Minnesota's leading immigrant-owned accounting firm · Serving MN & WI since 2006

"I'm making money. So why does it feel like I never have any cash?"

That question is the entire reason CFO Advisory exists at HAR. It's the moment a business has outgrown "bookkeeping is enough" and hit the ceiling where the owner needs someone who can look at the full financial picture and answer a real question with a real answer not another statement to interpret alone.

Request a CFO Advisory Consultation

If your current bookkeeper hands you a P&L and nothing else, your most critical strategic questions don't have a real answer. That's the specific gap CFO Advisory closes.

How this works

CFO Advisory sits on top of your monthly bookkeeping, not instead of it. Once your books are closed each month, HAR's CFO Advisory team builds a layer of analysis on top: executive-level reporting, KPI tracking specific to your business, and a scheduled call to walk through what the numbers mean for whatever decision is currently in front of you.

This isn't a report that shows up in your inbox with no context it's a working relationship where the analysis is built around the real question you're trying to answer that month, whether that's a hiring decision, an expansion, or simply understanding why cash feels tight despite a strong P&L.

Why this industry needs a specialist

If I hire this next person, what happens to my cash position over the next six months?
Can I actually afford a second location, or does the math only work on paper?
Which of my service lines or products are actually profitable once overhead is allocated?
What's my business worth if I wanted to bring on a partner or sell in three years?
Am I pricing this correctly, or am I subsidizing my least profitable customers?
What does a bank actually want to see before they'll approve financing?
Why does revenue keep growing while the bank account balance doesn't move?

A month in a CFO Advisory relationship.

Outsourced CFO support shouldn't feel abstract. We map your financial modeling into a structured, predictable monthly rhythm.

Week 1

Reconciliation & Close

Prior month's books are fully reconciled and closed seamlessly by HAR's core bookkeeping team.

Week 2

CFO Intelligence Build

Executive summary, detailed P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and custom KPI tracking dashboards are built.

Week 3

Strategic Review Call

A live deep-dive call to walk through the numbers, flag variances, and connect results to current active operational decisions.

Week 4

Forward-Looking Forecasts

Updated cash flow forecasting, budget-to-actual comparisons, and predictive safety modeling for the upcoming cycles.

The KPIs that actually matter, and why generic dashboards miss them.

Most off-the-shelf tools default to the same basic metrics: revenue and expenses. Those matter, but they rarely answer the real questions. HAR builds custom reporting packages designed for the operational realities of your specific industry sector:

Restaurants & Food Service

Food cost percentages and labor costs tracked as a percentage of sales on a tighter cadence, because margins shift overnight.

Contractors & Trades

Precise job-level costing and profitability tracking, ensuring one single underbid contract isn't quietly wiping out the margins of three highly successful ones.

Licensed Healthcare Providers

Staffing ratio compliance metrics mapped directly alongside financial margins, because operational spend and legal compliance are completely linked.

What's inside a CFO Advisory engagement

Executive Summaries

Standard and detailed P&L statements, balance sheets, and real cash flow statements broken down without the accounting jargon.

Custom KPI Dashboards

Trend analysis and visual reporting structures built specifically around your core business drivers, not a templates database.

Predictive Cash Modeling

Forward-looking cash flow forecasting scaled explicitly for upcoming hires, market expansions, or heavy seasonal swings.

Expansion Modeling

Data-driven acquisition and multi-location performance modeling to evaluate the real risk profile of a new capital investment.

Banking & Capital Support

Lender relationship packages. Walk straight into commercial financing conversations with institution-ready forecasting packages.

Valuation Reporting

Ongoing business valuation reporting to give you crystal-clear visibility into your asset equity if planning to bring on partners or exit.

Our process.

01 Baseline Review

An extensive assessment of your historical bookkeeping to confirm records are structurally ready for CFO analysis.

02 KPI Identification

A deep-dive conversation to isolate what actually moves the needle, translating them into trackable monthly metrics.

03 First Reporting Cycle

Your first full CFO reporting packet package, delivered with an extensive walkthrough of what the data is answering.

04 Ongoing Monthly Cadence

Reporting delivery, strategy review calls, and forward-looking forecasts lock into a tight monthly operational rhythm.

05 On-Demand Modeling

When sudden macro decisions arise (hires, locations, acquisitions), capital asset modeling is built out immediately.

06 Scale Planning

Ongoing tracking adjustments designed to constantly scale alongside your business architecture as complexity rises.

Real-world impact. Proven results.

The Safe Hiring Plan

A Minneapolis contractor considering a fourth crew hire came to HAR with a simple question: could the business absorb the added payroll without straining cash flow during the slower winter months?

The Outcome:

Rather than a gut-feel answer, HAR modeled the hire against 18 months of actual seasonal cash flow data. We identified the exact month a cash buffer would be required. The hire went ahead safely three months later, backed by numbers rather than assumptions.

Finding the Unprofitable Offering

A professional services firm assumed all three of its primary service lines were equally profitable since pricing was identical and all teams stayed constantly busy.

The Outcome:

A CFO Advisory review allocating true overhead and specific staff hours (rather than treating overhead as one bucket) revealed one offering was running at a net loss. The firm repriced the line, completely closing the margin gap within two quarters.

Turning Around a Lender Denial

A growing business needed a commercial line of credit to smooth out seasonal gaps but was turned down by a lender who felt their financial reporting packages weren't clear enough about the trajectory.

The Outcome:

HAR's CFO team rebuilt the reporting package around what underwriting metrics required: a clean cash history, clear forecasting charts, and explanations of the seasonal curves. A second lender approved the line on the first application.

Who this is for and who it isn't

CFO Advisory is built explicitly for operators with steady revenue, multi-employee payroll complexity, and real decisions in front of them: a second location, a senior hire, an acquisition, or a corporate exit. If you're pre-revenue or your bookkeeping isn't yet closed monthly, we recommend starting with HAR's core Bookkeeping service first.

"

Their bookkeeping and tax filing are flawless, but their CFO reports are the real game-changer for my business strategy. If you want a team that is knowledgeable, clear, and professional, look no further.

Jaylen Topher

CFO Advisory & Bookkeeping Client

Transparent Advisory Tiers

Fractional CFO

CFO Advisory Base

649_/mo

$

Based on 0–49 transactions/month scale.

Monthly P&L, balance sheet & cash statements
Custom KPI dashboard design & analytics
Cash flow budgeting & predictive forecasting
Lender and bank capitalization package support
Business valuation tracking metrics
Scheduled monthly executive strategy review calls

*Require a faster reporting loop? Custom bookkeeping cadences — including fully weekly bookkeeping and reconciliation models for high-volume accounts — are available at custom pricing, confirmed during your strategy consultation.

Frequently

Asked Questions

What does a fractional CFO actually do for a small business?

A fractional CFO service provides high-level executive financial reporting, KPI dashboard setups, forward cash flow forecasting, and advisory oversight on capital applications, scale hiring, or entity expansion plans without the six-figure overhead of a full-time executive placement.

How much does CFO advisory cost compared to hiring a full-time CFO?

HAR's CFO Advisory engagements start at $649/month. A full-time CFO in Minnesota typically commands a base salary well into six figures. Fractional advisory delivers identical reporting and strategic clarity at a highly manageable monthly cost profile.

Is CFO Advisory only meant for large enterprise companies?

No. It is explicitly tailored for small to mid-sized businesses that have outgrown basic bookkeeping loops — operations with multi-employee payrolls, steady baseline revenues, and complex upcoming scaling choices.

Do I need to already be an established HAR bookkeeping client?

It is highly recommended. High-level financial modeling requires completely clean, reconciled underlying records. If your books are currently behind or non-reconciled, we typically bundle a catch-up bookkeeping sprint into onboarding first.

How often do we meet, or is this just an emailed report?

Every cycle includes a scheduled, live monthly advisory strategy call alongside the core written analysis packets. These metrics are built explicitly to be strategic discussion points, not inbox background noise.

Can CFO Advisory assist with commercial bank loan applications?

Yes. Commercial bank and lender underwriting support is standard. We format your asset forecasting data, trailing performance sheets, and cash trends directly into the exact frameworks commercial analysts require.

What is the difference between CFO Advisory and Financial Reporting?

Financial Reporting compiles the core static trailing statements (P&L, Balance Sheets). CFO Advisory takes that trailing compilation and layers on forward-facing predictive tracking, operational forecasting, and strategic execution consulting calls.

Can CFO Advisory help evaluate if my current product pricing is correct?

Yes. Deep margin profitability analysis broken down by product lines, service segments, or customer groups is standard, frequently surfacing hidden overhead leakages that depress cash flow.