A Fractional CFO Through Your Sale
The financial work of selling a business is real work, and it arrives exactly when you can least spare the time — while you're still running the company. A fractional CFO carries that load, so you negotiate from strength instead of scrambling between diligence requests.
Before the process: get ready
This is the work that lets you answer that first buyer call with a plan instead of a stammer. We clean the books, normalize and document earnings, put a defensible value view in your hands, and organize the data room. By the time anyone's asking to see numbers, the numbers are ready — and you know what your business is worth before a buyer tells you.
Done early, this is quiet, unglamorous preparation. Done under a live deadline, it's a fire drill. We strongly prefer the former, and so will you.
During the process: run point on the numbers
Once a process is live, the buyer's requests come fast and detailed, and every one is a distraction from actually running your business. We staff the data room, field the diligence questions, and defend the add-backs — answering the buyer's accountant on your behalf so you can keep the company performing, which, not incidentally, is itself part of protecting the deal.
A business that stumbles during diligence gives the buyer a reason to retrade. Keeping the numbers clean and the owner focused is how you avoid handing them one.
At the table: protect the number
This is where the fee pays for itself, often several times over. We push back on quality-of-earnings adjustments that would quietly lower your price, get the working-capital peg set fairly so it isn't used to claw money back at closing, and hold the line on the earnings you've documented. The buyer has experts whose job is to chip away; you should have one whose job is to defend.
After close: a clean handover
When the deal is done, we hand the new owner clean books and clear reporting — or, if you're staying on through a transition, we stand up the reporting the buyer now expects. Either way, the finish is as organized as the start, which protects your reputation and any earnout still riding on the business's performance.
Whether or not you're selling now
You don't need a deal on the table to benefit. The same work that wins a sale — clean books, a provable number, a business that runs without you — makes you better run and better prepared every single day until the call comes. And when it comes, you'll be ready. That readiness is the whole point.
If a buyer has already reached out, or you simply want to be ready before one does, that's exactly the conversation we're built for.
Straight answers
When should I bring in a fractional CFO for a sale?
Ideally before a process starts — the preparation is where the leverage is built. Realistically, any point before you've agreed to a price adds value; even mid-diligence we can shore up the numbers and defend them. Earlier is always cheaper and stronger.
Isn't this the broker's or banker's job?
They run the process and negotiate the headline deal; they don't build and defend your financials through diligence. We fill the financial seat alongside them — the two roles complement each other rather than overlap.
How is this priced?
As a fractional engagement — a monthly fee scoped to the work, typically in the range of a fractional CFO retainer rather than a big-firm project. Against the price protection it provides on a real deal, it's designed to pay for itself comfortably.
We're not selling for a few years. Still worth it?
Yes — arguably the best time to start. Clean books, documented earnings, and reduced owner-dependence take time to build and pay off both in daily operations and in the eventual sale. Starting now is how you make sure the call, whenever it comes, finds you ready.
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See what a clean dollar is worth in your numbers
A free 20-minute call: we'll tell you the two or three things that would move your number most before a sale, diligence, or buy. Useful whether you engage us or not.
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