FRACTIONAL CFO SERVICES IN GUILDFORD
Part-Time FD Services in Guildford & Surrey
Most Guildford businesses at £1m turnover have outgrown their bookkeeper and can't justify a finance director. That gap is where the expensive mistakes happen. We fill it — two days a month, senior level, starting whenever you're ready.
Your accounts are done. Your finances aren’t.
Every business that gets to around £1m hits the same wall. It's rarely that nobody is doing the finances — you'll have a bookkeeper, an accountant, or you maybe even had a full-time CFO or family member in this role until recently. But something has shifted and you need more strategy, more forward-looking and less stress.
The numbers arrive too late to act on
The year-end accounts land in month nine and tell you what happened last year. Useful for HMRC. Useless for deciding whether you can afford that hire.
Nobody owns the forward view
Your bookkeeper records what happened. Your accountant files it. Neither of them is telling you what next quarter looks like, or what to do about it. That job is vacant — and it's the one that matters.
Profit looks fine but the bank balance doesn't
You're profitable on paper and tight on cash every month. Nobody has ever sat down and shown you where the gap actually is.
A family member has been doing the books
It worked at £200k. At £1m it's a difficult conversation nobody wants to start — and the business has quietly outgrown the arrangement. We've stepped into that situation many times.
You hired a full-time CFO and they left
You paid a six-figure salary for someone who was underused by month four and gone by month eighteen. Now you're wondering whether you needed the role at all, or just needed it differently.
You can't answer the question your bank just asked
The funding conversation, the investor question, the buyer's due diligence list. You know the business is sound. Proving it on paper is another job entirely.
Whatever your situation, our fractional CFOs can fill gaps, look forward and provide the strategic insight to take the next step towards your business goals. Whether that’s day-to-day cash flow management improvement, profit management, risk management, M&A or exit planning; our experience fractional and interim CFOs can take the strategic lead you need to move forward.
Build for Guildford businesses
Around nine in ten businesses in Surrey employ fewer than ten people. If you're turning over £1m with a team, you're already in a small minority locally - and there is very little built for you.
Consultancies, agencies and professional firms
Professional, scientific and technical firms are the single biggest group of companies in Guildford — more than one in five. Your problems are utilisation, work in progress, and the gap between winning a project and getting paid for it.
Construction, property and trades
Construction is one of the largest business categories across Surrey. Job costing, retentions, CIS and staged payments make cash flow genuinely hard to see. We make it visible.
Tech, games and creative studios
Guildford has the densest games cluster in the UK, and information and communication is the borough's second-largest business sector. Milestone revenue, R&D claims, investor reporting and runway need a different set of numbers.
Hospitality, retail and consumer business
Town centre vacancy has fallen to around 7% and footfall is rising while the national average falls. If you're opening a second site, the question is whether the cash supports it — not whether the trade is there.
Thinking about stepping back?
A large number of owner-managed businesses across the borough will change hands in the next decade, and most are nowhere near ready. Clean numbers, documented processes and a defensible profit story take two to three years to build. If you're within five years of stepping back, this is the moment to start.
What a fractional CFO actually does
Your accountant files what happens, your bookkeeper manages the day-to-day; your fractional CFO changes what happens next.
Numbers by the 10th of the month, with a page at the front telling you what they mean and what to do about it.
Pricing and margin analysis
Which clients, products or jobs actually make money
Budgeting and scenario planning
What happens to cash if you hire two people, lose your biggest client, or open a second site.
Board and investor reporting
A pack that stands up to scrutiny, whether the audience is a bank, an investor or a buyer.
Cash flow analysis and forecasting
A 13-week rolling view so you stop finding out about a squeeze the week it arrives.
Funding and lending conversations
Preparing the numbers, and sitting in the meeting with you.
Systems and processes
Getting off spreadsheets and onto something that scales, with the right person doing the day-to-day.
Exit planning
Making the business saleable, and making the numbers tell that story, years before you need to.
We don't replace your accountant or your bookkeeper. We work with them and sit above them — making sure the work they do turns into decisions you can actually make. We can also provide bookkeepers from within our team.
What this costs compared with a full-time CFO
A full-time CFO in the South East costs well into six figures once you add employer's NI, pension, bonus and the recruitment fee. For a business at £1m turnover, it's a number that often doesn't work at all. It's why the businesses that do hire one often find the role underused within a year.
| Fractional CFO | Full-Time CFO | |
|---|---|---|
| Experience & Expertise | Senior-level professionals with 10–20+ years' experience | Senior-level professionals with 10–20+ years' experience |
| Cost | Pay only for what you need — typically 40–60% less | Full-time salary + NI + pension + benefits + recruitment fee |
| Flexibility | Fully scalable — adjust hours and scope as your business evolves | Permanent contract, notice period, redundancy risk and contractual terms |
| Speed to Hire | Matched and onboarded in days | Traditional hiring process can take months |
| Industry Exposure | Often work across multiple industries — broader strategic view | May have experience in just one or two sectors |
| Commitment | Part-time, interim, or project-based — no long-term lock-in | Long-term employment contract |
| Value Delivered | Focused on high-impact outcomes and strategic goals | Can get pulled into day-to-day operations |
| Ideal For | SMEs, startups, growth-stage companies | Larger companies with complex, ongoing finance needs |
If you've been here before: plenty of our clients hired a full-time finance leader, found the role too big for the business, and are now asking whether they need one at all. The honest answer is usually that they need the thinking, not the headcount.
How we start
A 30-minute consultation call
You tell us where the business is and what's keeping you up. We tell you honestly whether you need us — and if you don't, what you do need.
An intro with our recommended professional
We get to know you before finding the gaps in your business and recommend a professional from our team - your missing puzzle piece.
We start
Usually within a few weeks. Fixed monthly fee, no tie-in, scaling up or down as the business changes.
“I’m worried I’ll be passed between different finance professionals.”
Here at The Finance People, you'll work with one dedicated finance expert to help your business reach its goals. From your initial consultation, we'll be looking to introduce you to the perfect fit finance professional who has the right experience and is the ideal fit for your business. You'll never be passed between our team and you'll establish a relationship with your fractional expert over the months working together.
When it comes to finances, your relationship matters. That’s why at The Finance People, you’ll never have to compromise a fractional CFO with the right candidate. Our mission is to match you with the ‘perfect fit’, guaranteeing a seamless extension of your board or your finance team. Our finance expert will integrate into your business, not the other way round.
“I need my fractional CFO to be the perfect fit for my business.”
Case studies
What our clients say
HLP → Achieved record-breaking turnover & reduce client dependency
Marantec → Introduced systems and levelled up internal teams for long-term success
TMT First → Transformed financial leadership, having secured £1m in invoice financing
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A fractional CFO gives you senior finance leadership part-time — typically one to four days a month. They own forecasting, management reporting, pricing, funding and planning. Unlike an accountant, who reports on what has already happened, a CFO shapes the decisions you make next.
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Most clients are between £1m and £5m in turnover. The clearest signal isn't size — it's that you're making decisions on instinct because the numbers arrive too late, or you're spending your own evenings on finance admin.
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Yes. We work with businesses across Guildford, Godalming, Woking, Farnham and the wider Surrey area, in person and remotely. Most clients opt for remote, with on-site for necessary meetings and as needed.
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It's one of the most common situations we step into. We're not there to displace anyone. Often the family member stays in the day-to-day role they're good at, with the senior oversight and the difficult conversations handled by us.
At The Finance People, we excel in matching the ideal candidate to your budget, skill prerequisites, and alignment with your business culture.
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Your accountant handles compliance: year-end accounts, tax returns, filing. A fractional CFO handles strategy: cash flow, margins, funding and growth planning. Most of our clients keep their existing accountant. We work alongside them, not instead of them.
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Fees are based on the days you need each month, so the cost sits far below a full-time salary with NI, pension and recruitment fees on top. We'll quote a fixed monthly fee after the first conversation, with no tie-in.
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Usually the role was simply bigger than the business needed, so it got underused and the person moved on. A fractional arrangement sizes the input to the actual need, and changes as you grow — without another recruitment process.
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Usually within a few weeks. The first month is spent understanding the business and getting the reporting straight. Most clients have a working cash flow forecast and their first proper management pack inside 30 days.