A fractional CFO is a senior finance leader engaged part-time on a fixed monthly cadence. Zenith embeds an operator who owns the model, the monthly close, cash and covenant management and the lender or investor relationship — the facility-grade finance function a company needs before it can afford a full-time hire.
Businesses that have drawn a first facility and discovered the reporting obligation is a job, not a spreadsheet.
Too complex for a bookkeeper, too early to carry a full-time CFO and the team beneath one.
Companies where the investor needs reporting discipline installed quickly and permanently.
Businesses preparing for a raise, a sale or a refinancing that cannot run the process and the month-end at once.
Phase
Phase
Phase
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Typical duration | 6 – 24 months, minimum term 6 months |
| Who embeds | One CFO-level operator, supported by an analyst where scope requires |
| Commitment | 2 – 8 days per month |
| Reporting cadence | Monthly close within 10 working days; weekly cash |
| Deliverables | Operating model, board pack, lender pack, covenant certificates, 13-week cash |
| Handover point | On a permanent CFO hire — specification, recruitment support, 4 – 8 week overlap |
Commercial model
A fixed monthly fee set by cadence, agreed in writing. No equity, no lock-in beyond the agreed term, and no success fee — the incentive should sit on the reporting being right, not on a transaction happening.
A facility finance function, not a statutory one: borrowing-base certificates, covenant testing before the lender tests it, and monthly reporting on the facility's schedule rather than the audit's.
Channel-level contribution margin, cohort retention and inventory reporting rebuilt from order data, on a monthly cadence.
Velocity by door, channel mix and gross margin after trade spend, reported to the standard a strategic buyer applies.
Runway, grant and milestone accounting, and a board pack that survives a diligence pass — for science teams where the finance function has not yet caught up with the raise.
Model ownership through development and construction, with drawdown mechanics, CP tracking and lender reporting run by someone who has closed a financing before.
Costing, working-capital discipline and a driver-based model that ties volume, price and input cost together — the three things a credit committee will move against you.
Asset-level reporting, covenant monitoring and cash management across owning entities, consolidated into one view a lender can read without a call.
Running the reporting a credit facility actually commits you to
Borrowing-base calculation, covenant compliance testing, and monthly lender reporting operated as an ongoing service
An accountant records what happened. A CFO decides what happens next — pricing, runway, capital structure, covenant headroom and the conversation with the people funding all of it.
Typically within two to three weeks of scope agreement, and the diagnostic runs in the first month alongside the existing close rather than replacing it.
The engagement steps down into a documented handover and ends. That is the intended outcome, and the successor specification is written during the engagement rather than after it.
No. Fees are cash and fixed. An adviser whose reporting opinion is tied to their own equity outcome is worth less to a lender, which is the audience that matters here.
They run the numbers and the diligence response inside it. Where the raise needs a full process, it is scoped separately under fundraise readiness or the relevant capital markets mandate.
Almost always. The team keeps the ledger; the operator owns the model, the pack and the external relationships, and lifts the standard of both over the term.
Tell us the transaction and the timetable. If it is not something we should run, we will say so.
