A full-time CFO costs $150,000–$250,000 per year in salary. A fractional CFO costs $23,000–$100,000 per year depending on revenue. Here is when each makes sense — and the breakeven point.
A full-time CFO at a $5M construction subcontractor earns more than many job site PMs and produces financial reports 40 hours per week whether the business needs 40 hours of CFO attention or not. Most $3M–$12M subcontractors need 10–15 hours per month of genuine CFO attention — the monthly financial review, oversight of the billing calendar, overhead rate validation, and periodic strategic conversations. A full-time hire funds 150 hours per month to fill 15.
A full-time CFO hire includes salary plus health insurance, retirement contribution, payroll taxes, office space, and recruiting cost (typically 15–20% of first-year salary for a placed hire). Total all-in cost for a $180,000 CFO is $220,000–$240,000 per year before any results are produced. A fractional CFO engagement starts producing results in month one at a fraction of that cost.
Finding a full-time CFO with construction subcontractor experience — job costing, WIP reporting, pay app billing, prevailing wage overhead — is difficult and expensive. Most CFOs available at the $150,000–$200,000 price point have general accounting or corporate finance backgrounds. SPM brings construction-specific expertise from day one, built from working inside 50+ subcontractor financials per month.
SPM's fractional CFO engagement includes: ControlQore setup and ongoing management, job costing by phase, monthly WIP reporting, cash flow forecasting, overhead rate calculation, billing calendar management, AR audit and collections system, and monthly CFO advisory meeting. The owner spends approximately 5 hours per month on financials. Everything else is handled.
At $15M–$25M in revenue with significant complexity — multiple entities, bonding at $5M+ single-project limits, acquisition or exit planning, lender reporting requirements, or a CFO who will also manage an accounting team — the full-time model becomes cost-competitive. Below that threshold, the fractional model is almost always the better economic decision.
Some contractors at $8M–$15M use SPM as the fractional CFO while building toward a full-time hire. SPM builds the financial system, produces the reporting, and runs the monthly close. When the business reaches the complexity threshold for a full-time CFO, the financial system is already in place — the new hire inherits a functioning ControlQore setup, 24+ months of WIP history, and clean financial reporting rather than starting from scratch.
The right comparison is not fractional versus full-time. It is: does this engagement produce the financial system visibility — job-level profitability, WIP reporting, overhead rate accuracy, cash flow forecasting — that the business needs? SPM produces that system at $23,000–$102,000 per year. A full-time hire produces the same system at $220,000–$260,000 per year plus recruiting cost. The title does not determine the outcome.
This contractor was considering a full-time controller hire at $95,000 before engaging SPM. The SPM Executive Financial engagement at $6,900/month ($82,800/year) produced full job costing, WIP reporting, and monthly CFO advisory.
Collected in month one — more than the annual SPM fee.
With a financial system in place that scales to the next revenue level without a new hire.
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