Does your business need a VCFO?

You’ve no doubt come across the title of CFO (Chief Financial Officer), but you may not be familiar with a VCFO. A VCFO is a Virtual Chief Financial Officer. Before explaining what a VCFO is, I wanted to talk a little about how this role has come about. The introduction of cloud accounting has fundamentally changed the role your accountant can (and should) play in your business. The cloud puts real-time financial information at the fingertips of you and your accountant. Key information and data that was once time-consuming to find and analyse is now available in an instant via your cloud accounting dashboard. The cloud has also automated much of the basic compliance tasks and data entry, enabling your accountant to add more value to your business than ever before.

What is a VCFO?

A CFO’s role is crucial, as they are responsible for the financial decisions made in a business. However, CFO’s are typically the preserve of larger businesses, as smaller businesses can rarely meet the salary demands of a full-time CFO. That all changes with a VCFO. As the name suggests, the first key difference is that a VCFO is ‘virtual’ – because they can access your key financial data from any location via the cloud, they can perform their role just as effectively by working remotely. They are also part-time, often fulfilling this role for a number of businesses simultaneously. But their role is fundamentally the same as a CFO – their main focus is on helping businesses with their financial strategy whilst also working with the owners to ensure they understand the numbers behind the business.

Why hire a VCFO?

Even if you spend a large amount of time looking at your business’s financial information, it’s crucial that you work with someone whose primary role is analysing this information and using it to help you make effective strategic decisions. A great VCFO will be very proactive in ensuring you are on target to meet your goals and objectives, whilst identifying other opportunities and risks along the way. Because of the great amounts of data available through cloud accounting platforms like Xero, your VCFO can quickly and easily access your company’s financial data, adding a huge amount of value to your business, even in a virtual, part-time capacity.

Here are some other reasons you should seriously consider ‘hiring’ a VCFO:

• Achieve a deep understanding of the key financial information of your business.
• Stay focused on your core role in the business, knowing that you have an expert keeping a close eye on its financial health.
• They will do the financial forecasting for your business, as well as regular reporting.
• Partner with a highly experienced professional that has worked with many different businesses, for a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time CFO.
• They help you to plan for the future and avoid pitfalls and taking unnecessary risks.
• They can quickly access your financial data, which is securely stored in the cloud, making the process highly efficient.

The cloud has made these high-value services more accessible than ever before. If you want a clearer picture of the financial health of your business and where it is going, there’s never been a better time to partner with a highly experienced VCFO.