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THE ACCOUNTANT'S CORNER

July 8, 2026

When Should Your Business Hire a Part-Time CFO?

Written by, Brandon Cordoves

There is a stage every growing business hits where the bookkeeping is handled but the big financial questions are not. You know what you spent last month, but you are not sure whether you can afford to hire, expand, or take on debt. That gap is what a CFO fills, and you do not need a full-time one to fill it.

What a CFO Does That a Bookkeeper Does Not

Bookkeeping looks backward. It records what already happened. A CFO looks forward. They use your numbers to plan, forecast, and steer the business. That includes building budgets, projecting cash flow, pricing decisions, evaluating whether a new hire or location pays for itself, and tightening the internal controls that keep money from leaking out.

The Signs You Have Outgrown Basic Accounting

  • You are profitable on paper but never sure where the cash went
  • You are making six-figure decisions on gut feel instead of numbers
  • You want to borrow or bring on an investor and need clean projections
  • Growth has made your finances complex enough that mistakes are getting expensive
  • You spend more time worrying about money than running the business

If two or three of those sound familiar, the issue is not your bookkeeping. It is that no one is doing the strategic financial work.

Why Part-Time Makes Sense

A full-time CFO salary commonly lands between $80,000 and $200,000 a year before benefits. For most small and mid-sized businesses in the Keys, that is not realistic, and frankly it is more CFO than they need. A part-time CFO gives you the same strategic guidance scaled to your size. You get the planning, the forecasting, and the financial sounding board for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

When that CFO is also a CPA who can handle your accounting and taxes, the value compounds. There is no handoff between the person who knows your books and the person setting strategy, because they are the same person.

How Robert Helps

Robert E. Clark serves as an outsourced finance department for Keys businesses: reviewing your financials with you, building budgets and cash flow forecasts, strengthening internal controls, and acting as a liaison to your bank and advisors. Details are on the part-time CFO services page, and you can see how it connects to his accounting and tax work on the small business CPA page.

If the financial questions are keeping you up at night, let’s sit down and talk. Call 305-363-5429 or contact Robert.