A CFO in your corner — without the headcount.
Strategic financial leadership for $500K–$10M businesses. We answer the questions a bookkeeper can't and a tax CPA won't. Monthly cadence, owner-grade reporting, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.
Strategic financial leadership — without the $200K headcount.
Hiring a full-time CFO costs $180K–$250K plus equity, recruiting, and benefits. Most $500K–$10M businesses don't need that — they need a senior operator on call for the calls that matter. That's what fractional CFO means at Black Lotus.
Monthly financial review
Every month we sit down (Zoom or in-person) to walk through your P&L, balance sheet, and cash position. You leave knowing what changed, what's at risk, and what we'd do about it.
13-week cash forecast
Rolling forward look at your cash. When you can hire, when you can't make payroll, when to push collections. Updated weekly so you're never surprised.
Budget & variance
Annual budget that you actually believe in, with monthly variance against it. So when revenue is off, we know whether it's a pricing problem, a sales problem, or just timing.
KPIs for your business
Real estate, trades, gyms — every industry has its own scoreboard. We build yours: occupancy, gross margin per crew, members per coach, recurring revenue ratio. Whatever moves the needle.
Decision support, on call
Should I take this loan? Hire this person? Buy this truck? Sign this lease? Slack or call us. Decision support is included — not a bill-by-the-hour bolt-on.
Owner reporting
One-page monthly summary you'd be comfortable showing a banker, a board, or a future buyer. No 40-page PDFs that nobody reads.
You don't need a CFO. Until you do.
A bookkeeper closes the month. An accountant files the taxes. A CFO answers "what should we do next?" — and that question only gets harder as you grow. Most owners realize they need a CFO about a year too late.
- You're past $500K in revenue and the decisions are getting expensive
- You're considering a hire, a truck, a location, a loan — and you're guessing
- Your bookkeeper hands you reports that don't help you decide anything
- You don't know your real gross margin, your real customer-acquisition cost, or your real owner take-home
- You're growing — and growth is making cash worse, not better
- You want to sell or raise within 24 months and your books aren't ready
- You're a partnership and money conversations are getting tense
If you're under $500K in revenue, you probably don't need a CFO yet — you need clean books and a tax strategy. We'll tell you that on the consult. We'd rather pass than take a fee that doesn't earn its keep.
The cadence — predictable, by design.
Close + clean
Books closed by day 10. Bank, credit cards, and loans reconciled. Anything weird flagged for owner review.
Forecast update
13-week cash forecast refreshed. Variance against budget computed. KPI scoreboard built.
Owner review
60–90 minute call. We walk you through what changed, what's at risk, and our recommendations.
Execute + plan
Action items from the review get tracked. We start prepping next month's questions in advance.
We don't take everyone. We take who we know.
Every industry has its own quirks — how revenue is recognized, what gross margin actually means, what a healthy cash cycle looks like. We focus where we have real reps.
Real estate
Residential & commercial portfolios, flip operators, property managers. We know the cap-ex / op-ex split, depreciation strategy, and entity structures inside out.
IndustryTrades & services
Plumbing, landscaping, electrical, HVAC, cleaning. Job costing, crew profitability, fleet, and the cash crunches that come with growth.
IndustryBJJ & martial arts gyms
Membership-based businesses. Recurring revenue tracking, instructor cost ratios, and the math of opening (or not opening) a second location.
Flat monthly fee. No surprises.
Fractional CFO engagements run a flat monthly fee scoped to the size and complexity of your business. We quote it on the consult once we understand what you actually need — not before.
Most engagements run between 4 and 16 hours per month of senior time. Compare that to a $200K full-time CFO at ~$95/hour fully loaded, and the math usually works out fast.
- Month-to-month, cancel anytime — no annual contracts
- 30-day satisfaction guarantee on every engagement
- One flat fee covers the team — partner-led, never offshored
- Includes Slack/email access between calls — not billed by the minute
- We handle the bookkeeping too — one team, one set of books, no handoff
Things owners ask before signing.
What's the difference between a fractional CFO and a bookkeeper or accountant?
Do I really need a CFO at $1M in revenue?
How is this different from hiring a CFO full-time?
Do you do my books and taxes too?
How fast can you start?
What if I'm not happy?
Ready to see your numbers actually mean something?
30-minute call. No obligation. We'll tell you straight whether we can help — or who can.