What's the difference between an outsourced CFO and an accountant?

An accountant reports what has already happened and files what HMRC and Companies House require. An outsourced CFO owns the forward-looking work: cash forecasting, pricing, hiring plans, funding, and board reporting. Most SMEs need both.

How many days a month does an outsourced CFO typically work?

Most engagements sit between 1 and 4 days a month. Businesses under £3m turnover usually need 1 to 2 days. Businesses £3m to £15m tend to need 2 to 4 days, with more during a funding round or acquisition.

Does an outsourced CFO do bookkeeping or file tax returns?

No. Bookkeeping and statutory filings sit with a bookkeeper and an accountant. An outsourced CFO focuses on decisions: forecasting, pricing, funding, and commercial strategy. Trying to combine the roles dilutes both.

How quickly can an outsourced CFO start adding value?

Within 30 to 60 days you should have clean monthly management accounts, a rolling 13-week cash forecast, and a one-page dashboard of the numbers that matter. If that isn't in place after 60 days, the engagement isn't working.

What does an outsourced CFO do? A plain-English guide for UK SMEs

Q: How much does an outsourced CFO cost in the UK?

Roughly £1,500 to £2,500 a month for one day, £2,500 to £5,000 for two days, and £5,000 to £9,000 for three or four days. Compare that with £110,000 to £180,000 fully loaded for a full-time CFO.

"CFO" gets used loosely. In practice, an outsourced CFO does a specific job: they own the numbers a founder needs to run the business, and they translate them into decisions.

Here's what that looks like in a UK SME, and where the role starts and stops.

The short version

An outsourced CFO is a senior finance leader who works with your business part-time, usually 1 to 4 days a month, without sitting on your payroll. They own forward-looking finance: cash flow, forecasting, pricing, margin, funding, and the numbers behind big decisions.

They don't do bookkeeping, they don't file your tax return, and they don't run payroll. Those are separate jobs (see our accounting services).

Outsourced CFO vs accountant vs bookkeeper

The three roles get muddled all the time. Here's the split:

Bookkeeper: records what happened. Invoices, receipts, bank reconciliation, VAT returns. Focused on the past week.
Accountant: reports what happened and files what's required. Year-end accounts, corporation tax, Self Assessment. Focused on the past year.
CFO: decides what to do next. Cash forecasting, pricing, hiring plans, funding, board reporting. Focused on the next 12 to 24 months.

You need all three, in some form. In a small business the accountant often covers basic advice too. Once decisions get bigger than the accountant's monthly touchpoint, a CFO fills the gap.

What an outsourced CFO actually does in a month

A typical monthly rhythm looks like:

Week 1: month-end review

Sign off the previous month's management accounts.
Compare actuals to budget and last month.
Flag anything material to the founder (margin drop, cash burn, one-offs).

Week 2: cash and forecasting

Update the 13-week cash flow forecast.
Update the full-year P&L forecast.
Model the next hire, price change, or investment.

Week 3: decisions and reporting

Board pack or founder update: 4-6 pages, key numbers, key decisions, key risks.
Sit in on a leadership meeting.
Review one commercial issue in depth (pricing, a customer contract, a new product line).

Week 4: forward planning

Update the 3-year plan or refresh the annual budget.
Handle lender, investor, or bank conversations.
One-off projects: R&D claim, share options, funding round, acquisition modelling.

Between weeks, they're on call for the founder's finance questions.

What outsourced CFOs don't do

Data entry: no bookkeeping, no invoicing, no receipts. That work sits with a bookkeeper.
Statutory filings: no year-end accounts, no corporation tax, no VAT returns. That's the accountant.
Payroll and pensions: usually handled by a payroll bureau or your accountant.
Chasing debtors: they'll design the process; they won't chase invoices.

The value is in seniority, not volume of transactions.

When does a business need one?

Rough triggers:

Turnover £1m to £20m and growing.
Founder spending more than a day a week on finance decisions they don't feel qualified to make alone.
Board or investor reporting now expected but no one internally owns it.
Funding round, sale, or acquisition on the horizon.
Recent hire, price change, or expansion that made cash flow harder to predict.

Below £1m, the accountant is usually enough. Above roughly £15m to £20m, you'll want to think about a full-time finance director instead.

How much does an outsourced CFO cost in the UK?

Typical UK monthly ranges:

Light-touch CFO (1 day a month): £1,500 to £2,500.
Standard engagement (2 days a month): £2,500 to £5,000.
Heavy engagement or funding cycle (3-4 days a month): £5,000 to £9,000.

Compare that with the fully-loaded cost of a full-time CFO in the UK, which sits between £110k and £180k including employer NIC, pension, and benefits. Outsourced makes sense until the business genuinely needs someone in-seat every day.

Full compare in fractional CFO vs full-time CFO.

What good looks like

A good outsourced CFO stops the founder guessing. Within 60 days you should have:

Clean monthly management accounts you actually read.
A rolling 13-week cash forecast that survives contact with reality.
A one-page dashboard of the 6-8 numbers that matter for your business.
A view on the next 3 hires, the next price change, and the next funding conversation.

If those aren't in place, the engagement isn't working.

Working with us

Calibra CFO is our outsourced CFO service. It's built for UK founder-led businesses between £1m and £20m turnover. See Calibra CFO or get in touch for a scoping conversation.