Three different jobs, routinely sold as one. Here is how to tell them apart before you overpay for the wrong one.
Owners often tell us they need "an accountant." That word covers at least three different jobs, with very different price tags, and hiring the wrong one is expensive in both directions.
The bookkeeper records what happened
A bookkeeper enters transactions, reconciles accounts, and produces statements. This work is essential, and without it nothing above it can be trusted. What a bookkeeper generally will not do is tell you whether the picture those statements paint is a problem.
The Controller is accountable for whether it is right
A Controller owns the close, reviews the bookkeeping, builds the process, and makes sure the reporting holds up when a lender or an auditor leans on it. If your statements arrive late, change after the fact, or vary depending on who prepared them, that is a Controller-shaped gap, not a bookkeeping one.
The CFO helps you decide what to do about it
A CFO looks forward. Pricing, margin, hiring, financing, expansion, and the question of whether this year can survive next year. A CFO is worth hiring when decisions have gotten big enough that guessing is costly.
A rough rule of thumb
- Under roughly $1M in revenue: a good bookkeeper is usually enough
- $1M to $3M: bookkeeping plus periodic Controller-level review
- $3M and up, or multiple locations or entities: Controller oversight plus CFO guidance around decisions
These are not hard lines. Complexity matters more than revenue. A single-location business at $5M may need less oversight than a three-entity operation at $2M.
You may not need all three people
This is the part most owners miss. These are functions, not headcount. Plenty of businesses keep a bookkeeper in house and bring in Controller and CFO support part time, which is exactly the arrangement fractional work exists to provide.
Oversight, process, and accountability, without a six-figure hire.
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