A second set of eyes on the books, from someone who has carried the seat
Oversight of your bookkeeper or controller by a CFO-grade operator. Monthly close review, account reconciliation audit, revenue recognition and expense cutoff policy, and accounting hygiene that holds up to a buyer, a lender, or an auditor. For $2M to $50M companies where the books need to be trusted before any other work can matter.
The Challenge
You have a bookkeeper or a controller. The monthly financials come out on some version of a schedule. But you cannot fully trust them. Expense categories shift month to month. Revenue recognition is inconsistent. The bank reconciliation is always done, but the balance sheet has line items no one can explain. Retained earnings walked 20 percent year over year and no one can reconstruct why. When you ask your bookkeeper a specific question, the answer is a spreadsheet pulled together in the moment rather than a view from the system.
You do not necessarily need to replace the seat. The bookkeeper or controller may be fine at the mechanical work. What is missing is the layer above: the oversight function that reviews the close, challenges judgment calls, keeps the policy consistent month over month, and catches the errors that only show up when someone who has held the CFO seat looks at the books with a skeptical eye.
Our Approach
We install a monthly close review cadence. Every month, after the books are closed, we run a structured review covering balance sheet integrity, P&L consistency, revenue recognition application, expense cutoff, and account reconciliation quality. Flags and corrections get documented, and the bookkeeper or controller fixes them before the close is declared final. The first one or two months usually surface accumulated issues from prior periods. From month three onward, the review becomes a hygiene function, not a correction function.
We also install the accounting policy layer: documented revenue recognition policy, expense categorization standards, capitalization thresholds, intercompany accounting rules where relevant, and period-end procedures. The policy lives in a written document owned by you, not in the head of the bookkeeper who could leave next month. Books get closed the same way every time, by whoever is in the seat.
What You Get
- Monthly close review with documented findings and required corrections
- Balance sheet integrity check with reconciliation review on all material accounts
- Revenue recognition and expense cutoff policy documented with examples
- Capitalization, intercompany, and period-end procedures documented
- Initial historical cleanup scoped separately if prior-period issues are material
- Written close calendar with owners and deadlines by day of the month
- Audit and buyer-diligence readiness assessment
- Training and feedback loop for the bookkeeper or controller
Engagement Model
Initial setup runs 3 to 4 weeks (policy documentation, close calendar, first review cycle). Standing monthly review cadence thereafter. Standalone engagement or bundled with Fractional CFO. Month-to-month with 30-day notice.
Who It's For
Built for $2M to $50M companies with a bookkeeper or controller in place where leadership does not fully trust the books, where a capital event or audit is on the horizon, or where the monthly close has become a source of anxiety instead of a source of information. Typical triggers are a planned audit or sale, a new lender asking for cleaner reporting, accumulated retained earnings that no one can explain, or a CFO or finance leader who wants a second set of eyes on the close. We are not the right fit for companies without a bookkeeper or controller in place. Those businesses need the execution seat filled first, through Core Books or equivalent, before an oversight layer makes sense.
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Ready to Get Started with Controller & Accounting Oversight?
Schedule a complimentary consultation and we will map out a practical financial plan tailored to your goals.