UK accounting firms, and winner of the prestigious Chris Jones Prize from the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Hussein makes sure every financial decision is also the right tax decision.
- Mukkarram Ali FCCA, Partner. He refined his expertise at Deloitte and is a former Group Financial Controller at one of the UK’s largest industrial property developers. He has also built an online retail business from nothing to over £1m in turnover. Mukkarram brings the operational finance experience: controls, reporting, margins and cash.
On your own, that would mean a finance director, a tax adviser and an accountant, each in a separate meeting. Hussein and Mukkarram lead the service personally. Before every meeting Hussein reviews your figures for tax efficiency and Mukkarram reviews them for business performance, and both attend the meeting, so you get it all from one service.
Tax strategy built into every decision
Few fractional FDs are tax specialists. Ours comes with a Chartered Tax Adviser in every meeting, which changes the advice you get on decisions like these:
- Profit extraction: the right mix of salary, dividends and pension contributions across the year
- Investment timing: capital spending timed to use the Annual Investment Allowance or full expensing when the relief is worth most
- Cash planning for tax: VAT, PAYE and corporation tax, including quarterly instalment payments once profits pass the £1.5m threshold, which is divided between associated companies (usually from the second year above it)
- Rewarding key staff: share schemes such as Enterprise Management Incentives (Schedule 5 ITEPA 2003)
- Group structure: holding companies, new ventures and property held outside the trading company
- Planning for exit: Business Asset Disposal Relief (sections 169H and 169N TCGA 1992), charged at 18% on disposals made on or after 6 April 2026, up to the £1m lifetime limit, and keeping the business qualifying for it
Fractional, full-time or interim FD?
| Fractional FD (Merit) | Full-time FD | Interim FD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commitment | Part of the month, ongoing | Full time, permanent | Full time, fixed period |
| Typical cost | Fixed monthly fee | Six-figure salary plus employer’s NI, pension and bonus | Day rate, often for three to twelve months |
| Tax expertise | Chartered Tax Adviser at every meeting | Depends on the individual | Depends on the individual |
| Best for | £1m to £20m businesses needing senior oversight | Larger businesses with a full finance team | Covering a vacancy or a crisis |
| Scales with you | Yes, up or down | Fixed cost | Ends at the contract date |
Advice from people who have built businesses
Our partners have built their own businesses from nothing to over £1m in turnover. We have sat on your side of the table: chasing debtors to make payroll, deciding whether to take on the next member of staff, negotiating with the bank. Our advice is shaped by that experience, not by a textbook.
We have also worked alongside our clients as they grew past £1m, and some beyond £50m, in turnover. The questions change as a business grows. We have seen most of them before.
Examples of our work
Case study: four containers, a quiet summer and a £145,000 gap
The business. An importer and distributor of lighting equipment that buys its stock from manufacturers in China. Suppliers are paid in full when the containers arrive in the UK.
What the numbers showed. Lighting is a seasonal trade. Sales fall away in summer, when the days are long, and pick up again in the autumn. The cash flow forecast showed four containers due to land in June, with the supplier payment for all four falling due on arrival, at exactly the point the business was generating the least cash. In month six the forecast was about £145,000 short.
What we did. A short-term loan would have taken weeks to arrange and carried a high rate of interest. Instead we helped the client agree a Time to Pay arrangement with HMRC for its VAT and PAYE, negotiated slightly longer credit terms with the freight company, and moved the timing of a number of other payments. Because the arrangement was agreed before the payments fell due, HMRC charged interest but no late payment penalties (Schedule 26 FA 2021 for VAT and Schedule 56 FA 2009 for PAYE).
The result. The Chinese suppliers were paid in full when the containers arrived, and the business took on no new borrowing. The HMRC arrangement was cleared in the autumn, as sales picked up.
Case study: the year HMRC wanted its money early
The business. A specialist contractor with one associated company, whose taxable profits had grown to about £1.16m. The directors knew the £1.5m figure for paying corporation tax early and assumed they were well clear of it.
What the numbers showed. Our running tax position flagged that the company had become “large” for corporation tax. The £1.5m threshold is divided by the number of associated companies, counting the company itself, so with one associated company each company’s threshold was £750,000. The marginal relief limits are divided the same way, to £25,000 and £125,000, so all of the company’s profit was taxed at 25%. The first large year is usually exempt, but if profits stay above the threshold, the next year’s tax is paid in quarterly instalments under the Corporation Tax (Instalment Payments) Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/3175), the first in month seven of the accounting period. On the forecast that meant £290,000 of tax leaving the business on average about ten months earlier than the directors were used to.
What we did. We built the instalments into the cash flow forecast a full year ahead, set up a separate tax reserve account fed monthly, and moved a planned dividend so it did not coincide with either of the first two instalments.
The result. Every instalment was paid on time, with no late payment interest and no squeeze on working capital. The directors told us it was the first year HMRC had not taken them by surprise.
Case study: more orders, less money
The business. An online brand turning over £2.2m, selling through its own website and Amazon.
What the numbers showed. Sales were up 40% on the year, yet the founders were struggling to pay for new stock. When we split the management accounts by channel and charged each one with its own fees, fulfilment and advertising, the marketplace was losing £4.60 on every order. The website was making £11. Growth on the marketplace was making the cash problem worse.
What we did. Mukkarram, who built his own online retail business past £1m, worked through the channel figures with the founders range by range. They delisted the products that could not make money on the marketplace, moved advertising spend towards the website and set a minimum margin for any new listing.
The result. Revenue dipped 6%, but net profit more than doubled within two quarters, and £120,000 less was tied up in stock, which paid for the next product launch.
Case study: from £1.2m to £9m with the same finance partner
The business. A building services company that came to us at £1.2m turnover with one bookkeeper and a set of annual accounts.
What the numbers showed. At the start the owners could not say which of their services made money. Within three months the management accounts showed that planned maintenance contracts earned twice the margin of one-off installation work, which was where most of their time and sales effort went.
What we did. We have met them every quarter for seven years. We built their budgets, provided the forecasts behind two bank facilities and an asset finance line, helped recruit and train their in-house finance team, and moved our own role from preparing the numbers to reviewing them.
The result. Turnover is now £9m, with maintenance making up 58% of revenue against 20% when we started. The quarterly meeting is still in the diary, now mostly about acquisitions.
Who our fractional FD service is for
- Owner-managed businesses turning over £1m and above, including clients over £15m
- Businesses growing quickly, where decisions are getting bigger and mistakes more expensive
- Companies with a bookkeeper or finance team but no one senior to lead it
- Businesses preparing to borrow, raise investment, acquire or sell
- Directors who want tax and commercial advice joined up, not from separate firms
How it works
- Free appointment. We talk through your business, your goals and where the numbers are letting you down.
- Scope and fixed fee. We agree what the service covers and how often we meet, and confirm the fee in writing.
- Onboarding. We review your books, build or refresh your budget and cash flow forecast, and agree the KPIs that matter.
- First pack and meeting. You receive your first management accounts pack and we meet to go through it.
- Ongoing. Regular meetings, with us on hand between them.
Talk to us
Book a free appointment with one of our partners. We will look at where your business is, where you want to take it, and what finance support would make the difference.
Fractional CFO and FD FAQs
What is a fractional finance director?
A fractional finance director is an experienced FD who works with your business for part of the month rather than full time. You get senior financial leadership, including forecasting, reporting, cash management, funding and strategy, for a fixed fee instead of a full-time salary. The terms fractional FD, part-time FD, virtual FD and outsourced FD all describe the same arrangement.
What is the difference between a fractional FD and a fractional CFO?
In the UK the two titles are mostly used interchangeably. Strictly, a finance director runs the finance function and reporting, while a chief financial officer is more focused on strategy, funding and investors. Our service covers both.
How much does a fractional FD cost?
We charge a fixed monthly fee based on the scope of work and the frequency of meetings, agreed before we start. It is a fraction of the cost of a full-time finance director, who would typically command a six-figure salary before employer’s National Insurance, pension and bonus.
How much time will you spend on our business?
We agree the scope rather than a fixed number of days. Most clients have a monthly or quarterly performance meeting with prepared management accounts, plus access to us between meetings when a decision comes up. During a refinancing, acquisition or sale we step up as needed.
Will you attend our board meetings?
Yes. We attend board meetings, present the financial section of the board pack and answer directors’ and investors’ questions.
Can you work with our existing bookkeeper or accountant?
Yes. If you have a bookkeeper or finance team, we review and lead their work. If you have an accountant for year-end compliance, we can work alongside them, although most clients find it simpler to have one firm for everything.
What size of business needs a fractional FD?
Typically businesses turning over between £1m and £20m that have outgrown basic bookkeeping and annual accounts but do not need, or cannot yet justify, a full-time finance director. We also work with larger businesses that need extra senior support for a project.
Can you help us raise finance?
Yes. We prepare the forecasts, financial models and information packs that lenders and investors ask for, and support you through the process with banks, asset finance providers and investors.
Is a fractional FD the same as an interim FD?
No. An interim FD works full time for a fixed period, usually to cover a vacancy or a crisis. A fractional FD works part time on an ongoing basis. If you need full-time cover for a short period, we will tell you and help you find the right person.