Best Virtual CFO Services

Virtual CFO services give you access to a chief financial officer (CFO) who can help your business grow by implementing ways to raise capital, set key performance indicators (KPIs) and review and analyze financials to identify risks and big-hit opportunities. We looked at several companies and narrowed it down to the top five based on costs, services and customer approval.

If you don’t need high-level financial advice but instead are looking for someone to keep your books, then you should consider hiring a full-time bookkeeping services company like Bench. Bench will manage all of the income and expenses for your business and provide monthly financial statements. Contact Bench for a free consultation to get started.

How We Evaluated Virtual CFO Services
An outsourced CFO services company offers many different opportunities to take your business to the next level. From helping you understand the financial health of your business to providing you with valuable financial projections and giving your entire team strategic advice as your business grows. We evaluated the best-outsourced CFO companies by the services they offer, how much they cost and how much their customers found value in what they offered. Listed below are the services we looked for when evaluating the best part-time CFO companies:

• Explain your financial position: Walk you through your financial statements and discuss profits (or losses), any assets you own and outstanding liabilities as well as your cash flow
• Set up an accounting system and tools: If you have an existing accounting system, then the virtual CFO evaluates the system and existing process that you have in place and make recommendations for improvement
• Forecast cash flow: Create a 12-month cash flow projection to ensure you have the cash that you need to cover future obligations
• Manage cash flow: Understand where your money is coming from and where you are spending your money
• Create budget-to-actual reports: Set goals for the year and evaluate periodically to see if you are on track to meet your goals; if not, dig into why for example your expenses are higher than you projected
• Work directly with lenders and investors: Act as your liaison by communicating directly with financial institutions and potential investors to provide the financial documents required to show that you are a good credit risk

Based on this criteria, the best overall virtual CFO services for small businesses is Summit CPA Group. The company not only met but exceeded our list of criteria to include company-wide key performance indicators (KPIs) and detailed reporting by department, team members and projects. Unlike its competitors, all pricing plans include unlimited meetings with you and your team.

Best Overall Virtual CFO Services for Businesses: Summit CPA Group

Summit CPA Group provides detailed performance reporting by project, department and team member. While pricing is a bit steep starting at $3,000 per month, it offers more outsourced CFO services than some of the other competitors, which makes it similar to having a CFO on staff at a fourth of the cost. Summit CPA is ideal for businesses with at least $350,000 in annual revenue because you should have a real need for high-level financial support.

Summit CPA Group Pricing & Features

Summit CPA Group offers three pricing levels between $750 and $1,500 per week. The number of employees you have determines which pricing tier you fall into. All three tiers include financial statements and unlimited scheduled meetings. Beginning with the Controller tier, you get additional CFO features like company-wide KPIs, forecasting and revenue recognition.

Transactional Tier

The Transactional tier is on average $750 per week and includes financial statements, unlimited scheduled meetings and an initial onboarding process. The onboarding process consists of the Summit CPA team looking at your past books, building a forecasting model and set of KPIs. In addition, they audit your financial statements and chart of accounts to gain an understanding of the status of your books.

During the onboarding process, fees could be as much as double due to the additional staff hours required in the first few weeks. The Transactional tier is ideal for a business that has fewer than 10 employees and annual sales are between $300,000 and $1 million. This service is not ideal for a business that has fewer than 10 employees and whose annual sales are below $350,000.

Controller Tier

The Controller tier is about $1,000 per week or $52,000 annually. On top of the features included in the Transactional tier, the controller tier also includes company-wide KPIs, forecasting and revenue recognition. Similar to the Transactional tier, the fees could be double during the onboarding process which will run on average $2,000 per week for the first few weeks as they audit your books.

The Controller tier is ideal for a business with 10 to 20 employees and between $1 million to $20 million in annual sales. This service is not ideal for a business that has fewer than 10 employees and whose annual sales is below $1 million.

Virtual CFO Tier

The Virtual CFO tier is the elite tier at $3,500 per week ($182,000 per year), which is more than three times the annual cost of the Controller tier. This tier includes several features that you won’t find in the Transactional and Controller plans. For example, an evaluation is conducted to determine performance across all projects, team members and departments and custom reports for each department are supplied.

In addition, all bank relationships are managed for you, and there is a periodic in-person director’s meeting. The Virtual CFO tier is ideal for a large business with more than 20 employees and anywhere between $20 million and $40 million in annual sales. If you have several departments and/or locations, the departmental reporting is going to be a huge plus for your business.

What Summit CPA Group Is Missing

When it comes to the number of features included for the cost, I think that Summit CPA Group is leaving out a very large group of small businesses with its steep price points. Many of the services that it has included in its top tier like bank relationships and director meetings are available in ABM and some of their other competitors at a much lower cost.

Summit CPA Group Reviews

Similar to some of its competitors, there were no customer reviews available online for Summit CPA Group as of the writing of this article. However, they do have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and no complaints have been filed.

Where to Find Summit CPA Group

You can sign up for a free 30-minute consultation with Summit CPA Group by logging onto its website. You will have to complete a short form with your name, email address, business name and telephone number. Someone will reach out to you to schedule an appointment. Best Virtual CFO Services for Small Businesses on a Budget: ABusinessManager.com

ABusinessManager.com (ABM) is a company that provides you with virtual CFO services as well as bookkeeping, payroll and tax return prep all under one roof at an affordable monthly price starting at $250 per month. ABM is ideal for businesses that are not quite ready for the full CFO package that includes cash forecasting and regular meetings but still could use some financial help.

ABM Pricing & Features

ABM offers four pricing tiers between $250 and $3,500 per month. All four tiers include bookkeeping services, monthly financial statements, tax planning and business tax return prep. Outside of monthly financial statements, the starter tier does not offer any other CFO services. Both the Established and the Large Corporate tiers are priced much higher but also include many more CFO services than the lower pricing tiers.

ABM Starter

The Starter plan is $250 per month ($3,000 per year) and the most affordable out of the four plans. With this plan, you will get a monthly financial statement package that will include a balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement and a budget to actual comparison. In addition, your business tax return and tax planning are included.

The Starter plan is ideal for a business that is comfortable with their day-to-day bookkeeping process and needs someone to prepare the financial statements and file the required tax returns. If you’re not quite ready for fully outsourced CFO services, this is a great plan to start with, and then you can always upgrade to one of the other three plans that include additional CFO services.

ABM Moving Up

The Moving Up plan is the next plan after the Starter plan. It costs $750 per month ($9,000 per year), three times the cost of the Starter plan. However, in addition to having all of the features included in the Starter plan, it also includes one virtual meeting per month and cash flow management, which involves forecasting future cash flow demands.

Unlike the Starter plan, this plan includes full-service payroll processing for both employees and contractors as well as payroll tax payments and filing payroll tax returns. The Moving Up plan is ideal for a business that is still trying to grasp its financial position and gain a better understanding of its cash inflows and outflows but not quite ready for strategic planning and forecasting.

ABM Established

The Established plan is the third plan which costs $1,200 per month ($14,400 per year). For the additional cost of $5,400 per year, you get many more outsourced CFO services. With this plan, the CFO is the central point of contact for all banking, credit line and loan accounts. The Established plan is ideal for a business that is ready to position themselves for growth. Budgeting and forecasting for a 12-month period give you the opportunity to set goals and track them on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

On top of the services included in the Moving Up plan, you also get two virtual meetings per month vs. the one meeting with the Moving Up plan. In addition, the CFO will do an on-site director’s meeting twice per year at your office. You can utilize both the virtual meetings and the in-person director’s meetings as strategy sessions to ensure that you stay on track (or to get back on track) of meeting your goals.

ABM Large Corporate

The Large Corporate plan is the top-of-the-line plan; it costs $3,500 per month ($42,000 per year). While this might sound a bit steep, it’s really less than a third of the low-end average salary of a full-time CFO. The main differences between this plan and the Established plan are the virtual meetings take place on a weekly basis and the in-person director’s meetings take place four times a year as opposed to just twice a year.

The Large Corporate plan is ideal for a business that wants to have one firm to provide CFO services, bookkeeping, taxes and payroll all under one roof. With this plan, there is no need to hire a bookkeeper or a tax preparer as ABM can take care of all of these services for you.

What ABM Is Missing

While ABM is a great choice for virtual CFO services, it does fall short in a couple of areas. When compared to Summit CPA Group, it doesn’t offer the performance reporting by project, department and team members. In addition, ABM puts a limit on meetings whereas Summit CPA Group allows an unlimited number of meetings as long as they are scheduled in advance.

ABM Reviews

As of the writing of this article, I could not locate any customer reviews for ABM, so I am unable to share with you what customers think about ABM at this time.

Where to Find ABM

To sign up for one of the four ABM plans we’ve discussed, you can give the provider a call or complete a short questionnaire on its website. In addition to basic contact information, you need to provide an estimate of your monthly expenses and select the type of services you need like CFO services, bookkeeping and payroll.

The Bottom Line
We have provided you with a range of companies that provide virtual CFO services. If you want to outsource all of the accounting duties like accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and tax prep work, go with ABusinessManager.com. Its all-inclusive pricing is affordable and provides you with one single source of truth for all of your business finances.

If you’re not quite ready for virtual CFO services but need help to get your books in order, give Bench a try. Bench has a dedicated team of bookkeepers that work with you to get your books up to date and to keep them that way. It also makes tax time a breeze by working directly with your certified public accountant so that you can work on other areas of your business.