Earlier this year Callum Borchers, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote an article called “These Professionals Aren’t Retired, they Just Have Zero to Prove.” The article highlighted successful professionals living what has been dubbed “a post-achievement lifestyle.” These professionals are high achievers who found enough success early in their careers that they no longer need to engage in the daily office grind to bring in a regular paycheck. Some have socked away enough money to live lavishly for the rest of their lives and some have just enough to maintain their current lifestyle. And now, they are focused on maintaining a work-life balance on their own terms. Many are still working in some capacity or another – in part-time (fractional) capacities or on hobby projects – but all are focused on living the life that they worked hard to build early in their careers. The article got a lot of people talking!

Preparation and expert guidance are key for successful middle-market business acquisitions, sales, and mergers. In this comprehensive guide to buying and selling businesses, our expert CFOs provide all the finance and accounting information you need when entering into a transaction. It covers:

• Transaction structures
• Buyer analyses and considerations
• Buy-side and sell-side finance/accounting transaction support
• Buyer-side and seller-side due diligence
• Business sale best practices

READY OR NOT?

Owners and CEOs of middle-market companies may encounter a business acquisition or divestiture opportunity without the benefit of prior transaction experience. Likewise, such organizations may be supported by a finance and accounting function that has not participated in the purchase or sale of a business. Yet, a first-time business buyer or seller must assess its level of preparedness for a transaction regardless.

While investment bankers and other advisors are well-positioned to initiate transactions, and provide guidance throughout the process, the company’s own management team – particularly in the area of finance and accounting – may need to be augmented by additional deal-experienced resources.

The assessment by a first-time buyer or seller of the transaction-readiness of its finance and accounting resources is an important step toward achieving the objective of accelerating the completion of a transaction while minimizing the disruption of the underlying business.

As fractional CFOs (Chief Operating Officers) we get a lot of questions about COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and SG&A expenses from our clients. They want to know how to classify different types of expenses, which one to focus on when trying to control costs, how to think about them when evaluating business opportunities, and what kind of impact each can have on profitability. As such, their questions often span the two interconnected worlds of accounting and finance.

From an accounting perspective, categorizing expenses correctly helps to ensure regulatory compliance and aids in ongoing cash flow management. While from a finance perspective, understanding their impact on revenue growth allows for effective long-term financial management. For these reasons, having a firm handle on the difference between SG&A and COGS is a critical component to running any business.

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
- Alan K. Simpson

Originally published: 6/30/2021
Updated: 5/10/2024

Integrity in finance should be the foundation of a lasting bond between a business and its clients. Everyone wants to believe the promises that a company makes to them with respect to safeguarding their interests. But how many organizations can follow through on those promises? 

In an ideal world, we would have absolute trust in our financial institutions, advisors, and government regulators. Unfortunately, history and public sentiment tell us a different story. Sure, ethics and integrity still exist in finance. And those organizations are the ones that will consistently find success. 

As fractional CFOs and Controllers our team engages with organizations in either a short-term or part-time capacity. One area where we often lend our expertise is in ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and MRP (Material Requirements Planning) installations. Properly implementing and managing the accounting and finance elements of these systems requires a depth of financial acumen that is best suited for an experienced CFO to handle because there are wide reaching business implications to consider with this type of strategic execution.

In the many years that we have been helping clients with accounting systems conversions, we have noticed the same pitfalls tend to trip up organizations time and again. We are sharing those with you today in the hopes that calling them out can serve as cautionary lessons to help you avoid moving forward with an accounting system conversion that you will end up regretting later.

Originally published: Dec 20, 2022
Updated: April 8, 2024

According to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) the U.S. job market has finally ushered in positive employment growth after several years of decline. However, growth is occurring far slower than employment analysts would have liked to see. In the nonprofit space, hiring remains challenging, especially within more skilled, technical, and senior-level roles.

How should nonprofit organizations overcome today’s hiring challenges?

As outsourced CFOs we are brought in to assist in a variety of situations across many different types of organizations. Every instance is unique in terms of what kind of financial position they are in, where they are excelling and/or struggling operationally, and what they are looking to get help with across their financial functions. As a result, their expectations can get hazy for the consulting CFO coming into the role. When this unclear view of what a fractional CFO should be doing is combined with financial management activities that are (either unintentionally or purposefully) against best practices or downright unethical, an outsourced CFO can find themselves in a sticky situation.

So, whether you are a consulting CFO looking for advice or a business leader looking for an idea of what to expect from the engagement, we have put together a quick resource to offer some guidance on how external CFOs handle ethical questions and issues.

If you’re looking to hire a CFO, have you stopped to consider whether you actually need one? Too often companies, especially successful small to mid-sized companies, rightly understand that they need strong financial leadership to maintain their growth and incorrectly conclude that they need to hire a full-time CFO to get it.

Now, as a company comprised entirely of seasoned CFOs and Controllers, we certainly understand the importance of having this kind of strong financial leadership! However, our experience also allows us to understand that executive financial leadership is not one-size-fits-all.

Often, companies that think they need an in-house CFO are better served by utilizing a fractional CFO or Controller instead. This is especially true for businesses below $50M in revenue, because at that level either the primary responsibilities of an in-house CFO are not needed, or they are handled by the business owner/CEO. What this means for your company is you may not need a CFO …at least in the traditional sense of the role!