Fractional CFO Services
We Fix What's Broken. Then We Build What's Missing.
Counterbalance comes into complicated finance environments, figures out what isn't working, repairs the underlying infrastructure, and builds the forward-looking CFO layer on top of it.
20+
Years of experience
$2M – $250M+
Businesses supported
CFO + Controller + Operator
Strategic, technical and operational perspective
AI + Automation
Modern finance transformation
Who we help
Situations We Solve
The CFO or controller recently departed.
The business does not trust its monthly results.
Cash performance does not match reported profitability.
Growth has overwhelmed existing accounting processes.
Management needs board- or lender-ready reporting.
Job, product, customer or location profitability is unclear.
The company is preparing for a transaction.
Finance automation is needed but controls cannot be compromised.
Our approach
More Than Advice. A Finance Function That Works.
Many fractional CFO engagements begin with strategy. Counterbalance begins by determining whether the financial information supporting that strategy can be trusted.
We work across accounting, financial planning, operations, controls and technology to build a connected finance function-not another layer of reporting.
The result is stronger financial discipline, earlier visibility into risk and better information for the decisions that shape the business.
How We Engage
Three clear paths - each designed to match where your business is and what it needs next.
Finance Function Diagnostic
A paid advisory engagement that gives you a clear, independent assessment of your finance function — what's working, what's creating risk, and what needs to change first. Deliverables include a Finance Function Scorecard, Key Risk & Control Assessment, Prioritized Findings, 90-Day Improvement Roadmap, and an Executive Findings Review. This is a standalone paid engagement, not a complimentary assessment.
Finance Stabilization & Transformation
A defined engagement to repair reporting, accelerate the close, improve cash forecasting, strengthen controls or prepare the business for a major event.
Fractional CFO Leadership
Ongoing financial leadership covering forecasts, cash, performance, finance-team oversight, management reporting and executive decision support.
Results
Selected Client Outcomes
Financial leadership that goes beyond reporting. Here are a few examples of the challenges we have helped solve.
Restoring Financial Visibility
Multi-Million-Dollar Services Company
Leadership needed greater confidence in financial reporting and a clearer understanding of business performance.
Counterbalance strengthened the close and balance sheet review process, analyzed revenue and job-accounting activity, and connected financial results to the underlying operational drivers.
Outcome
Identified nearly $500K in revenue impact associated with reporting and job-accounting issues, improved visibility into WIP and billings, and established a more disciplined financial review process.
Turning a Revenue Shortfall Into an Action Plan
$10M+ Operating Company
A significant revenue shortfall and margin deterioration were putting pressure on financial performance. Leadership needed to understand what was timing-related, what represented true operating deterioration, and where corrective action was required.
Counterbalance analyzed revenue, contribution margin, cash requirements, and operational activity to isolate the drivers behind the results.
Outcome
Identified approximately $285K in monthly revenue underperformance, including roughly $166K of non-materialized business and $103K of timing-related activity. The analysis also surfaced contribution margin deterioration to approximately 17% versus a 44% target, giving leadership specific revenue, margin, and cash levers to address.
Building a Finance Function That Can Scale
Growing Middle-Market Business
Growth had outpaced the company's financial infrastructure. Manual processes, fragmented responsibilities, and limited controls created unnecessary risk and made it difficult for finance to operate proactively.
Counterbalance redesigned close procedures, strengthened reconciliations and payment controls, clarified responsibilities, and identified opportunities to automate repetitive finance processes.
Outcome
Established a more structured month-end close, strengthened balance sheet and payment controls, reduced key-person dependency, and created a scalable foundation for more timely and forward-looking financial management.
Process
How We Work
Every engagement begins with understanding where the finance function is today. We do not start with strategy. We start by determining whether the financial information supporting that strategy can be trusted.
01
Diagnose
We do not start by prescribing strategy. We first establish the quality of the financial foundation supporting the decisions ahead - reporting reliability, close quality, cash visibility, controls, systems, team structure and decision-support capabilities.
02
Stabilize & Build
We repair what is broken, strengthen the underlying infrastructure, and build the processes that allow finance to operate with accuracy and consistency.
03
Lead Forward
With a reliable foundation in place, we shift to forward-looking CFO work-forecasting, cash management, performance analysis and strategic decision support.
A Different Kind of Finance Partner
Counterbalance was built for the space between accounting and strategy-where the numbers exist but the insight does not, where growth has outpaced the finance function, and where leadership needs more than another report. With more than 20 years of financial leadership experience-and firsthand experience running a multimillion-dollar operating business-I bring the perspective of a CFO, controller and operator to every engagement. CFO discipline. Controller depth. Operator perspective.
About CounterbalanceReady to Build a Finance Function That Scales?
Let's start with a conversation. In 30 minutes, we'll discuss what's happening in your finance function, where you're experiencing friction, and determine the right next step.
Schedule a Finance Strategy Call