Professional services firms with 5 to 100 FTE already on Microsoft 365. Sponsors are owners, CFOs, controllers, or operations leaders who can green‑light a small pilot. If your team spends too much time assembling spreadsheets and chasing status updates, this is for you.
What “CFO services” includes vs. excludes
Includes: Our fractional CFO services cover cash flow planning with a rolling 13‑week cash forecast; KPI design with a monthly dashboard and variance narratives; a budget cadence with rolling forecast updates; pricing and margin analysis for services and retainers; and working‑capital routines across AR, AP, and inventory‑like items such as retainers, WIP, and unbilled time.
Excludes: We do not provide tax preparation or planning, audit or attest services, or ongoing IT support, and we do not rebuild non‑Microsoft stacks.
Positioning: Client accounting and advisory with targeted automation inside Microsoft 365. We do not sell software. We design the workflow and make your existing tools do more.
Core workflows we implement on Microsoft 365
1) Cash pacing and a 13‑week cash forecast
We keep bank statements, open AR, open AP, and recurring transaction documents in a SharePoint document library. Power Query syncs that library to Excel so the cash flow dashboard—built directly on the Power Query tables—updates automatically. The weekly ritual is a variance check in Teams with one owner and one backup, and the output is a one‑page cash view with a short “what changed” narrative.
2) Budget vs. actual reporting in Power BI
We store exported GL detail in a secure SharePoint folder and model a Power BI report with drill‑through to transactions. Commentary lives in a dedicated Teams channel so the month‑end narrative builds as the work progresses. Executives get a board‑ready, one‑screen view anchored by a waterfall chart that bridges budget to actual (and, if useful, to reforecast), making the contribution of each driver—price, volume, mix, rate changes, and one‑offs—immediately clear without hunting across tabs.
3) AR collections and payment plans
We take a reporting‑first approach to AR. A SharePoint‑backed AR ledger feeds Excel and Power BI so past‑due invoices surface immediately by age, owner, and amount, with clear exception views for due‑today and high‑risk accounts. Power Automate closes the loop by sending reminder emails and client notifications on a defined cadence, posting follow‑up tasks to Teams, and logging outcomes for audit. Escalations follow simple thresholds, and finance receives an automated weekly aging snapshot without manual compilation.
4) AP approvals and payment readiness
We run payables in QuickBooks Online and lean on QBO’s AI agents to ingest bills, extract vendor, amount, and due date, propose coding, and flag duplicates or outliers. Payments are prepared and scheduled in QBO Bill Pay with maker–checker approvals so the audit trail stays in one system. For visibility outside QBO, we generate Excel reports that summarize bill status and payment readiness so finance knows exactly what can be scheduled and when. The agents send reminders to approvers and can trigger vendor notifications on payment, while our month‑end routine produces a concise accruals and exceptions view in Excel so reviewers focus on what changed.
5) Close calendar and variance review
Close runs on a simple, repeatable rhythm. A Teams Planner plan tracks the calendar with tasks, owners, and due dates that roll forward each month. The variance review checklist and tie‑outs live in a SharePoint library with versioning, and each task links to the exact workbook tab or Power BI page it references. Pre‑reads are posted in Teams by noon the day before so reviewers arrive prepared. The review itself is a 30‑minute stand up: five minutes to scan cash and KPIs, fifteen minutes on variances above a defined materiality threshold with root cause and a clear action, five minutes on risks and carry‑overs, and five minutes to confirm owners and dates. Decisions and assignments are captured in the Teams thread and sync back to Planner so nothing gets lost. The deliverable at the end of close is a client meeting explaining the KPIs and walking through any other notable information.
AI assist in the CFO toolkit
- Copilot for Excel: draft variance narratives, reconcile lists, and run reasonableness checks
- Excel Agent Mode: build one‑click exception views, tie‑outs to subledgers, and KPI snapshots
- Power Automate: summarize incoming bills and route exceptions to the right owner
- Copilot in Teams: generate action items and a summary after the weekly finance stand‑up
CPA review note: AI helps with a first draft and routine checks. A CPA reviews key outputs before they are used for decisions.
Pricing approach and scope bands
- Readiness audit: fixed price entry with a current‑state map and a prioritized list
- Pilot: defined scope for one measurable outcome with clear deliverables
- Ongoing: monthly fee based on specific services selected.
FAQs
How is this different from bookkeeping or outsourced accounting?
CFO services set direction and cadence for cash, KPIs, and decisions. Bookkeeping records activity and reconciles accounts. We can pair with your bookkeeping function or recommend a partner.
What security and data residency look like on Microsoft 365?
Data stays in your tenant. We use Teams and SharePoint permissions, versioning, and retention. You control access. We document the configuration.
What if we use non‑Microsoft tools?
We meet you where you are. We work comfortably with QuickBooks Online alongside Microsoft 365, as well as other finance and PSA systems. We integrate via exports or APIs into SharePoint and keep collaboration in Teams and Excel, and we can align the workflow to your preferred tools.
Call to action
Ready to work with a CPA who can help you interpret your financial statements? Book a 30‑minute consult. Prefer a self‑serve start? Check out our the 12‑Step Month‑End Automation Checklist and use it as a baseline.