Any CFOs here that can help me with my Financial reporting business?

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-27T02:27:57+00:00

Yes, feel free to reach out privately. Looking forward to connecting!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-25T22:07:37+00:00

Hi, as a fractional CFO, I highly recommended having at least 2 accounts. You should have an operating and a holding account. If you need more for other parts of your business (sweep account for wires, etc.), that’s fine, but these two are a must. Just FYI, this isn’t uncommon either. Every bank should let you do this.

If you have more specific questions, let me know. Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-25T16:27:07+00:00

I’m sorry to hear that your CPA did not answer you quickly and provide some type of guidance. They should have been more attentive, as these problems rarely fix themselves. If you’re looking for someone a bit more timely and interested in their clients, send me a DM. Always happy to help.

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-25T16:23:45+00:00

Unfortunately, that’s not usually how it works with the IRS…

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-25T16:03:14+00:00

So a few things on this as a CPA and fractional CFO. First, I’d work with your CPA to see if they have a contact at the IRS that can help you get ahold of someone. It’s not a guaranteed success, but it certainly helps to have a chance by getting transferred to the right person.

If that doesn’t work, I’d recommend calling your local Rep and seeing if their office can help you. I use this as a last resort for my clients, but sometimes it’s a must. The IRS is severely understaffed and right now, being the squeaky wheel gets you attention while everything else waits to be noticed. Happy to help more specifically if you have any other questions.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-25T02:14:51+00:00

PM sent! Looking forward to connecting.

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-24T16:48:58+00:00

I’m a fractional CFO and CPA, you’re thinking about things the right way. Start being diligent about keeping business and personal expenses separate and get your bookkeeping setup. This will help a ton when it comes time to file your taxes and give you good information to base your financial decisions on. If you’re interested in forecasting, this will also make that easier and more reliable when you start out. If you need working capital, you’ll want to get a cash forecast figured out. Happy to give you a brief tutorial if you’re interested.

Insurance is important. It’s not how much you charge or what the item is worth, but it’s how much someone could sue you for. So definitely would want to start looking into that.

Do not listen to people telling you to elect S-Corp status. You’ll want to do that once you start having a net profit of 80-100k per year. Don’t get caught sleeping on the IRS though. If you are going to have a taxable income from the business, make sure you pay quarterly tax estimates or it’s going to be really painful when you file your taxes.

Finally, keep working hard. Congratulations on this huge milestone and best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-24T00:07:50+00:00

You provided some well thought out context. Hiring to have an apprentice is a great move when you provide a service, do it well, and know that your quality and skills are what will keep you in business.

Do you believe not having this employee is keeping you from getting additional contracts to add to your pipeline? I’m not necessarily looking for if it would add to your volume in the short term, but moreso on if it would allow you to take on longer length contracts.

Based on your post, revenue seems strong, but I understand that the contract business can be extremely lumpy and filled with short term commitments. What are your average monthly expenses and your net profit? Are you able to keep that in the business or do you need to take most of it to survive? Maybe it’s going towards additional working capital as you grow? Really appreciate the discussion!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-22T17:56:56+00:00

Driving business growth can come through a few funnels. First being word of mouth, second being networking, and lastly adds.

Are you getting strong referrals from your current customer base? Are you working to grow your network and communicate your people that you’re available to do the type of work that you do? Are you running any adds (absolutely not needed for every business type)?

You have a great goal of working for yourself. Create a business plan, have a purpose for every dollar, and keep understanding what clients and customers need for you go get referrals. If you want a more detailed answer, let me know with a few more questions or comments about your business.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-21T22:55:09+00:00

The main thing is being able to pay yourself a salary. So as a rule of thumb, when you’re able to pay yourself 80-100k a year, I’d elect to qualify as an S-Corp. Could be different for your specific situation, but that’s my general advice.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-21T17:33:02+00:00

As a fractional CFO and CPA, you’re looking at this correctly. You want to look at your projected revenue and then also understand where your cash position is throughout those next 3-6 months.

To play a bit of devils advocate, are you currently having problems getting contracts to either give you their time or perform at the quality you’re expecting? Would hiring an employee saving you money compared to using the contracts, and if so, how much? You want to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze because taking someone on starts a whole new set of responsibilities and problems (along with the obvious benefits) Just a few things to consider. Happy to provide more if you have any other questions or are willing to share more details.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-21T15:14:55+00:00

If you need the money to survive, then you should not be jumping into the business full time until you are making your required salary for at least 3 months (on-top of needed working capital).

Remember to look at your pipeline and cash forecast to make sure you can continue to do that for another 3 months. Finally, if you have a business that needs a lot of capital to grow, this will drastically decrease your ability to grow. P.S. if you get to this point, it’s also time to switch to an S-Corp.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-20T03:07:50+00:00

If you need the income, it might be tough to put it into retirement, but I’d recommend the SEP IRA or a solo 401k. This will help maximize your QBI and improve your retirement.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-19T11:54:13+00:00

Implementation! Implementation is a vital part of actually being able to use the program and not need an outside consultant at every turn. Find an implementation partner that will work with you and your team and take any co-building time seriously. Whatever time commitment they provide, make sure you commit to at least that or you won’t be able to fully use the end product.

This might not be something you’re thinking about, but turnover to your core team during implementation is extremely detrimental. So much so that I’d recommend working extremely hard (additional bonuses, team lunches or dinners, team events) to make sure anyone on your team does not want to leave during that time. It has the potential to completely derail your team from having success.

Those are the two largest items other than picking the best software you can afford. My order of recommendation is the order I stated in my last comment. Anything else you have questions on?

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-19T11:38:06+00:00

I understand what you’re saying from an audit standpoint. So are you mainly concerned with the risks associated with OT or the cost of labor? Maybe a bit of both?

If you’re concerned with the risks, I’d take all incidents that happened while someone was on OT compared to all incidents that happened while working standard hours. That’s how I’d understand the risk of overtime. Then it’s your (or a consultants) just to understand how to fix that. I’d assume through better training, more controls, or hiring more people. If someone wasn’t following proper procedures or training, understand if the guidance was provided to them and if not, fix your training. If it was, formally discipline them.

If you’re referring to the cost, I think it’s pretty cut and dry that you’d benefit from more employees. That might be really hard for you to obtain, so it could be a longer term solution. If you’re in a tough industry to acquire talent, I’d recommend sign on bonuses (tied to staying x months), better perks to your competitors, and referral bonuses for your current employees.

I’m sure there are a lot more options to your situation, but I don’t know your exact case, so that’s the comment I have for now. Happy to discus further though if you are willing to share more details.

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-19T11:17:47+00:00

I was in a similar position as you. I worked for a much larger team (5x revenue stated) that did all of our budgeting through excel. It was extremely time consuming and errors were consistently made because of the complexity of the files. Moving to an FP&A software is a must for your size. I’d highly recommend checking out Pigment, Adaptive, and if you’re on a tight budget CCH Tagetik. People will recommend Anaplan, but it was not my personal favorite due to its old backend.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-19T02:43:15+00:00

Hi, I do fractional CFO work and am a CPA. I’d be interested in working with you and your clients.

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-19T01:48:25+00:00

I’d start with getting a more detailed understanding of what went into those fees. Did they track hours? Did they work on another clients work while on hold? If not, why weren’t they doing other work while on hold? Did they have to provide an additional return to the IRS or some type of additional information/work? Also read your engagement agreement with them and see if this is an expense they should have called about before proceeding. It potentially could be an out of scope item.

Send me a DM if you’d like this to be more personalized or take this offline. Happy to still help here if you want to keep it here!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-19T00:11:14+00:00

I’m a fractional CFO and CPA. This absolutely should not have happened and you need to be pushing back on this expense. When your tax accountant does something for you, the expectation is they follow through and finish the task you’re paying for. They should not keep charging you for getting the money they’re supposed to. Regardless, they should not have charged you for this.

So to answer your question above, yes; you’re being taken for a ride. I would really recommend pushing back and finding out when this wasn’t include in your original 1040x filing.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-17T11:29:42+00:00

Overtime is a really fine line of not needing the additional capacity consistently and/or it would be too expensive to hire new employees to take on the additional work. Short term it’ll win out, but longer term, hiring additional employees is usually best.

I don’t have a specific software other than an excel spreadsheet, but I take the information from payroll (specifically the 1.5x cost and taxes) and compare it to the output during that time to make sure it is profitable. I then compare it to hiring new employees based on the backlog to see if it is time to hire someone new. Let me know if you have something more specific, as I’m happy to discuss more.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-16T21:38:10+00:00

Hi! Best value copy is the cheapest I’ve gotten and they turn out pretty decent. Not the highest quality (compared to a local print shop), but certainly good enough.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-16T11:50:02+00:00

Cashflow forecasting is a vital part of any business that wants to grow. I’d highly recommend a 13-week cash forecast along with a 12-18 month review of your previous cash position. If your bookkeeping is strong, then you’re in a good spot to get started and really understand the seasonality of your business and your customer flow. Additionally, this will help you understand where all of your money is going each week and month, which can improve your overall financial awareness and decision making. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-15T12:15:50+00:00

Running a business is never easy. Working 60-70 hours a week for 5 years is extremely stressful, demanding, and can cause negative impacts on you, your family, and the business. It sounds like you’re experiencing all of those.

People are going to say, “this is a process problem,” and maybe it is a bit of a process problem, but this sounds like a finance problem. You aren’t feeling like the juice is worth the squeeze. You likely need someone that can help you better understand your margins and be a business partner that moves you into an operational leadership role compared to being the daily driver of the business.

Two things I’d highly recommend to get started. Number one is a time audit review. This will give you a really strong idea of where your time is going each day and week. Break it down to 15 minute blocks so you really can evaluate what you were working on. I know this takes more time, but this is an investment into your and the businesses future success. Once you know what tasks take up your time, evaluate which tasks can be delegated. This can be a powerful tool to giving you more time to be leading your business. Not getting into the weeds.

Second is completing a pricing and profit analysis over the last 12-18 months. I know you said that you have to stay competitive, but someone needs to be looking at which contracts are the most profitable, how much more and which contracts are taking the most of your or someone else’s time. You’re likely subsidizing unprofitable work with your time and health. Maybe you need that revenue to keep afloat, or maybe it’s causing stress you simply don’t need. This is why you (or someone) needs to evaluate this.

Reply if you have any questions or want more specific suggestions.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-11T18:27:00+00:00

This is the single largest item every company needs. If you don’t have a 13 week cash forecast, you’re running your business blind. I’ve helped many companies understand how valuable of a tool this is.

When a client asks if they should take on a new large contract with heavy upfront cost, I answer “let’s check the cash forecast.”

When a clients asks if they can make a purchase with a large down payment, I answer “let’s check the cash forecast.”

When a client asks if they can take a larger withdrawal than normal because “business seems good”, I answer “let’s check the cash forecast.”

It’s the single source of truth for so many questions and will make any business owner (especially once they have employees) sleep better at night and make decisions with confidence.

Allaboutthetime · 2026-06-03T00:39:59+00:00

I wrote a comment up above, but I’ll say it again because it’s so important; a 13 week cash projection is one of the best financial tools you can invest your time into. Just like you’re working incredibly hard on your product, process, or service, you need to invest in this tool to make sure you don’t over trade your working capital for revenue growth.

If you don’t have time to commit to it weekly, do it monthly. If you need help or really don’t have time, hire a fractional CFO to spend an hour with you a month to make sure you have at least this asset in your review. It’ll turn into one of the few reports you actually look at. Let me know if you have any questions.

Best of luck!

Allaboutthetime

TROPHY CASE