Professional Services

Situation

A professional services firm delivering project-based advisory work experienced the sudden departure of its CFO. While the business continued to grow, the finance function lacked senior leadership, and management had limited visibility into utilization, project margins, and cash flow. Monthly reporting was delayed, and forecasts were unreliable. The company was not pursuing a sale, but leadership needed experienced financial oversight to stabilize the function and support day-to-day decision-making.

Our Role

We were engaged to step in as fractional CFO and assume responsibility for financial leadership. Working alongside the internal accounting team, we improved reporting cadence, refined utilization and project margin reporting, and introduced rolling forecasts and cash flow projections. We also supported leadership with budgeting, performance analysis, and communication with lenders and external stakeholders.

Outcome

Management regained timely, decision-useful financial insight within the first few months. Forecast accuracy improved, cash visibility increased, and leadership was able to make operating decisions with greater confidence. The company successfully navigated the CFO transition and later recruited a permanent CFO from a position of stability rather than urgency.