how to become an outsourced/virtual cfo

and how cas drives up the demand.

by hitendra patil
the definitive success guide to client accounting services

tom, a cpa, has always been a curious person. for over 15 years, his tax practice was doing well. during the tax season, he had no time to think. but, oblivious to himself, with each tax return, he was depositing new questions in his subconscious.

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he is now a shared cfo of 12 companies. but he took up the cfo work accidentally.

how?

tom believed that it was his thinking power, armed with the cpa education, years of experience and knowing which tools to use effectively to produce the impeccable tax returns, that could help him make a meaningful positive difference to clients’ businesses, and hence lives.

plugging in the numbers into the tax returns never gratified tom. while he was working out those numbers, he was first getting curious and then frustrated because his mind was trying to figure out how the numbers came to be. he was visualizing the decisions taken by business owners that ultimately led to those numbers. and he was getting frustrated that even some glaringly obvious choices were missed by some business owners, resulting in bad numbers instead of good numbers.

after his usual mini-vacation after every grueling tax season, his mind went to work. he would start reading books, but his mind would be writing books, correcting the bad numbers, because he now had the hindsight that would make him make better business decisions.

out of a sheer chance, he decided to get into an import and distribution business. the annual turnover? $ 6 million!

the numbers turned out great because, inadvertently through their mistakes, so many business clients trained tom’s mind to deeply understand how to make sound business decisions.

that’s when tom knew that he could be an effective cfo. he could advise business owners by showing them how their business processes, how their financial or operational decisions, how their choices of technology, how their decisions or indecisions, everything, turn into those numbers on the financial statements and tax returns.

tom now routinely gets calls from ceos of the client companies – more often than ever before – to seek his advice and guidance on major financial decisions to be taken.

the accidental insights:

• be curious, very curious about the “why” behind the numbers
• understand the client’s business
• understand the client’s industry and relevant trends
• understand finance
• understand relevant tax laws
• after the fact: connect the dots for the clients
• before the fact: help the clients connect the dots

what is an outsourced/virtual cfo?

most not-too-small, not-too-big, growing businesses benefit immensely from having a chief financial officer (cfo) on the payroll. but, given the demand and supply gap for such talent and experience, cfo compensations can range anywhere between $200,000 a year to $500,000 a year (or more), plus benefits. it is difficult for many companies to hire a full-time cfo.

technological advances and cloud solutions have made it possible for expert accountants to offer cfo services to many businesses at once. such not-full-time cfos typically work remotely or part-time, or even on an on-demand basis, many times on a fixed-fee basis that justifies the time and effort of experienced accountants. in other words, companies can “outsource” the cfo responsibilities to a person not on their payroll. hence the term “outsourced or virtual cfo” (o/v-cfo).

how does cas drive up the demand for o/v-cfos?

over the last couple of decades, the word “startups” became a common lingo in the business world. billion-dollar “unicorns” were all over the news. several startups in technology, health care and other fields grew to tens and hundreds of million dollars in valuations. angel investors, venture capitalists and institutional investors flocked to pick the best bets among the startup world.

one common factor, irrespective of which industry the startups are in, is that all this massive inflow of money into the startup world is not just based on the business idea and the chances of success. it is based on the financial soundness of the business models of these startups.

cfos have been the bedrock of making sure that the startup founders are putting their best foot forward to grow to the next levels in obtaining such investments in a fiercely competitive world of startups.

at the same time, there are millions of businesses that start becoming successful and start growing, but hit a plateau or even start declining. more often than not, the financial acumen, controls and oversight are not the competencies of founders of such businesses, and that leads to the great potential of many companies not turning into the performance they deserve.

fortunately, technology is a great leveler, and it unlocks the value in ways that one could not have imagined some years ago. technological advances have made it possible for the financial expertise of accountants to be turned into higher-value-higher-fee o/v-cfo services. and accounting firms that offer cas have distinct advantages in offering o/v-cfo services over other firms that don’t provide cas. here are some reasons why:

• cas firms have comparatively much deeper business relationships with clients to be able to find timely and more actionable intelligence for their clients. o/v-cfo services can quickly become an add-on to the existing services cas firms provide to their clients.
• cas firms generally “control” the books of the clients’ businesses. it gives cas firms the ability to respond to or shape the possibly bad or even good business decisions clients can make or have just made. this, in turn, strengthens the “most trusted advisor” relationship with the clients.
• cas firms have an overall understanding of the financial and accounting systems clients have in place. comparatively, non-cas firms generally handle only some parts of the whole equation. such non-cas firms are severely handicapped in their ability to offer meaningful help to clients in their business decision making.
• cas firms generally manage and control payables and receivables for their clients and hence, are in a position to manage cash flow for the clients. cash flow is the lifeline of any business, and a professional accountant taking charge of cash flow management is one of the best things that can happen to any business. from this fundamental advantage, building other o/v-cfo services such as budgeting, forecasting, financing planning, sales and inventory trends-based purchase decision support, etc. is a natural progression for cas firms.
• cas firms, with the advantages mentioned above, actually do not have to try too hard (in terms of time and cost) to sell the o/v-cfo services. they have a pre-disposed, pre-interested, pre-qualified and receptive captive audience that will be easier to convince to buy the o/v-cfo services. it is always easier to sell to an existing client than to get a new one.

posted on december 13, 2020