When you think about the finance and accounting function within any “decent-sized” organization, you may come across two key roles — the controller and the CFO.   In some cases, those roles overlap.  Sometimes, they are one and the same.  The table below highlights some of the differences.

But both have their place in the organization.   In a smaller company, the controller title can be replaced with  “accounting manager”, “office manager”, or “bookkeeper”, and, often times, the work done or value provided is considerably less than what the table shows.  Additionally, the CFO role may be lacking completely.

What are small business owners to do when they need the benefits of the CFO but cannot overcome the obstacle of cost?  This is somewhat a trick question, in that the needs are there, but the needs aren’t full time.  A Fractional CFO can help bridge the gap between cost and time, by spreading the full time cost across multiple organizations, while still providing value-adding service to each one.