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The Classic Partners LLP · Virtual CFO

Virtual CFO Overview

Finance leadership sized to your business — the reporting, cash flow control and forecasting a CFO brings, delivered by a team on a monthly retainer.

Quick answer

A virtual CFO gives a growing business senior finance leadership — management reporting, cash flow control, budgeting, governance and compliance oversight — on a monthly retainer instead of a full-time salary. It fits companies that have outgrown a bookkeeper but cannot yet justify a CFO's compensation, and the practical difference shows up in decisions: you stop looking at last quarter's numbers and start looking at next quarter's.

What we cover

What our virtual CFO engagement covers

The finance function of a larger company, run at the scale you actually need.

  • Monthly MIS with the metrics your business is actually run on
  • Cash flow forecasting and working capital control
  • Annual budgets, rolling forecasts and variance analysis
  • Unit economics, pricing and margin analysis
  • Oversight of statutory compliance across ROC, income tax and GST
  • Board reporting, investor updates and due diligence support
Key components

Four things a virtual CFO takes off your desk

Reporting, liquidity, planning and governance.

📊

Reporting and MIS

A monthly pack that shows performance against plan, not just a trial balance printed from the accounting software.

💰

Cash flow and working capital

Rolling cash forecasts, receivable and payable ageing, and early warning on the month you will run tight.

🧭

Planning and forecasting

Budgets, scenarios and unit economics that connect operating decisions to the financial result.

🛡️

Governance and controls

Approval limits, segregation of duties, and oversight so statutory deadlines stop being a surprise.

How we work

Our process

From first diagnostic to a steady monthly rhythm.

1

Diagnostic

Reviewing current books, reporting and controls to find what is missing, wrong or slow.

2

Systems and reporting

Fixing the chart of accounts, the close calendar and the reporting formats you will use every month.

3

Monthly rhythm

Close, MIS, cash forecast and a review call — on the same dates every month.

4

Board and investor reporting

Quarterly packs, data rooms and diligence responses when you need to raise or report upward.

Why choose us

Why businesses use a virtual CFO

What sets our approach apart.

A team, not a single hire

You get a qualified lead plus accounting, payroll and compliance support, instead of one person carrying every skill.

Numbers that tie out

The management numbers and the filed numbers come from the same books, so diligence does not turn up two versions of the truth.

Built to hand over

The systems, formats and documentation are designed so an in-house CFO can take over cleanly when you hire one.

FAQs

Virtual CFO Overview questions answered

What people ask before engaging us.

A virtual CFO owns the financial output of the business rather than the data entry: monthly management reporting, cash flow forecasting, budgeting, financial controls, and oversight of statutory compliance. In practice the work is a mix of a fixed monthly cycle and support on specific decisions such as pricing, a funding round or a large capital commitment.
The common trigger is not revenue but complexity — multiple entities, external investors, borrowings with covenants, inventory, or a founder who no longer has time to interpret the numbers. If financial questions are being answered from memory rather than from a report, that is usually the point.
An accountant records what has happened and ensures the books and returns are correct. A virtual CFO uses those books to plan what happens next — forecasting, budgeting, margin analysis and controls — and is accountable for the reporting the business makes decisions on.
Yes. In most engagements the in-house team continues to handle day-to-day entries and we sit above it — setting the close calendar, reviewing the output, and producing the reporting. Where the internal team is stretched, we can also take over the accounting itself.

Need a CFO without the CFO hire?

We will review your current reporting and tell you what is missing before you commit to anything.

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