CFO Services: When Your Business Needs a Finance Expert (and How Visory Can Help)

As your business graduates from a small operation to an organisation with a full back office, you’ll need to hire new financial experts. Growing your business requires careful planning and forecasting. But, what if you’re not quite ready to pay the salary of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO)? That’s where virtual CFO services come in handy.  

A part-time, remote CFO leads your team onward and upward without eating up your back office budget. You can even use a virtual CFO to attract a potential buyer if you want to position your company to be acquired. Let Visory help you determine when you need a CFO and how to leverage CFO services to expand your business. 

What is a CFO and what do they do?

A CFO plays a vital role in any growing company. In fact, enterprise businesses absolutely need this position to scale and succeed. This is because a CFO goes above and beyond daily accounting duties. While your accountant is running payroll and keeping the general ledger in line, your CFO is taking a bird’s eye view of your organisation. 

Your CFO may handle business strategy, budget modelling, and reports for stakeholders. A Chief Financial Officer also takes on the tasks of advising executive boards, managing cash flow, and forecasting the revenue of the product pipeline. In other words, a CFO is responsible for big picture financial decisions and projections. The best CFOs can spot a financial windfall possibility and also catch an upcoming revenue fall before it happens. 

How CFO services can help your business

CFO services can do what a day-to-day bookkeeper or accountant may not have the time or experience to do — tackle the overall financial health of your organisation and help strategise for the future. 

It’s also worth noting that company directors in Australia, including CFOs, have a duty of care and diligence under both general law and the Corporations Act 2001. You want to have an experienced leader in this role. 

Here are some ways adding a virtual CFO service to your business can help push your business to the next level. 

• Expert reporting. Your directors may be called upon to file reports to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Having a CFO on hand makes this process easier. The CFO will have enough knowledge of your company’s finances to declare that your company can pay its debts, has a culture of accurate financial reporting, and is in compliance with any government standards. 
• Internal management. Other financial team members, including accountants, often fall under the leadership of the CFO. Having this position filled means other executive members can free up their time instead of tracking the moves of the finance department. 
• Strategic advice. An experienced CFO knows how to grow the financial health of a company. You have an in-house financial advisor at all times. Your CFO will make sense of financial information and use your books to define business goals, opportunities, growth rate. 
• Capital management. When you need to raise capital, just having a CFO helps you look more stable. Even a team of outsourced CFO services is an advantage. Your CFO will present a compelling financial picture to lure in potential investors and lenders. 

Advantages of outsourcing a CFO

When you want to scale your business fast, virtual CFO services are a cost-effective solution. You won’t have to budget for a competitive full-time CFO salary (or benefits) to access the expert strategy a CFO can offer. 

Visory services are an extension of your business. Bringing a virtual CFO into the squad isn’t like having a vendor — your finance expert will understand your industry inside and out and become a trusted team member. Outsourcing your CFO to a virtual service also means you save the time and expense of interviewing candidates. As a result, you can drive your business and remain competitive without taking a month or more to hire the perfect full-time CFO. 

Financial growth is challenging in the best of conditions. A CFO can help you resolve any bumps in the road and offer their experience. An outsourced CFO becomes a member of your financial team without the cost of a full-time salary, which can be music to the ears of small-to-medium size businesses. For those businesses which are on the road to becoming an enterprise-level company, a virtual CFO is often a secret to success. Contact Visory today to learn more about how a virtual team can help businesses of almost any size reach the next level.