Fractional and Part-Time Finance Director

Senior finance leadership on a flexible basis. The strategic thinking of a finance director, without the cost of a full-time hire.

Most growing businesses reach a point where the numbers need more than a bookkeeper and a year-end accountant. Decisions get bigger. The bank asks harder questions. An investor wants a board pack. Cash feels tight even though sales are up. But a full-time finance director, with the salary, pension, National Insurance and recruitment fees that come with one, is a big step to take before you are sure you need it.

A fractional or part-time Finance Director fills that gap, with Financial Controller support where you need it. You get an experienced, qualified finance lead who works with you for an agreed number of days each month, knows your business properly, and is there for the moments that matter. You may also hear it called an outsourced or virtual finance director: the same arrangement under a different name.

Finance Director or Financial Controller: which do you need?

The two roles overlap, and most businesses we speak to need a bit of each.

A Financial Controller keeps the engine running. Month-end close, reconciliations, management accounts, tight controls, and a bookkeeper or small finance team who know what good looks like. If your numbers arrive late, or you are never quite sure they are right, this is usually where to start.

A Finance Director looks ahead. Budgets and forecasts, cashflow planning, pricing and margin decisions, funding, and the conversations with your board, your bank and your investors. If you have reliable numbers but nobody with the time or experience to turn them into decisions, this is the gap.

We shape the role around where your business is now, and it can change as you grow. There is no fixed package you have to squeeze into.

What is included

• Fractional Finance Director and Financial Controller roles, part time and ongoing
• Board packs and board reporting
• KPI and management reporting
• Cashflow, budgets and forecasts, with stress analysis
• Financial performance and position analysis
• Building a finance function from scratch

Board packs and board reporting

A board pack brings the numbers, the commentary and the key decisions together in one place, so a board meeting is spent deciding rather than decoding. The same reporting serves your bank and your investors, so the questions they ask are answered from numbers everyone trusts. It is the work behind the Toronto example further down this page.

KPI and management reporting

Clear monthly reporting that shows how the business is really performing, not just what the bank balance says, with the KPIs that matter to your business tracked across each revenue stream. Where the day-to-day records and the monthly accounts need doing too, our bookkeeping and management accounts service sits underneath this one, so the reporting is built on records we trust.

Cashflow, budgets and forecasts

A rolling cashflow forecast, usually week by week for the next quarter, so you can see a squeeze coming long before it arrives. We look at how quickly customers pay, how you pay suppliers and where cash is tied up, and we help you act on what we find.

Alongside it, a budget you actually use, a forecast that is updated as the year unfolds, and honest answers to "what if" questions. What happens if your biggest customer pays sixty days late? If you take on two more people? If costs rise by ten per cent? Stress testing the plan before a lender or investor does it for you is one of the most useful things a finance director brings.

Financial performance and position analysis

Which products, services or revenue streams make money, and which quietly lose it. Margin analysis, pricing, overheads and working capital, laid out in plain English so you can decide what to do next.

Building a finance function from scratch

If your finance function is one overstretched person, or a spreadsheet and a shoebox, we can design and build the whole thing: the systems, the month-end routine, the controls and the reporting. Then we help you recruit or train the people to run it once it is in place.

Who this is for

Our fractional finance work is designed for owner-managed businesses turning over roughly £500k to £8m, and it fits especially well where there is more than one revenue stream to keep track of. It is usually the right time to talk to us if:

• you are preparing to raise funding, refinance, or sit down with an investor
• you have several revenue streams and cannot see clearly which ones make money
• your board or shareholders want proper, regular reporting
• cash feels tight even though the business is growing
• your finance person has left, or the business has outgrown its bookkeeper

Who you will work with

Your fractional finance lead is Omar Ahmed Khan ACA, the founder of CrestWell and an ICAEW Chartered Accountant with over fifteen years of accounting, audit and advisory experience across Deloitte, one of the Big 4, mid-tier firms and in-house finance roles. Omar has built finance functions, led multi-entity and multi-currency group consolidations, and prepared board-level reporting for large organisations. You deal with Omar directly, not with a junior or a call centre. You can read more about him on our team page.

An example of the work

For a growing business in Toronto, Omar pulled together the forecasts, cashflows and board pack and streamlined the whole reporting process. That work played a major part in the business securing extra funding towards its next revenue milestone, and Omar flew out to sit in on the board meeting with the investor, answering questions from the investor's advisers and accountant. You can read the client's own words on our reviews page.

How it works

1. A free consultation. We talk about your business, where it is heading and what is getting in the way. There is no obligation.
2. A proper look at your numbers. We review your current reporting, cashflow and systems, and tell you honestly what we think you need, which is sometimes less than you expected.
3. An agreed scope. The days, the deliverables and the fee are agreed in writing before we start.
4. A regular rhythm. Monthly reporting, a standing meeting, and a finance lead you can pick up the phone to in between.

Local, and national

We are based in Crawley and meet clients face to face across Crawley, East Grinstead, Horsham, Haywards Heath and Horley. Fractional finance leadership does not depend on postcode, though, and we work with clients across the UK and abroad, travelling for the meetings that matter.