Fractional controller services: the numbers, closed monthly

What a fractional controller does

A controller owns whether the numbers are right and readable. Beyond recording transactions, a controller reconciles every balance sheet account, reviews coding, posts adjusting entries and closes the month so the income statement means what it says, then builds the reporting pack, refreshes the forecast and keeps the file lender-ready.

Fractional means buying the function, not the person. A growing business rarely has a month of controller work each month; it has a few predictable days, done for a fee fixed in writing. The CPA who closes the month prepares the T2 at year end, so the year end stops being an excavation.

The month-end close, to a checklist

The close is the controller’s core deliverable and the thing most small-business finance functions do not actually have. Not “the bank is reconciled” — every balance sheet account reconciled and supported, on a stated working day each month, so the income statement below it can be trusted. The close page lists the full checklist; the shape of it is:

• Bank, credit card and loan accounts reconciled to statements, with every reconciling item explained rather than carried.
• Receivables and payables agreed to the sub-ledgers, aged, and reviewed for anything that is not going to be collected or is already paid.
• Sales tax accounts agreed to the returns filed, GST and any provincial tax kept apart.
• Payroll liabilities agreed to the remittances made; accruals and prepaids rolled forward; fixed asset additions recorded and depreciation posted.
• Intercompany and shareholder loan balances agreed both ways; a short list of open items with an owner and a date.

The date matters more than the detail. A close that lands on the same working day every month can be built on; one that lands “when the bookkeeping is caught up” cannot.

Budget, forecast and the thirteen-week cash view

The controller maintains the model; the owner or a fractional CFO sets assumptions. The annual budget is built from how the business earns, not last year plus ten per cent, and the forecast rolls monthly against actuals. Alongside runs a thirteen-week cash forecast: weekly receipts and payments, calendar obligations and the tight week, shown in time to act.

Audit, review and lender readiness

The fifth deliverable is a file that can be opened by someone else: a bank testing a covenant, a purchaser’s accountant in diligence, a review engagement, a CRA review. Each asks for the same supporting file, and a controller keeps it assembled month by month rather than reconstructed under a deadline. Audit and review readiness sets out what that file contains.

What it costs, and why it is priced by the month

The fractional controller engagement starts at $1,650 a month plus bookkeeping from $325 a month, fixed in writing after we review your enquiry. It depends on transaction volume, entities and the state of the books on day one. The fractional CFO tier starts at $2,750 a month, alone or combined. Every figure is on the published fees page.

It is priced monthly because that is the unit of the work: twelve closes, twelve forecast rolls, twelve packs a year. An hourly rate would meter the conversations the engagement exists to have.

Part-time controller or full-time hire

A full-time controller means a salary plus employer costs, and a business under about thirty staff rarely has a month of controller work each month; usually it has a week. The fractional arrangement covers that with a CPA’s sign-off and no recruiting risk, and when a full-time hire comes, the checklist and model are ready.

How the engagement runs

1. An email enquiry. What the business does, what the books look like, what you cannot currently answer. You leave with a fixed monthly fee in writing.
2. Setup month. Access to the accounting file and bank feeds, the chart of accounts tidied, the close checklist agreed and the close date set. Anything behind is brought current first.
3. The first close and the first pack. Delivered on the agreed working day and walked through with you on a video call.
4. Every month after. Close, pack, forecast refresh, open-items list. A question between closes is answered by the same person, without a bill.

Everything runs remotely: documents by secure upload link or straight from the bank feed, meetings by video, approvals by e-signature. A business in Vancouver, Calgary or Toronto gets exactly the engagement an Abbotsford one does.

Common questions