[Home](https://stoneforgegroup.com/) · Financial leadership Financial leadership · Fractional CFO # The numbers need a leader too. Strategic finance with you, not at you. Kristina Walls leads Stoneforge's financial practice – a full-time thinker on your numbers, without the full-time cost of a CFO, embedded in your leadership team, turning the forecast, the cash position, and the decisions ahead of you into plain language. **Forecast.** A forward view of what the numbers will do, built from what the business knows now – work already won, work likely to be won, costs already committed, and the timing of both. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#forecast) **CFO (Chief Financial Officer).** A senior executive responsible for managing a company's financial actions – financial planning, risk management, record-keeping, and financial reporting. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#cfo) [Talk to Us →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/contact/) What the Practice Covers **Kristina Walls** Co-founder & CFO **A Fractional CFO holds the finance seat without the full-time cost:** someone senior who owns the numbers rather than reporting them – the forecast, the margins, the funding, and the decisions that turn on them. For owner-led services businesses at $1–20M it is usually the difference between knowing what happened and knowing what to do next. Four partnerships, $2,500 to $10,000+ a month, matched to the decisions ahead. You may have seen the same seat called something else – an outsourced CFO, a virtual CFO, a part-time CFO, or a fractional finance director. Same work, different label. **Fractional CFO.** A chief financial officer's seat, held without the full-time cost. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#fractional-cfo) 01 Sound familiar? ## Four ways owners say the same thing. “We’re making money – so why does cash still feel tight?” “We’re growing, but our margins are shrinking – and we don’t know why.” “We build budgets – but no one uses them.” “We don’t know what will happen – so we’re hesitant to make a move.” Every one of those is the same problem. The biggest decisions in the business get made on numbers that say what already happened, and nothing that says what is about to. The books are kept. The taxes are filed. And the hire, the price change, the loan and the acquisition still get decided in the dark. That is the gap. Bookkeeping cannot close it, and neither can working harder. Cash · next 13 weeks Illustrative Floor $120k Cash today $312k Lowest point, week 9 $148k Headroom then $28k **Week 9 is eight weeks out** – quarterly tax, the insurance renewal and payroll all land in the same week. The floor is one month of payroll. Replace the equipment · $40k * Buy outright, now Week 9 falls to **$108k** – $12k under the floor. Finance at 7% over three years **$1,235 a month.** Week 9 holds at $146k. $4,463 in interest, and it is yours at the end. Lease over three years **$1,050 a month.** Week 9 holds at $146k. Lower monthly, but $45,800 in total if you buy it at fair market value at the end. Buy outright, week 13 Clears with **$81k** to spare – and four more months on the machine you are replacing. * Each route is taxed differently – Section 179, bonus depreciation, and how lease payments are treated all change the real cost. We work that through before you commit. **A worked example, not a client’s numbers.** Yours is built from your own. What stays the same is seeing week 9 while there is still time to change it. Not sure the numbers are where it's stuck? [The 30-second test points you to the right conversation →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/where-its-stuck/) 02 What it costs, and what changes ## The decisions get made either way – what changes is what they cost you. Nobody waits for clarity. The hire happens, the price holds, the loan gets taken. Leaving the gap open doesn't stop any of it – it changes when and how it happens. The cost ### Cash, seen too late The cash crunch gets handled in the week it lands instead of the quarter it was visible. Everything costs more in that week – the borrowing, the discount, the concession to the customer who sensed it. What changes ### No more fire drills A live view of the months ahead, so the tight week is seen in April rather than felt in June – and a plan the business actually runs against, revisited on a rhythm. The cost ### Margin you can't explain Work that loses money keeps getting sold, because nothing in the reporting separates it from the work that pays. In our work, the busiest year is often the thinnest one. What changes ### You know which work pays What each kind of work really earns after everything it consumes, and the handful of measures that steer the business – on one screen the team reads without an interpreter. Pricing stops being folklore. The cost ### Decisions deferred The move you can't model is the move you don't make. Hesitation reads as prudence for about two quarters, and then it reads as a competitor who moved. What changes ### You move while it still matters The hire, the price change, the slow quarter – played out in the numbers first, so the move is weighed instead of guessed. The cost ### Capital on someone else's terms Capital raised at the moment of need is capital raised at the worst price. Lenders and buyers set terms against the quality of your numbers, whether or not you were ready. What changes ### Ready before you need it When to fund growth from cash, when to borrow, and on what terms – decided ahead of the need. Buying, selling or preparing for a lender: the diligence, the modeling, the package, and a steady head through it. One client came to us scrambling two days before every payroll. Not because the business was failing – because nothing told them cash was tight until it already was. Working capital stabilized in under three months. **Working Capital.** A measure of a company's short-term financial health – the difference between current assets and current liabilities. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#working-capital) 03 The seat, and who holds it ## Full-time thinking, without the full-time cost. Many owner-led businesses have the books kept and the taxes filed, and still make their biggest decisions in the dark – because bookkeeping records the past, and the decisions ahead of you need someone thinking about the future. That's the seat Kristina takes: embedded in your leadership team, the translator between the numbers and the goals, a strategic voice when things are moving fast. The point is never the report. The point is that when you're weighing the hire, the price change, the loan, or the acquisition, someone who knows your numbers cold is sitting on your side of the table – and you understand every word she says, because plain language is the discipline. None of that means taking the numbers off your plate. The decisions are yours and they stay yours – what changes is what you can see when you make them. Your read on your own business is signal, not noise, and the work is adding insight to it: what the numbers are actually saying, what they suggest about the months ahead, and how that sits against what you are trying to build – then the actions tracked, and the outcomes read honestly against them. She works alongside your bookkeeper and your accountant. We don't replace what already works. **Bookkeeper.** A professional responsible for recording a business's financial transactions. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#bookkeeper) **Accountant.** A professional who prepares, reviews and interprets a business's financial records – producing the statements, handling tax filings, and advising on how the numbers should be treated. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#accountant) Kristina Walls has spent more than twenty years in strategic financial leadership – founding and running her own financial consulting firm, and holding finance leadership roles inside large technology businesses before that. What owners notice first, though, isn't the résumé. It's the translation: complexity in, clarity out, every single time. More than twenty years of **financial leadership** Founded and ran **her own firm** – she's sat in your seat Master's in Economics · **complexity into clarity** 04 How it runs ## One method, seen through the numbers. The financial practice runs on the same standing rhythm as the revenue work – because a rhythm that holds is what turns advice into change, whichever side of the business it lands on. ### Standing checkpoints What moved in the numbers, what it means, and what happens next – short, on schedule, never skipped. ### Monthly priorities The results laid out clearly, and the one or two financial decisions that matter most right now, made. ### Quarterly reviews A step back: the plan against reality, the model against the market, and the aims reset where they've drifted. ### The first ninety days. ### Weeks 1–2 · The read Your numbers, read cold – what is actually happening in cash, margin and mix. You get told the truth, in plain language. ### Weeks 3–6 · The build The forecast, the measures that steer the business, and the one screen the team reads without an interpreter. ### Week 7 on · The rhythm Checkpoints, priorities, reviews. The rhythm starts, and it doesn't stop. Which in practice means cash-flow forecasting, scenario planning, KPI development and dashboards, unit economics and margin clarity, budgeting and planning, capital strategy, M&A support, and SBA loan readiness. **Scenario Planning.** Running a decision through the numbers before committing to it – the hire, the price change, the loan, the slow quarter – and seeing what each outcome does to cash and profit. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#scenario-planning) **Unit Economics.** What one unit of the business actually earns and costs – one job, one client, one service line – once everything it consumes is counted. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#unit-economics) 05 The partnerships ## Four partnerships, matched to the decisions ahead. Every business reaches a point where yesterday's financial management is no longer enough. Growth brings greater complexity, higher-stakes decisions, and more pressure on cash, profitability and leadership capacity. The four partnerships are matched to the company's current stage. Revenue is a useful guide – the ranges below are the ones we see most often – but the right partnership follows from complexity, the decisions in front of the business, and the level of executive involvement they require. Published fractional CFO rates commonly start around three or four thousand a month and run past twenty at the top. This ladder sits inside that range the whole way and opens below where it begins – because a business at the smaller end needs a decision partner, not a full finance function. Click or tap any partnership to see more detail. 01 ### Bedrock Seeing the business clearly enough to decide. Typical revenue $1M – $2.5M Leadership cadence Monthly strategy and performance review Monthly investment $2,500 – $3,000 01 #### Bedrock · seeing the business clearly enough to decide You have built a viable business, but the financial information is not giving you enough confidence to make bigger decisions. You know revenue and the bank balance, but you may not know why cash is changing, where profit is being created, or whether the business can safely support its next move. The decisions we help you make - When do we hire the next employee, and what has to be true first? - Where is the business making or losing money? - Why is cash not matching profit? - What should leadership focus on during the next 90 days? - What has to be true financially before the next move? How we partner - Monthly executive strategy meeting - Monthly financial performance review - Quarterly planning session - Direct email support when a financial question cannot wait - Coordination with the company's CPA and bookkeeper **What changes.** No more opening the bank account to find out how the month went. 02 ### Cornerstone Growth that converts into profit and cash. Typical revenue $2.5M – $5M Leadership cadence Twice-monthly strategy, monthly review Monthly investment $4,000 – $5,000 02 #### Cornerstone · growth that converts into profit and cash Growth has become harder than building the business. More customers and employees have increased complexity, but not necessarily profit, cash, or freedom. Important decisions still return to the owner, while the cost of making the wrong decision continues to rise. The decisions we help you make - When should the company hire? - How much can the company safely invest in growth? - Where should pricing change, and by how much? - Which customers, services, or channels deserve more resources? - What rate of growth can the company sustain? - Where should the next dollar be invested for the highest return? How we partner – everything in Bedrock, and: - Executive strategy meetings twice monthly - Participation in selected leadership meetings - Ongoing decision support between meetings - Coordination with lenders, accountants, and other advisors **What changes.** Growth that shows up in the bank account, not just in the workload. 03 ### Keystone Financial strategy as a way of managing the company. Typical revenue $5M – $10M Leadership cadence Bi-weekly strategy, monthly planning and review Monthly investment $6,500 – $8,000 03 #### Keystone · financial strategy as a way of managing the company The business has become too complex for reactive financial management. Department leaders need clearer accountability, capital must be allocated intentionally, and financial strategy must become part of how the company is managed – not simply how results are reported. The decisions we help you make - What has to be in place to expand, add a location, or enter a new market? - How much growth should be financed versus self-funded? - Which initiatives should receive or lose investment? - How should departments and leaders be measured? - Where are the risks that could actually hurt the company? - What will increase long-term enterprise value? How we partner – everything in Cornerstone, and: - Bi-weekly executive strategy meetings - Monthly financial strategy and planning session - Ongoing participation in the leadership team - Direct executive decision support between meetings - Banking, financing, and board-ready reporting support **What changes.** No longer the only person in the company who knows what the numbers mean. 04 ### Capstone Decisions that shape the future value of the company. Typical revenue $10M+, or a major transaction or inflection point Leadership cadence Weekly strategy, monthly review and planning Monthly investment From $10,000 04 #### Capstone · decisions that shape the future value of the company Financial decisions now shape the future value and direction of the company. The CEO needs an experienced financial executive who helps shape strategy, evaluate risk, allocate capital, and prepare the business for its next major stage – not simply someone who reports results. The decisions we help you make - What would make an acquisition worth pursuing? - What return and level of risk justify a major investment? - How should growth be financed? - What has to change to be ready for outside capital or an exit? - How should executive incentives support the strategy? - Where should capital be deployed to maximize long-term enterprise value? How we partner – everything in Keystone, and: - Weekly executive strategy meeting - Ongoing strategic planning facilitation - Executive leadership team participation - Direct access when a big decision lands - Board, investor, and lender negotiation support - M&A analysis and transaction support **What changes.** A seat beside you for the decisions that keep you up at night. Each partnership includes everything in the one before it. Revenue is a guide rather than a rule – the right partnership follows from complexity, the decisions in front of the business, and the executive involvement they require. Within each range the investment reflects the depth of the work and the cadence it demands. Thirty-day notice throughout. If you have seen these named Financial Clarity, Growth Decisions, Executive Finance and Strategic CFO Partner, they are the same four, in the same order. [Talk to Us →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/contact/) Not sure which one fits? The first conversation is fifty minutes, with the person who would hold the seat. 06 Who this is for ## Owner-led, $1–20M, and facing a decision the current numbers can't answer. If the books just need keeping, that is a bookkeeping need rather than a leadership one, and we will say so. If what you want is a one-off model for the bank with no intention of running against it, the rhythm is where the value lives, and it would be wasted. 07 In their words ## Owners on the financial practice. **Financial controls and a real forecasting process, installed at a scaling point.** "Waterhouse engaged Kristina as a fractional CFO and financial planning and analysis advisor at a critical juncture in our professional service firm's life cycle. Beyond instituting financial controls and a more rigorous revenue and expense forecasting process, Kristina has served as an invaluable thought partner guiding hiring, compensation, benefits and other strategic planning initiatives critical to scaling our firm. I recommend her without hesitation!" **Kim Kraemer** · Founder and CEO, Waterhouse Brands **From no operational KPIs and no long-range planning, to faster decisions.** "As the CEO of Cloudality, I hired Kristina to add value to our startup which had no operational KPIS or long range planning when I stepped into the role. Working with Kristina and the Stoneforge team has been transformative for our business. From the beginning, Kristina brought not just financial expertise, but a true strategic lens – helping us understand the story behind our numbers and use that insight to make better, faster decisions." **Kim Georgeton** · CEO, Cloudality **Four years in the CFO seat, critical to daily operations.** "Kristina has been supporting FotoFetch as CFO for the past 4 years and has been critical to our daily operations and management. I highly recommend Stoneforge for any businesses financial and business management needs. The experience set of Kristina's financial knowledge paired with James GTM and business acumen will be a significant asset to any operation looking to expand its brain trust in those areas." **Abed Husseini** · CEO, Fotofetch **Cash flow and financial strategy, demystified – with immediate impact.** "I reached out to Kristina to help me with cash flow and financial strategy for my consultancy. Kristina took the time to understand my enterprise aims. She guided me through a process that has demystified the financial management of my business. The positive impact of this has been immediate." **Prof. Moira Clay** · Owner, Moira Clay Consulting **Dashboards the owner actually uses.** "Kristina works with me on the financial development of our business and our conversations are something I always look forward to – collaborative and insightful. The information they give me is great and the dashboards are fantastic." **Ryan Porter** · Founder & Co-Owner, Nai'a Naturals 08 Asked plainly, answered plainly ## What does a Fractional CFO actually do? A fractional CFO gives an owner-led business senior financial leadership without the full-time cost – embedded in the leadership team, guiding decisions, stress-testing plans, and making sure the financial strategy matches the ambition. At Stoneforge that seat is held by Kristina Walls: cash-flow forecasting, scenario planning, KPIs, unit economics, budgeting, capital strategy, and M&A support. It is not taking the numbers off your plate: the decisions stay yours, and what changes is what you can see when you make them. **Financial Strategy.** A plan for how a company will manage its finances to reach its long-term goals. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#financial-strategy) ## How is a fractional CFO different from a bookkeeper or controller? Bookkeeping records the past; a controller keeps it accurate. A fractional CFO thinks about the future. We are not a bookkeeping firm, we're not here to retroactively explain what already happened, and we're not a stopgap controller brought in to plug holes – the work is shaping the decisions ahead of you: the hire, the price change, the loan, the acquisition. ## How do fractional CFO engagements run? On the same standing rhythm as the revenue work: standing checkpoints on what moved in the numbers and what happens next, monthly priorities where the one or two financial decisions that matter most get made, and quarterly reviews that put the plan against reality. Remote-first, embedded alongside your existing bookkeeper or accountant – we don't replace what works. ## What does a fractional CFO cost? Engagements run from $2,500 a month at Bedrock to $10,000 and above at Capstone, all of them on a thirty-day notice. Where yours sits comes down to what the seat is carrying: the depth of forecasting and planning the business needs, how many decisions are in motion – the hire, the price change, the loan, the acquisition – and the cadence the work demands. Against the cost of a full-time CFO, you're paying for the strategic hours you actually need, and none you don't. ## How does this compare with other fractional CFOs? Published fractional CFO rates commonly start around three or four thousand a month, settle for many engagements between four and eight, and run past twenty at the top. Guides that break the market down by company size put a business of five to thirty million at seven to twelve thousand a month. Set against that, this ladder opens below where the published range begins and sits inside it the rest of the way. Bedrock starts at $2,500, under the usual floor, because a business at that stage needs a decision partner rather than a full finance function. Keystone runs $6,500 to $8,000 for a company of five to ten million, below the published band for that size. Capstone starts at $10,000 – inside the range rather than above it. The comparison that matters more is against a full-time hire. A chief financial officer is a salary in the low-to-mid six figures before benefits or a recruiter's fee, which is why an owner-led business between $1M and $20M almost never has one. The fractional model exists so the seat arrives without the payroll decision. ## What is not included? Stoneforge provides CFO-level leadership and decision support. Six things sit outside a partnership unless separately scoped or delivered through another Stoneforge service: day-to-day bookkeeping and transaction coding; accounts payable processing or routine receivable collections; payroll processing; bank and credit card reconciliations; tax return preparation and filing, where we act as your CPA liaison; and audit or assurance services. **CPA (Certified Public Accountant).** A professional designation for accountants who pass the Uniform CPA Examination and meet additional state education and experience requirements. [Full entry →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/#cpa) What we do oversee matters just as much. You keep your bookkeeper, controller and CPA. We sit above them and make sure the work they produce is accurate, on time, and ready for you to decide from – overseeing bookkeeping accuracy and the monthly close, directing and reviewing controller and accounting staff, acting as CPA liaison for tax planning, filings and year-end, and producing leadership-ready financial statements you can act on. ## Who is a fractional CFO wrong for? A business that just needs the books kept has a bookkeeping need, not a leadership one. And if what you want is a one-off model or a document for the bank with no intention of running against it, the rhythm – which is where the value lives – would be wasted. The fit is owner-led businesses, $1–20M, facing decisions the current numbers can't answer. 09 From the newsletter ## Written on the numbers. Longer pieces on profit, on pricing, and on what the numbers are actually for. [August 25, 2026 ### Profit is a dirty word A dealership sells the car at a loss and makes its money on the servicing years later. Why profit stopped being something owners aim at, and what the number actually measures. Read It →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/insights/profit-is-a-dirty-word/) [August 10, 2026 ### Ten thousand hours in, and my belly flops still don’t win medals Thousands of hours off a diving rock bought competence, not a medal. Why the plateau arrives after the proving rather than before it, and how to tell which of eleven areas to work on first. Read It →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/insights/ten-thousand-hours/) [June 19, 2026 ### Honoring instinct Three of us wrote a bid on a blank page, cold, and came within five percent of the number three weeks of work produced. Why an owner’s gut is almost never the part that is wrong, and what the numbers are actually for. Read It →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/insights/honoring-instinct/) [All the Issues →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/insights/) 10 Where to start ## Two ways in – both free. ### The financial scorecard – the deep look at your numbers Seven quick questions, a gut answer to each – no score to chase, no email asked for, nothing you answer is saved. It places you – instinct-led, insight-driven, or outcome-led – and names the one gap worth closing first. [Take the Financial Scorecard →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/financial-scorecard/) Want the whole business in one look? [Run the Anatomy of a Well-Run Business →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/anatomy-of-a-well-run-business/) Unfamiliar term? [The owner’s glossary](https://stoneforgegroup.com/glossary/) defines them plainly. ### Tell us what you're trying to decide, and we'll tell you plainly whether this is the right fit. The first conversation is about your aims and your numbers – and if a fractional CFO isn't what you need, Kristina will say so and point you at what is. On Florida's Gulf Coast? The same seat, written for here – [a fractional CFO in Sarasota](https://stoneforgegroup.com/fractional-cfo-sarasota/). [Talk to Us →](https://stoneforgegroup.com/contact/) Fifty minutes, about your business, with the person who'd hold the seat.