Fractional CFO vs Full-Time CFO in Austin
Hire a fractional CFO when the decisions are hard but not daily. Hire a full-time CFO when finance decisions can't wait for a scheduled call.
Almost every article on this question answers it with a revenue number. Somewhere around $5M you're told to consider fractional, and past $20M you're told to go full-time. Those numbers make for clean advice and they are the wrong test.
I've seen $30M businesses run comfortably on a fractional arrangement and $6M businesses that genuinely needed someone in the building. Revenue tells you how big you are. It doesn't tell you how complicated you are.
The test that actually works
Ask how often a finance decision has to be made without warning.
If your hard questions arrive on a rhythm, monthly close, quarterly board pack, an annual budget, a raise every couple of years, then fractional fits. The work is scheduled, deep, and periodic.
If your hard questions arrive at 4pm on a Tuesday and cannot wait until Thursday's call, you need someone full-time. That's usually driven by one of four things: multiple entities or currencies, covenant-heavy debt, an active acquisition programme, or a finance team large enough to need daily management.
None of those are revenue. All of them are complexity.
The third answer nobody gives you
Sometimes the honest answer is neither, yet.
A CFO turns financial data into decisions. If the underlying data is wrong, a CFO produces confident, expensive mistakes faster than you were making them before.
I've looked at businesses whose gross margins swung wildly month to month and been asked to find the unprofitable product line. The margins were swinging because revenue was being recognised in the wrong period, not because any product was underwater. Analysing that data would have produced a decisive answer to the wrong question.
If your monthly numbers don't tie to your bank, fix that first. It's cheaper, faster, and it makes everything after it work.
What each option actually costs you
| Fractional CFO | Full-time CFO | Controller | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Periodic high-stakes decisions | Daily high-stakes decisions | Accurate recording |
| Looks | Forward | Forward | Backward |
| Commitment | Month to month | Salary, equity, severance | Salary |
| Ramp | Days | Three to six months | Weeks |
| Fails when | Decisions can't wait | Complexity doesn't justify cost | You need strategy, not accuracy |
The controller column matters more than people expect. A large share of companies who think they want a CFO want reliable monthly numbers, which is a controller's job. Buying a CFO to get that is expensive.
Working with me
I'm Ben Cohen, founder of Visionary Arc Finance. I spent four years at PwC as a Senior Manager advising Fortune 500 and global clients, and before that ran acquisition and divestiture operations in-house at Johnson & Johnson.
Engagements are delivered remotely to Austin and Central Texas companies, generally $2M to $50M in revenue. You work with me, not an account manager.
If a call suggests you need cleaner monthly reporting rather than a CFO, I'll say so. That's a cheaper problem and you should solve it before hiring anyone.
Common questions
Can a fractional CFO become full-time later?
Often that's the right path. I'll help you write the job description, benchmark comp, and interview finalists. Handing over to a permanent hire with the models and reporting already built is a much easier start for them.
How is this different from my CPA?
Your CPA files taxes and keeps you compliant, looking backward at a period that has closed. A CFO looks forward at decisions that haven't been made. Both matter. Neither replaces the other, and I work alongside yours rather than around them.
Do you need to be in Austin?
No. Forecasting, modelling, reporting, and decision support happen over calls and shared files. I work remotely with US companies and keep US hours. You get senior finance experience without paying for anyone's office.