Almost nobody in this market publishes a rate. That is the first thing worth noticing, because it means every comparison you have been given so far came from a conversation in which the other party knew your budget and you did not know their price.
Ours are published in full. This is what the bands actually contain.
The market range
Fractional CFO retainers in the US generally run between $3,000 and $12,000 a month. The spread is not seniority. It is scope, and specifically how much of the accounting function is bundled underneath the advisory layer.
Our retainers start at $1,750 a month, which is below that range because we scope the seat narrowly and price the bookkeeping separately rather than bundling it invisibly.
| Monthly | What it typically buys | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| $1,750 to $3,000 | Monthly close review, board pack, rolling forecast, one scheduled session | Pre-seed to seed, one entity, books already clean |
| $3,000 to $6,000 | The above plus scenario work, investor reporting, cash management, ad-hoc access | Seed to Series A, a live raise, a lender relationship |
| $6,000 to $12,000 | The above plus managing a finance team, multi-entity consolidation, transaction support | Series A to C, or any live transaction |
| Above $12,000 | Usually a full-time seat priced as a retainer | Compare against a permanent hire instead |
What actually drives the number
4 things move the price, and revenue is not one of them. A $2m business with 3 entities and a lender is more work than an $8m business with one entity and no debt.
- The state of the books. This is the largest single factor. A clean ledger closed by day 8 costs a fraction of one that needs rebuilding before anything can be reported from it.
- Entity and currency count. Consolidation, intercompany and translation are monthly work.
- Who reads the output. An internal pack is cheaper than an investor pack, which is cheaper than a lender pack with covenant testing.
- Whether anything is live. A raise, an acquisition or a diligence process changes both the volume and the response time required.
If a quote arrives without anyone asking how long your close takes, it was priced off your revenue rather than your work.
How it compares with a permanent hire
A startup CFO base salary runs $180,000 to $240,000. Loaded with payroll taxes, benefits and amortised recruitment cost, the real annual number is near $260,000, plus equity typically between 0.5% and 2%.
At $1,750 a month that is $21,000 a year. At $6,000 a month it is $72,000. Even the top of the fractional market is roughly a third of a permanent seat, before equity.
That gap is not an argument to stay fractional forever. It is an argument to be precise about when the crossover arrives, which for most businesses is somewhere between 40 and 60 employees or the first live transaction with an internal counterparty.
What you should not be paying for
- Hourly billing on advisory work. It prices the wrong thing and makes you hesitate before asking a question, which is the opposite of what the seat is for. We do not bill advisory hourly at all.
- Bookkeeping bundled at CFO rates. If the retainer includes transaction capture, ask what it would cost separately. Bookkeeping starts at $350 a month.
- Software you already pay for. Some retainers include a reporting tool at a markup.
- A minimum term. There is no reason for one. Ours has no lock-in.
3 questions to ask any provider
- Who specifically does the work each month, and who reviews it before it reaches me?
- What is excluded from this fee, and what does the first excluded thing cost?
- What happens in the month I need twice as much? Is that a conversation or an invoice?
The answers to those three tell you more than the number does. A published rate card answers the second one before you ask.
The honest caveat
If your books are not reliable, no CFO retainer at any price produces a board pack you can trust. Fix capture first. It is cheaper, faster and it makes everything above it cost less.