Fractional & Interim CFO Services
CFO-level judgment, without the CFO-level hire.
Merit builds and runs the finance function for owner-led and sponsor-backed companies in construction, real estate, and the industries around them. Numbers you can plan on. Cash you can see coming. A partner in the room when it counts.
Two CPA-founded partners · Dallas–Fort Worth & nationwide · AI-enabled, partner-reviewed
The Problem
You already know the numbers are late.
Nobody calls us because the accounting is wrong. They call because the close lands on the twenty-second, the bank wants a forecast by Friday, and no one can say what last month's job actually made.
Having records is not the same as having information. We close that gap — the reporting, the forecast, the cash discipline — so your next decision is made on facts. Then we stay accountable for it, month after month.
Built around your company, not a package
Every engagement starts with an assessment of what you have. We build only what closes the gap between the decisions you're making and the information you're making them with. No tiers. No scope you don't need.
AI in the process. A partner on the number.
We design AI into the work: anomalies flagged in the close, exceptions clustered in reconciliations, variance narratives drafted, draw packages assembled. Every output is a draft. A partner who is accountable reviews every number before it reaches you.
In the room, not on the sidelines
We sit in the management meeting, own the reporting calendar, and take the lender call with you. Advice that ends at a recommendation isn't finance leadership. Ownership is.
What We Do
Finance leadership, end to end.
Fractional & Interim CFO
Senior finance leadership that owns the outcome — ongoing, interim, or for a defined project.
Financial Planning & Analysis
Budgets, rolling forecasts, and three-statement models, with commentary that explains why the numbers moved.
Cash Flow & Working Capital
Thirteen-week cash forecasting, covenant tracking, and liquidity planning that runs every week.
Accounting Operations & Close
A faster close, reconciliations that hold, procedures your team can follow, and clean multi-entity consolidation.
Management Reporting & KPIs
Reporting built for the person reading it — owner, board, lender, or sponsor — on a schedule they can trust.
Capital Access & Lender Strategy
Credit packages, construction draws, equity materials, and refinancing analysis, prepared by people who know what the second call will ask.
Transaction Advisory
Diligence support, sell-side readiness, and post-close integration, from first indication of interest to the first closed month after.
Entity Structure & Governance
Multi-entity design, tax election modeling, distribution policy, and disbursement controls that hold up under scrutiny.
Industry Focus
Industries we know from the inside.
We work across sectors. These are the ones where we've spent enough years that you won't be explaining your business to us.
Construction & Specialty Trades
WIP reporting, percentage-of-completion, job costing, retainage, change orders, and the bonding and surety support that depends on all of it.
Real Estate Development
Project pro formas, draw administration, capital stack modeling, entity-per-project structures, and investor waterfalls that pay out correctly.
Energy & Energy Services
Joint interest billing, revenue and royalty accounting, field cost tracking, reserve-based reporting, and complex international structures.
Financial Services
Fund accounting and administration, investor reporting and waterfalls, regulatory and SEC reporting, and digital asset accounting.
Healthcare
Payor mix and reimbursement analysis, provider compensation modeling, practice-level and multi-site profitability, and cost report support.
Asset-Intensive & Specialty Operations
Inventory and asset valuation, consignment and auction accounting, and operational cost tracking that ties to the floor.
Who We Work With
Owners who've hit one of three moments.
Privately held and sponsor-backed companies, typically $5 million to $50 million in revenue for ongoing engagements, and earlier-stage companies on a project basis. Just need the books kept right? See remote bookkeeping.
Outgrowing the bookkeeper
Revenue has doubled. The accounting hasn't changed. You're still the only person who can see the whole picture — and it's costing you.
Approaching a transaction
A financing, acquisition, or sale is on the horizon, and the financials aren't ready to survive diligence. Better to hear that from us than from the buyer.
Covering a gap
Your controller or CFO left. The search will take months. The close, the lender, and the board can't wait for it.
How Engagements Start
Three weeks. Fixed fee. Findings you keep.
Every relationship begins with an assessment of your finance function: what's working, where the risk sits, what to build first, and what can wait.
It stands on its own. If we're not the right fit for what follows, the findings are still yours to hand to whoever is.
Bring us your last three months.
Thirty minutes, no cost, no deck. Send your recent financials ahead of the call and we'll come with observations instead of questions — what stands out, and what we'd want to know next.
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