Fractional ControllerWhat does a fractional controller do?
You're looking for a fractional controller, and the first question is a fair one. What would this person actually do in your books each month? Our Tax CFO, Steven Palmieri, gives the short answer, and it holds for Steven and his team alike. Your bookkeeper records. A controller checks what was recorded, matches it to the outside world, makes the adjustments, and closes the month.
Show us one month
The controller is the checking layer
Entering a transaction and checking it are two different jobs. The first one takes speed and steady habits. The second takes someone who looks at the whole month and asks whether it makes sense. A bookkeeper can't easily do both at once, and shouldn't be asked to grade their own work.
So a controller sits above the entries. The controller asks whether each account agrees with a statement from the bank, a lender or a payroll provider. They ask whether anything is sitting in the wrong place. They ask whether the month shows what really happened or only when money moved.
What "fractional" means here
Fractional means you get a part of a person's month, sized to your volume, instead of a full-time salary. A company with one bank account, one card and a few dozen entries a week doesn't need someone every day. It needs someone for the days when the month is ready to be checked. That's what the part-time arrangement buys.
What arrives each month
When the month is closed, five things are in your hands. First, your bank, card and loan accounts are matched to their statements. Second, any adjusting entries are made, each with a short note on why. Third, the period is locked, so the numbers stop moving. Fourth, a statement pack is prepared, which you can read on the monthly statements page. Fifth, a short list shows what's still open, so nothing quietly disappears.
None of this requires you to learn bookkeeping. You read the pack and the list, and answer any question that needs your knowledge of the business.
Where a Tax CFO comes in
A closed month is the starting line for a Tax CFO, not the finish. Once the numbers are checked, Steven uses them to plan your pay, set the next tax estimate and prepare the return. Decisions like those belong to the Tax CFO side of the work. This page stays with the checking, because that's what your question was about.
What a controller here does not do
We don't process payroll. A full-service payroll company handles payday, and it answers to you. We help you pick it and wire it into the books, then read what it filed once payday has passed. We also don't issue any report on your statements. Anyone who needs that has to go to a licensed firm, and this page explains where the line sits.
How the month looks to your bookkeeper
Your bookkeeper keeps entering, and the controller works on top of that. After the checking, they get a short list of what to fix or do differently. Over a few months the list gets shorter. You can see how that works in working with your bookkeeper.
What a first look at your books involves
You send one recent month. We put your books beside the bank and card statements and see what agrees. Then we tell you what we'd check each month, what's already matched and what looks off. You decide whether the arrangement makes sense. There's no cost for that first look, and nothing to sign.
What it looks like at your size
A small company with a single bank account and one card might need a few hours of checking each month. A company with several accounts, a loan, a payroll provider and sales tax might need more. We size it to your volume and write the plan down before work starts. If the volume grows, the arrangement can grow with it, and if you someday hire a full-time controller, your closed months and your checklist go with the company.
Many owners are surprised how much of the month is simple matching once someone sits down with the statements. The hard part isn't the arithmetic. It's that nobody was asked to do it.
A step-by-step view of the whole close lives on the close checklist, if you'd like to see the order things happen in.
Checked and closed. By the time the month reaches you, one line ties to the bank, one adjustment has been made that your entries alone wouldn't have caught, and the profit figure on the top of the page is safe to use.
Which month should a controller look at first?
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.