A virtual CFO firm gives small companies part-time finance leadership through a few senior people backed by analysts. Capacity, month-end timing and the quality of review decide whether clients stay.
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Share your requirementsA virtual CFO service supplies senior finance guidance to small and mid-sized companies that cannot afford a full-time chief financial officer. A senior finance lead meets the owner on a set rhythm, reviews monthly numbers, prepares cash plans, budgets and lender or investor material, and watches the books. Behind that lead sit analysts and accountants who prepare reports and chase data from the client's team. Each lead carries several clients at once, and every client's month-end falls in the same week. Work moves between the client's system and the firm's own files. The firm sells judgement, so the experience of the lead and the care of the analyst show up in every report. See HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in virtual CFO services. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Leads and analysts are stretched across several clients just when the client data arrives, and late nights are expected.
Each extra client feels small until the lead's calendar breaks and calls and reviews slip.
Bank statements, bills and sales files arrive late, and the analyst waits while the report deadline stays fixed.
A junior who builds good models and reports is wanted by a client's own finance team or by a bigger firm.
One lead reads reports closely and another signs on a glance, so errors reach the client unevenly.
Experienced leads can pick their clients and may go solo, taking relationships with them.
When a client moves to a new lead, notes are thin and the client has to explain the business again.
Bank access, tax records and investor plans sit with several staff, and access is rarely reviewed.
Start with the topics that matter most here: HR Analytics and Management Reporting; Retention and Attrition Management; Performance Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a virtual CFO services business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A written limit based on real hours, reviewed each quarter.
A written limit based on real hours, reviewed each quarter. The performance management process can track load.
Fixed dates for client data, first draft, review and delivery, shared with clients at onboarding.
Fixed dates for client data, first draft, review and delivery, shared with clients at onboarding.
A short checklist and a second reviewer for every report before it leaves.
A short checklist and a second reviewer for every report before it leaves. The HR documentation process helps keep it.
From reconciliation to modelling to client presentation, with sign-offs.
From reconciliation to modelling to client presentation, with sign-offs. The learning and development process can set it up.
One page per client with the business, people, tools, risks and open items, updated monthly.
One page per client with the business, people, tools, risks and open items, updated monthly.
A register of who can see which client's accounts, reviewed monthly and cleared on exit.
A register of who can see which client's accounts, reviewed monthly and cleared on exit. See employee information management.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Load limits and review points that keep leads and analysts at a workable pace.
A staged analyst path from bookkeeping to client presentation, so juniors grow in your firm.
Review checklists and handover notes that keep report quality steady.
Clear records of who has access to which client data, and a clean removal on exit.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
6 min readRead article
Six numbers, one page, same format each month. What they are, how to define them so they mean the same thing twice, and what each one tells you.
8 min readRead article
What really keeps mobile app and web developers in a small firm: stay conversations, growth paths, fair release rules and a risk sheet an owner can use this month.
6 min readRead article
A practical design for an IT services appraisal cycle: when to run it, how to rate fairly across projects, and how to explain hikes so they hold.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
It depends on the size and mess of each client, so measure real hours for a quarter and set a cap from that. Keep a margin for month-end peaks.
Show the next step in writing, give them client exposure and review pay against comparable roles. Most leave when they can't see where they will be in a year.
The business, key people, tools, current issues, recent decisions and open items. One page, updated each month.
Set the calendar at onboarding, send reminders and record delays so the client sees the effect on the report.
They might try. Reduce the risk by involving a second person in each client, keeping files on firm systems and agreeing terms reviewed by your lawyer.
We would ask how many clients each lead carries, who reviews reports and what an analyst's path looks like. A good first project is a client cap with a review checklist and a handover note. Scope is written for you to accept or change.
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