CFO: outsourced or in-house?

A CFO plays an important role in a growing business, bridging the gap between accounting and management. They are responsible for overseeing the financial operations of a business including budgeting, cash flow management and financial reporting.

Unfortunately hiring a CFO can be cost-prohibitive for many small businesses and start-ups who simply can’t afford to hire an in-house CFO. But there is a cost effective alternative to this – using outsourced CFO services.

Outsourced CFO services

Outsourcing your CFO services provides many advantages such as cost-effectiveness, convenience and flexibility. Most small businesses can’t afford to pay a full time CFO so the option of outsourcing enables them to only pay for what they need while saving on overheads such as payroll, employee benefits and office space.

Outsourcing CFO services can be scaled to your business needs which provides the convenience of using an outsourced CFO only for what you need especially if you’re still in the scaling phase of your business and don’t require full-time financial support.

Outsourced CFOs are much easier, quicker and more convenient to hire than a full-time CFO and bring with them industry wide experience. Plus when you outsource your CFO responsibilities you don’t just get the expertise of one person, you also get the skills and experience of the other financial leaders, and team they work with.

It also takes less time for an outsourced CFO to familiarise themselves with your business thanks to their experience working with businesses in the middle of various situations and processes, so they know how to hit the ground running to achieve your business goals.

In-house CFO

On the other hand, if your business has reached a point where you need financial guidance on a full-time basis, then hiring an in-house CFO makes sense. Having an in-house CFO ensures they know your business inside and out and are able to provide full-time financial advice and support.

But, if your business isn’t at this point yet, then outsourcing your CFO services is the most viable option. At DFK Varnay Laurence we can provide outsourced CFO services for your business which are a cost effective alternative to getting access to strategic and financial advice from an experienced CFO.

As part of our outsourced CFO services, we can provide everything an in-house CFO provides such as helping with major financial decisions, mitigating risk, maintaining compliance and ensuring continuity of service.

We work with you to achieve continuous improvements across all parts of the finance function from strategic planning, process improvement, analysis or software implementation.