4 Surprising Benefits of a Temporary CFO

Picture: Scott Graham

Chief financial officers (CFOs) are responsible for accounting, financial reporting, cash tracking, and other crucial financial operations within a business. Essentially, they hold the purse strings to a company and ensure it’s making wise financial choices. However, experienced, full-time CFOs can be expensive, putting them out of reach of many businesses that could benefit from their services. Hiring a temporary CFO might solve this problem and allow your workplace to enjoy some of the following benefits.

Cost Savings

Working with a temporary CFO company to hire a part-time, short-term CFO might be how you enjoy the experience and skills of CFOs without the high price tag. Rather than going through an expensive job posting process to hire a full-time CFO, then paying them a competitive salary that might be outside your budget, you can hire a CFO who works explicitly with companies on a temporary basis to perform a range of essential functions. When you work with companies connecting you to desirable CFO options, you can also bypass job interviewing and advertisement costs, saving you even more money.

Task Flexibility

Full-time, permanent CFOs oversee finance-related tasks within your business, including those that aren’t urgent or overly necessary. By hiring a temporary CFO, you can put them to work on financial solutions you actively need their help with.

For example, you might need help with a particular financial challenge, or you need to understand your financial position in earnest before putting your business up for sale. You can hire a temporary CFO to perform these tasks and pay a mere fraction of what you might pay for someone to work full-time for your business.

Trial Run

Most company owners understand the importance of hiring a CFO when they want to expand, enjoy more financial control, or need help understanding their financial situation. They might be in a position to hire a full-time CFO but don’t want to jump into a permanent hiring situation without first learning how they might benefit from such a person.

Hiring a temporary CFO allows you to explore their benefits without fully committing to the new role. You can get a feel for the value they bring and can make an informed hiring decision when you’re ready.

Saving Time

It can sometimes take several months to hire a CFO, which may not be what you want to hear when your goal is to put your business in a strong financial position for growth or sale as soon as possible. Some of that timeframe can be absorbed by reading resumes and going through the interview process, but the majority of it relates to finding the perfect candidate.

Knowing that you might not find the perfect person for the job immediately, hiring a temporary CFO might be a worthwhile option while you wait. Once you make your job vacancy listing active, you can spend a matter of days finding an interim CFO who can lay the groundwork for a full-time person to take their place.

Hiring a short-term chief financial officer presents many benefits for the average business, such as money savings, growth opportunity identification, and troubleshooting. By being aware of their value, you might be more inclined to utilize their services and put your business in a much stronger position.