FRACTIONAL OR FULL TIME? REVENUE DECIDES.
A capable construction CFO is a six figure salary plus benefits, and the work at $4M doesn't fill the week. Below roughly $12M to $15M of revenue, fractional wins on both cost and capability. Above it, an in house hire starts to win because the volume of decisions justifies someone in the building every day.
The mistake in this comparison is treating it as a cost question, because that framing gets the capability backwards. A $5M contractor who hires the CFO they can afford at that salary level usually gets someone without construction experience, and construction finance is specific enough that general corporate finance doesn't transfer. Job costing against an estimate, WIP and percentage of completion, retention, pay application timing, and bonding are all trade specific. Fractional wins in this band because the money buys expertise instead of hours. Once the revenue supports a genuinely experienced construction CFO at market salary, and there are enough daily decisions to occupy one, the calculation reverses.
WHAT EACH ONE DOES.
| Capability | Fractional CFO | In House CFO |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | A flat monthly fee set by revenue band | Six figure salary plus benefits, bonus and payroll tax |
| Construction specific experience | Across many contractors, already built | Depends entirely on who you can attract at that salary |
| Time to running | 60 day onboarding, structure comes built | Ramp plus designing the structure from scratch |
| Availability | Scheduled cadence plus the monthly meeting | In the building every day |
| Bookkeeping and controllership included | Yes, one engagement with no scope gaps | No, hired separately underneath the CFO |
| Job costing and benchmark library | Existing, 48 trades by revenue band | Built from scratch by the hire |
| Risk if it doesn't work out | Cancel the engagement | A termination, an empty seat, and a rehire |
| Best fit revenue | $1M to about $12M | About $12M to $15M and up |
WHEN YOU NEED THE EXPERTISE, NOT THE HOURS.
Fractional is right between roughly $1M and $12M of revenue, where the CFO work is real and doesn't fill a full week. The decisions that need CFO judgment cluster around the monthly close, the forecast, and bidding, which is a defined amount of work on a defined calendar rather than a constant demand.
The other reason it wins in this band is what the money buys. The same spend that hires a generalist full time buys someone who has done construction finance across many companies, which counts because the failures are trade specific and repeat. There's also no ramp: the job cost structure, the forecast, and the benchmarks come already built rather than being designed from scratch by a new hire.
WHEN THE DECISIONS ARE DAILY.
An in house CFO starts to win above roughly $12M to $15M of revenue, and the trigger is decision volume rather than complexity. When bid go or no go calls, banking and bonding relationships, hiring, and equipment decisions are happening every day, having that judgment in the building rather than on a calendar is worth the salary.
It also becomes the right answer earlier if the company is getting ready for a sale, a large acquisition, or a capital raise, because those processes consume a full time person for months. The condition to watch for is whether there's a full week of CFO level decisions to make. Hiring ahead of that produces an expensive controller.
WHERE WE COME OUT.
For a commercial subcontractor between $1M and $12M, fractional is the right answer, and the deciding factor is capability rather than cost. At that revenue the salary you can offer doesn't reliably attract someone who has run construction finance before, and construction finance is specific enough that the difference is visible in the first quarter. Buying expertise on a cadence beats buying inexperience full time.
Above roughly $15M, hire. The decision volume justifies it and the salary is affordable enough to attract someone genuinely experienced. The transition point is where you notice the monthly cadence is no longer keeping up with how fast decisions need making, and at that stage the right move is to hire and keep the structure that's already running rather than starting over.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
