CONSTRUCTION FRACTIONAL CFO RED FLAGS: FIVE SIGNS IT'S THE WRONG FIRM.
Most construction owners who have had a bad fractional CFO experience describe the same thing: generic financial management, no WIP, no cost-to-complete, bookkeeping and advisory coming from two different sources with nothing tying them together, and a CFO advising on cash flow off data that was 3 weeks old. The five red flags on this page are the diagnostic that would have caught the problem before the engagement started. SPM passes all five, and the questions on this page are the questions to ask SPM as well.
None of these five require an accounting background to check. You can run all of them in one 30-minute conversation, and the answers separate a construction CFO from a generalist who takes construction clients. That distinction is worth checking hard, because the cost of getting it wrong isn't the monthly fee. It's a year of financial statements you can't use, a WIP schedule your surety doesn't believe, and the same cash problems you had before, twelve months later with less runway left to fix them.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A fractional CFO red flag is a specific, checkable sign that a firm can't run construction financial management, findable before the engagement starts rather than eight months into it.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR BEFORE YOU SIGN.
Red flag 01: no construction operations experience
A fractional CFO who has never been on a construction job site, has never managed a project, and doesn't understand the operational context of WIP, change orders, pay-when-paid, and retainage will produce generic financial management. The test is two questions. Ask them to explain how cost-to-complete relates to the WIP schedule, and ask how a pay-when-paid clause affects collections strategy. If the answers are vague or academic, the construction-specific experience isn't there.
Red flag 02: a split between the bookkeeping and the CFO advisory
A common failure mode is the bookkeeper doing the transactions without being the CFO, and the CFO giving advice without access to the current books. The CFO ends up working from secondhand data 2 to 4 weeks late, produced by a bookkeeper they don't supervise, so the advice is stale before it's delivered. Ask who does the bookkeeping, who does the close, and who produces the cost-to-complete. All three should be the same team or directly supervised by the CFO function, with no scope gaps between them.
Red flag 03: no construction-specific financial instruments
A fractional CFO who doesn't produce WIP schedules, doesn't understand percentage-of-completion accounting, and can't build a cost-to-complete from field data isn't a construction CFO. Three instruments aren't optional in this business: the WIP schedule, the cost-to-complete on every active job, and a 13-week cash forecast modeled around billing events rather than calendar months. If a firm can't show you all three, they're doing small business accounting with construction clients.
Red flag 04: pricing so low it can't cover the labor
A fractional CFO engagement priced under $800 to $1,000 per month can't include real bookkeeping, real CFO advisory, and real financial management for a $2M to $5M contractor. The hours don't exist at that price. Price is a signal of scope and quality in professional services, and a fee that looks too good usually means one of the three pieces is missing or is being done by somebody junior with no review.
Red flag 05: guaranteed outcomes and turnaround-guru language
Any fractional CFO who guarantees a specific financial outcome, as in we guarantee you'll increase profit by X percent, is making a promise nobody can keep. Financial outcomes depend on the contractor following through on the changes, on the business environment, and on dozens of operational factors a CFO function doesn't control. A firm that will promise a number to win the engagement will manage the same way once they have it.
FIVE QUESTIONS, AND THE ANSWERS TO LISTEN FOR.
A good answer is specific about method, basis, and timing. It says which basis percent complete is calculated on, and it says when the schedule gets produced. A vague answer here is the fastest way to identify a firm that has read about WIP without producing one. SPM's answer is WIP from closed books monthly, on a physical progress basis, documented in writing.
The answer you want describes a single integrated team, not two separate vendors who email each other. Ask how long it takes for a transaction to reach the CFO who is advising you. SPM's answer is that bookkeeping and CFO advisory are one team with no scope gaps, which is why the advice runs off current books rather than a month-old export.
The answer should list specific outputs and say what the owner does with each one. A monthly package nobody acts on is just a report. SPM's monthly deliverables are the CEO Report, cost-to-complete on every active project, and the 13-week cash forecast, and the monthly meeting is where the owner works through them and leaves with action items.
Legitimate firms have documented outcomes they can share, and anonymized is acceptable. What you're testing is whether the outcomes are specific enough to be real: revenue size, trade, what changed, and over what period. A firm that can only offer general praise has either not produced outcomes or can't describe them.
The five questions are published here because SPM expects to answer them too. The answers are the same every time they get asked: monthly WIP from closed books on a physical progress basis, bookkeeping and CFO advisory in one team, a monthly package of CEO Report plus cost-to-complete plus 13-week forecast, documented client outcomes available on request, and no guaranteed profit percentage, because that's not a promise anybody can keep.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing, no payroll, and no add-ons.
Pricing
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
