Fractional & Interim CFO
CFO-level judgment, without the CFO-level hire.
Merit builds and runs the finance function for owner-led and sponsor-backed companies: a close you can plan around, cash you can see coming, and a partner across the table from your lender. It starts with a fixed-fee assessment — not a twelve-month contract.
- Two CPA-founded partners, both accountable
- Fixed fees, scoped in writing
- Dallas–Fort Worth & nationwide
Is it time?
Signs you've outgrown your bookkeeper.
- The close finishes after the 15th — or not at all
- The bank wants a forecast and you don't have one
- Nobody can say what last month's job actually made
- You're raising, refinancing, or preparing to sell
- A full-time CFO is the right role at the wrong price
Two or more sound familiar? Let's talk. Schedule
Combined experience as audit partners and senior managers at national firms
Raised as operating CFO across two ventures — not advised on, raised
PE-owned manufacturer whose finance organization we redesigned
Funds under final responsibility at the world's largest digital asset fund administrator
Partners trained at BDOCrowePwCWeaverArmanino
The Problem
You already know the numbers are late.
Most companies don't call us because the accounting is wrong. They call because having records isn't the same as having information.
The close finishes on the 22nd
By the time the financials arrive, the month they describe is over. Every decision in between was made on instinct.
The bank wants a forecast by Friday
The last one lives in a spreadsheet nobody trusts anymore, and the covenant calculation is a guess until the auditors show up.
Nobody can say what the job made
WIP, retainage, and change orders live in three systems. Profit per job lives nowhere — so pricing the next one is a coin flip.
That gap — between records and information — is what we close. And we stay accountable for it month over month.
What changes
From records to decisions, inside the first sixteen weeks.
We build the reporting, forecasting, and cash discipline that lets you make the next decision on facts instead of instinct.
A close you can plan around
Reconciled, reviewed financials by a set date every month — with the variance commentary that explains what moved and why.
Cash you can see coming
A 13-week cash forecast, covenant tracking, and liquidity planning — so a tight month is a plan, not a surprise.
Lender-ready, every time
Credit packages, draw requests, and board or sponsor reporting built for the audience that reads them — and defended by someone who's sat on the other side.
A partner in the room
We attend the management meeting, own the reporting calendar, and sit across the table from your lender with you. Advisory that ends at a recommendation isn't finance leadership.
What We Do
Finance leadership, end to end.
Scoped to what your company actually needs — no package tiers, no minimum scope you don't need.
Fractional & Interim CFO
Senior financial leadership on an ongoing, interim, or project basis — in the management meeting, owning the reporting calendar, in the room with your lender.
Planning & Analysis
Budgets, rolling forecasts, three-statement models, and the variance commentary that explains them.
Cash Flow & Working Capital
Thirteen-week cash forecasting, covenant tracking, and liquidity planning that runs every week, not once a quarter.
Accounting Operations & Close
Close acceleration, reconciliation frameworks, documented procedures, and multi-entity consolidation.
Management Reporting & KPIs
Reporting packages built for the audience that reads them: owner, board, lender, or sponsor.
Capital Access & Lender Strategy
Credit packages, construction draws, equity materials, and refinancing analysis — prepared by people who know what the second call will ask.
How It Works
Start with a fixed-fee assessment. Not a twelve-month contract on faith.
Most advisory relationships start with a proposal and a hope. Ours start with a diagnostic you own outright, whether or not you hire us for what comes next.
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1
Weeks 1–3
Assessment
A fixed-fee diagnostic of your finance function: what's working, where the risk sits, what to build first and what can wait. You keep the findings either way.
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2
Weeks 4–8
Stabilize
Fix what's urgent: get the close on a schedule, stand up the 13-week cash forecast, and get lender reporting current.
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3
Weeks 9–16
Build
The reporting package, the forecast model, the procedures — designed for your company, with AI handling the work that shouldn't need judgment.
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4
Ongoing
Run, and step back
We run the function at a defined cadence, train your team, and tell you when the engagement should step down in scope. The goal is that you need us less.
We scope in writing before we start, and we'll tell you when the work you're asking for isn't the work you need. Read the full four-stage approach →
Why Merit
Built for your company, not adapted from a template.
Scoped to the gap, not the package
Every engagement starts by assessing what exists. We build only what closes the distance between the decisions you're making and the information you have.
AI in the process, a person on the number
Anomaly detection in the close, exception clustering in reconciliations, draft variance narratives, draw-package assembly. Every output is a draft; an accountable person reviews every number that reaches you.
Both sides of the table
Former audit partners who then built and ran companies. We know what the diligence team, the auditor, and the lender will ask — because we used to be the ones asking.
Industries
We go deepest where the accounting is genuinely hard.
Construction & Specialty Trades
WIP reporting, percentage-of-completion, job costing, retainage, change orders, bonding and surety support.
Real Estate Development
Project pro formas, construction draw administration, capital stack modeling, entity-per-project structures, investor waterfalls.
Professional Services
Utilization and realization analysis, project profitability, partner compensation modeling.
Asset-Intensive & Specialty Operations
Inventory and asset valuation, consignment and auction accounting, operational cost tracking.
Who you're working with
Two partners who have sat on both sides of the table.
National-firm technical depth, applied by people who have had to make payroll. Equal partners, so accountability has nowhere to go.
Wayne L. Williams, Jr.
Chief Operating Officer
Former Partner at BDO and Crowe; began at PwC. Built Crowe's Dallas audit office from four people to seventy-five. Since then: co-founder and CFO of two ventures ($7M and $10M raises), IPO readiness for a $400M organization, and finance redesign for a $700M PE-owned manufacturer.
Full bio →
Kenny Broom, CPA
Chief Financial Officer
20+ years at BDO, Crowe, Weaver, and Armanino, including Senior Manager over all public company issuer clients in Dallas. Most recently Director at the world's largest digital asset fund administrator, with final responsibility for 176 funds. Past President, TXCPA Dallas.
Full bio →Pricing
Fixed fees, scoped in writing. Start with the assessment.
There's no rate card because no two finance functions have the same gap. What there is: a fixed price for every engagement, agreed before work begins.
Start here
Assessment
A diagnostic of your finance function that stands on its own. If we're not the right fit afterward, you still own the findings.
- What's working, where the risk sits
- What to build first, what can wait
- A priced scope for what comes next
Fractional CFO
Senior finance leadership at a defined scope and cadence. Most clients begin here after the assessment and stay indefinitely.
- Owns the close and reporting calendar
- In the management meeting
- Scope steps down as your team grows
Project
A defined deliverable with a defined end: a forecast model, a system conversion, a financing, a close acceleration.
- Scope and timeline in writing
- One decision-maker on each side
- Documented handoff at the end
Interim CFO
Full-function coverage during a gap, with a defined handoff to your permanent hire — and help finding the right one.
- Full CFO coverage from day one
- Stabilizes lender and board relationships
- Planned transition to your hire
How the fee is set
The assessment tells you exactly what an ongoing engagement would cost, with no obligation to continue. Fees are fixed for the scope agreed, and scope only changes after a conversation — never on an invoice.
What drives it
- Number of entities and how they consolidate
- Reporting cadence and who it goes to (owner, board, lender, sponsor)
- State of the close and the systems behind it
- Whether a financing, transaction, or audit is on the calendar
Just need the books kept? See our fixed-fee remote bookkeeping from $499/mo.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
How much does a fractional CFO cost?
Every relationship starts with a fixed-fee assessment, priced after a 30-minute scoping conversation. The assessment itself tells you what an ongoing engagement would cost — in writing, with no obligation to continue. What we don't do is quote a rate card for a finance function we haven't seen.
What's the difference between fractional and interim?
Fractional is ongoing at a defined scope and cadence — most clients stay on it indefinitely and step scope down as their team matures. Interim covers a specific gap, typically three to nine months, with a defined handoff to your permanent hire.
How fast can we start?
Most assessments kick off within one to two weeks of the scoping call and run three weeks. If something is urgent — a lender deadline, a covenant issue — tell us, and we'll address it inside the assessment rather than after.
We already have a bookkeeper and a CPA. Where do you fit?
Above both. Your bookkeeper records; your tax CPA files. Neither is building the forecast, running the cash discipline, or sitting with your lender. That's the seat we fill, and we work alongside the people you already have.
How does the AI piece work, and who's accountable?
We build AI into the workflows we design — flagging anomalies in the close, clustering reconciliation exceptions, drafting variance narratives, assembling draw packages. Every output is a draft. A named, accountable person reviews every number before it reaches you, and we document where those review points sit. See our AI governance disclosures.
Do you sign an engagement letter?
Yes. Every engagement, including the initial assessment, is scoped in writing before work begins, with clear fees and no scope that drifts without a conversation first.
What if we're not a good fit?
You still keep the assessment findings. Several of our best referrals have come from companies we didn't end up serving — and we'll tell you when the work you're asking for isn't the work you need.
Next step
Bring us your last three months.
A first conversation costs nothing and takes about thirty minutes. Send your recent financials ahead of it and we'll tell you what we see — the things that stand out, and the questions we'd want answered.
Or reach out directly: info@consultmerit.com | (307) 222-2570