High quality benefits when hiring fractional CFO by Sam McQuade CFO: Complex Budget Allocation Decision-making: High-growth companies often find themselves in the position of having to decide where cash is best spent. When evaluating whether to pursue an acquisition or change distribution channels from retail to digital, a company that does not yet have a full-time CFO can utilize a fractional one to evaluate the project and support decisions during intensive, time-sensitive sprints. Optimization of Internal Processes: Internal processes are the cohesive link between strategy, operations, and performance. A CFO is uniquely placed to understand each step’s cost and contribution and guide their optimization. CFO responsibilities include evaluating all processes and clearly understanding their financial contribution to profitability and cash flow. Doing this exercise keeps management abreast of the company’s actual performance and shareholder returns. Fractional CFOs can also build best practice processes to document these reviews to ensure ongoing continuity and time efficiency.
Specialized Financial Services: A fractional CFO can provide specialized financial services to help you reach your goals. All startups are different. SaaS-based startups, for example, have different revenue recognition. Because of this, their focus is customer based. A CFO can monitor customer-specific KPIs to help assess future profitability. They can help with mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, strategic planning, budgeting and forecasting, as well. Discover additional information at Sam McQuade CFO.
Searching to hire your first CFO or need interim coverage? We offer CFOs for immediate very short term objectives and longer term engagements. Adaptable with fair pricing so you cover your business and don’t have to rush into a potentially bad solution and expensive full time hire. Sam McQuade CFO is the Founder and CEO of Panterra Finance. This worldwide Financial Partner Solution services is a leading innovator in the new economy of scale offering a new executive suite model with the Fractional CFO and Interim CFO. The Panterra Finance team with expert Interim CFO executives and Fractional CFO services brings with it a global financial leadership team to the new world economy. Describing Panterra Finance in his own words, CFO Sam McQuade stated : As Founder/CEO of Panterra Finance, I am on mission to help guide businesses to achieve success through thoughtful strategic financial collaboration.
The CFO relies on the reporting generated by accounting and the financial controller to advise the CEO and board on the company’s strategic financial direction. The controller and other functional specialists report to the CFO. What informs the need for a CFO is less company size than a desire for a strategic adviser with deep financial expertise. CFOs are captains of a team that covers both accounting and finance and consists of senior leaders, such as controllers and VPs of finance, and operational staff — accountants, bookkeepers, tax specialists, data analysts. Serving as a CFO requires a background in accounting or finance and an advanced business degree, generally including an MBA. But it also takes plenty of soft skills.
Liquidity refers to an organization’s ability to pay off its short-term liabilities — those that will come due in less than a year — with readily accessible, or liquid, funds. Liquidity is usually expressed as a ratio or a percentage of what the company owes against what it owns. CFOs are concerned with ensuring that customer payments are made in full and on time and controlling expenses so that enough cash is on hand to meet financial obligations.
Friends With Benefits is a decentralized social network. It allows users to connect with each other and share content. It allows the users to collaborate and create new content. Users may connect with individuals who share their interests in other cities through city-specific hubs. The more FWB tokens a user has, the more opportunities to meet and interact with others develop. This is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that uses the power of the blockchain to adjudicate disputes. Kleros is a DAO because it is powered by smart contracts. The Kleros token (PNK) is used to incentive jurors to vote on disputes. When someone wants to submit a dispute to Kleros, they first have to deposit some PNK. If the jury rules in favor of the person who submitted the dispute, then they get their PNK back. If the jury rules against them, then they lose their PNK. Kleros can be used to adjudicate any kind of dispute. It has been used to adjudicate disputes in online markets, freelance platforms, and even in the sharing economy.
Selling your business or looking to buy others? Our experts can lead the deal and make sure that you have a thoughtful ownership transition. We are happy to provide second opinions on valuations as well so you have another perspective and feel better before your close the deal.
A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that is run by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. It is an organization or company that is not centrally controlled by any one person or entity. Rather, it is governed by code that is written into the smart contracts. This code can be modified or updated by anyone who has access to the DAO’s GitHub repository. To put this into perspective, imagine a traditional company or organization. There is usually a board of directors or executive team that makes all the decisions about how the company will be run. With a DAO, there is no such thing. The code that governs the DAO is open source and available for anyone to view and audit. In this new scenario, an organization can be run by anyone in the world who has an internet connection.
By utilizing a fractional CFO, support levels can be varied and customized to the evolving needs of the organization with the CFO’s work schedule tailored as such. Increased support can be provided at critical times reverting to a more consistent level when appropriate. A fractional CFO can bring substantially all the benefits in terms of skills and knowledge of a full- time resource, at significantly less cost. Services are provided on-site which is convenient for meetings and to perform critical work. The CFO becomes embedded and acts as part of the management team. When not on-site, the CFO can be ‘virtually’ available via modern communication tools.
The CFO function is evolving at lightspeed. With digital transformation and societal changes, the CFO role is rapidly turning into one of a “Chief Fiduciary Officer”, which is going beyond the traditional financials to look towards the future and lead long term value creation in a world of many unknown risks. Storytelling is a very powerful tool to engage and energize teams about value creation and potential pitfall areas. The traditional path of CFO usually starts with a solid foundation based on technical knowledge and then after about 15 years, the great leaders earn the coveted title.
Smaller companies, incubators and startups could not match the salaries that the full time CFO commanded on the world financial stage. The seeds for the concept of an Interim or Fractional CFO were planted in the mind of Sam McQuade almost 3 decades ago when he first entered the world of International Finance as an Entrepreneur Consultant in Geneva Switzerland after achieving his MBA/MA at European University. During this tumultuous time at the turn of the century on the international financial scene, Mr. McQuade was ahead of his time. He offered as needed financial consultation services for international behemoths the Swiss based Nestle Corporation and the US based medical device corporation Stryker. The focus of his services, which would years later be foundational in the concepts of Panterra was a new model in product development, manufacturing and marketing. Read additional details on Sam McQuade.
A fractional CFO is often brought into a company to help overcome specific financial challenges such as: Cash flow issues; Low gross margins; High expenses; Outgrown existing systems; Need to make cost cuts; Navigating an audit. Create Forward-Facing Financial Visibility: Fractional CFOs are also helpful in optimizing or implementing more forward-facing financial visibility. While many financial professionals such as bookkeepers, accountants, and controllers are tasked with keeping past and current finances organized and well-documented, a CFO focuses on the future.
