What Flavor of CFO Are You Hiring?
Why CEOs keep getting this wrong—and how to fix it.
Hiring a CFO shouldn’t be like grabbing whatever’s on the shelf. But for too many CEOs, that’s exactly what happens. They post a job, interview a few sharp candidates, and hire the person with the most impressive resume—only to realize months later that they hired a misfit. Not because the person was incompetent, but because they were the wrong flavor of CFO for the company’s real needs.
If you’re a founder, owner, or CEO of a $1M–$50M company, you need to stop thinking of CFOs as interchangeable finance wizards. They’re not. They fall into distinct types—and hiring the wrong one is a costly mistake.
Here’s a breakdown of the 4 most common “flavors” of CFOs—and how to know which one you actually need.
1. The Project CFO
“Let me handle the big transaction.”
This CFO lives for high-stakes events: mergers, acquisitions, debt raises, exits. They’re the hired gun you bring in when you’re making a move, not running the day-to-day. They’re often ex-investment bankers or transaction specialists with deep networks and sharp negotiation instincts.
Strengths: Deal structuring, data rooms, due diligence, working with attorneys and investors.
Weaknesses: Zero interest in month-end close or building your FP&A from scratch.
Best for: CEOs heading into a major event in the next 6–18 months.
Do not hire this CFO if what you need is monthly financial clarity, process improvement, or team development. They’ll get bored—or worse, break things.
2. The Accounting-First CFO
“Let’s make sure the books are bulletproof.”
This is your CPA-turned-CFO, often with a controller background. They’re obsessed with GAAP compliance, controls, clean audits, and reconciling every penny. If you’ve got messy books, past-due tax filings, or unreliable reporting, this CFO will get it sorted.
Strengths: Audit prep, compliance, internal controls, ERP selection and implementation.
Weaknesses: May avoid strategic planning, forecasting, or market-facing conversations.
Best for: Companies maturing out of QuickBooks chaos into more formal systems.
Watch out: They may treat finance like a rearview mirror—great for where you’ve been, not for where you’re going.
3. The Strategic CFO
“I’ll help you see around corners.”
This CFO isn’t interested in running your accounting team or filing your sales tax returns. They want to sit at the strategy table. They interpret financials like a story: What’s working? What’s broken? What needs to change?
Strengths: Financial modeling, capital strategy, board/investor communication, multi-year planning.
Weaknesses: Often reliant on strong controllers or fractional bookkeeping support.
Best for: Companies in growth mode needing vision, prioritization, and scenario planning.
This is the flavor we most often deploy at Local Fractional. We call it “strategy at the speed of real business.”
4. The FP&A CFO
“Let’s build the dashboards and forecast every lever.”
This is the data nerd in CFO clothing. They come from corporate finance, not accounting, and they light up when building rolling forecasts, dashboards, and KPI trees. They often don’t want to touch debits and credits—they want to tell you what’s driving margin compression in SKU #47.
Strengths: Deep analysis, dynamic forecasting, KPI alignment, pricing strategies.
Weaknesses: Not built to manage accounting teams or set up systems.
Best for: SaaS, DTC, or operationally complex companies with a strong controller already in place.
Don’t expect this CFO to manage your payroll process or fix your Chart of Accounts. That’s not their game.
So Which One Do You Need?
Here’s the truth: Most growing companies don’t need a full-time CFO of any flavor—they need fractional access to the right type of CFO at the right time.
That’s why we built Local Fractional—to give growing businesses access to high-caliber financial strategy without the baggage or cost of a full-time hire. We match the flavor of CFO to your real needs—and we evolve with you as those needs change.
If you’re not sure what you need, that’s your starting point. Let’s talk. We’ve seen it all, and we’ll tell you the truth—even if it means you don’t need us yet.
Here at Local Fractional we enjoy meeting with owner/operator/visionaries and helping them figure out who they need. Often we can be that fractional CFO but on occasion we cannot. We cannot pretend to be the best fit for everything. If you’re looking to hire a fractional CFO reach out to us and let us help ensure you have a team ready to grow with you. CONTACT US TODAY
