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Ascent CFO Solutions made the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies!

Author: Ascent CFO

How to Stay Strategic and Proactive in Uncertain Market Conditions

Key Takeaways

  • The most successful businesses become even more strategic and proactive in uncertain market conditions.
  • Implement dynamic financial planning tools to proactively manage risk and maintain momentum during market volatility.
  • Codify and automate key operating levers, so your team can respond rapidly and systematically to changing conditions.
  • Integrate real-time financial dashboards and early-warning indicators across your systems to spot trouble early, enabling data-driven decisions and preserving your company’s runway and profitability.

Recent research shows that uncertain market conditions shift companies toward short-term thinking. At Ascent CFO Solutions, we’re seeing this firsthand with our clients—CEOs are asking urgent questions: Are we in a bubble? What will happen next to my pricing on imported materials? Are the labor and consumer demand signals I’m seeing real warning signs?

The first instinct in uncertain times may be to wait and see what happens – to defer on an investment or pause on a set strategic course until the way forward seems more clear.

However, our experience is that the most successful businesses coax themselves to become even more strategic and proactive under such conditions. This doesn’t mean taking unnecessary risks, but rather looking closely at the potential changes afoot and planning out the most successful strategies for each potential change.

In uncertain market conditions, waiting is actually a decision that can burn runway and erode margins. The companies that thrive don’t just wait and see—they build proactive risk monitoring systems that turn volatility into competitive advantage. 

These are some of the ways we operationalize resilience for our clients: a 13-week cash flow model, rolling forecasts with scenario triggers, pricing guardrails that protect margins, and real-time financial dashboards that spot trouble before it hits a company’s P&L. These aren’t theoretical frameworks—they’re the tactical systems that keep growth-stage companies moving forward when others freeze up. 

Let’s dig into each of these proactive strategies.

Building Financial Resilience With Forecasts and Scenario Triggers

As a scaling company, you’re balancing aggressive growth targets with the reality that market conditions can shift overnight. Building true financial resilience during uncertain market conditions requires moving beyond static financials and budgets to dynamic planning systems. 

Implement Multi-Scenario Rolling Forecasts With Clear Triggers

We recommend establishing a rolling 13-week cash flow forecasting model alongside an 18-month rolling forecast that covers three to six distinct scenarios. As explained by Wall Street Prep, rolling forecasts provide continuous planning over a set time horizon, avoiding the problem where budgets become less relevant as the year progresses. Each scenario should tie to explicit triggers—for example: tariff bands of 10%, 25%, and 40%, foreign exchange ranges within 5% bands, or demand shifts of 15% quarter-over-quarter. When triggers activate, you’ll know exactly which playbook to execute. This transforms uncertainty into manageable, plannable scenarios.

Codify Your Operating Levers for Rapid Response

Speed matters when conditions change, especially when you’re scaling operations across multiple fronts. We help clients pre-define their operating levers: procurement timing shifts, pricing guardrails that maintain target margins, hiring gates tied to revenue thresholds, and operational expense flexing protocols. When your team knows exactly which levers to pull and when, your response time drops dramatically. Document these decisions now, while you have time to think strategically rather than reactively.

Protect Liquidity With Clear Thresholds

Liquidity protection comes first in any uncertainty playbook, particularly when you’re funding growth initiatives. Define your minimum cash threshold and revolver limits upfront—I typically recommend maintaining 90 days of operating expenses as a floor. Cash flow management becomes the central operational priority during volatile periods. Update your assumptions often, and align these runway decisions with your board communication schedule. This creates a rhythm where everyone understands the financial guardrails and can make informed decisions within them. If you need support implementing these rolling forecast systems and cash flow models, our leadership team brings deep experience helping scaling companies build these financial frameworks.

Proactive Pricing, Procurement, and Margin Protection

When uncertain market conditions shift, your pricing and procurement decisions determine whether you preserve margins or watch them erode. We help CEOs build systematic guardrails that protect profitability before market pressure impacts your bottom line.

Here are examples of how we structure these proactive pricing and procurement strategies:

  • Set tiered price adjustments for raw material increases with pre-written customer communications to maintain target contribution margins
  • Build 3-tier procurement playbooks for low, medium, and high tariff scenarios to time purchases and diversify suppliers strategically
  • Run monthly contribution margin waterfalls by SKU or customer using real-time dashboards to identify profitability compression trends
  • Trigger immediate margin actions when targets slip—cost renegotiation, product mix shifts, or packaging changes with clear timelines
  • Link procurement timing to your cash flow forecasts and currency hedging positions for optimal working capital

Operate on Early-Warning Signals and a Single Source of Truth

Leading indicators can signal trouble weeks before it hits your P&L. For example, pipeline-to-bookings ratio, net revenue retention, days sales outstanding (DSO), inventory turns, and hiring funnel pass-through rates can give companies advance warning when market conditions shift. Our Fractional CFOs help companies identify and validate their specific leading indicators rather than choosing them by intuition alone or following industry standard metrics. Companies can set specific thresholds for each metric and configure alerts so your team can respond when indicators cross warning levels.

To make these indicators actionable, the real power emerges when you integrate your financial, operational, HR, sales and marketing systems into one dashboard that becomes your single source of truth. Integrated systems enable real-time coherent views for better scenario planning decision-making. 

It’s possible to take charge of your financial future in uncertain times. If you’re looking to stay more front-footed and win this period of uncertainty, Ascent CFO Solutions is here to help you empower your business with proactive strategies and expert guidance. Schedule a call with a Fractional CFO today.

About the Author

Matt Kelly is a seasoned Fractional CFO who transforms Finance and Accounting functions into strategic assets for founder-owned, VC-backed, PE-backed, and acquired organizations. With over a decade of experience as a full-time CFO across five successful companies, he has led teams through profitable growth, acquisitions, ERP implementations, audits, VC funding rounds, and a private equity exit. His expertise is built on 15 years in finance leadership roles at three Fortune 150 companies, where he developed deep knowledge across every aspect of corporate finance. Matt specializes in elevating businesses to enterprise-level standards in financial planning, reporting, analytics, and GAAP-compliant accounting, empowering companies to make proactive, strategic financial decisions.

Why Is Ascent CFO Solutions a Top-Rated Fractional CFO Company for Startups and Scale-Ups?

Key Takeaways

  • Ascent CFO Solutions provides startups and scale-ups with flexible, senior-level financial leadership, integrating deeply with client teams to deliver strategic guidance and real-time business intelligence.
  • The firm’s proactive, transparent approach ensures trust, responsiveness, and customized financial strategies that evolve with each client’s growth stage, from early startup to post-funding scale.
  • By leveraging fractional CFO services, clients gain immediate access to expert financial modeling, cash flow forecasting, and investor-ready reporting—achieving significant cost savings compared to full-time hires.

What happens when a promising startup or scale-up reaches the point where its founder becomes overwhelmed by financial complexities—from cash flow forecasting to investor reporting—while trying to maintain operational momentum? 

Many high-growth companies find themselves caught between needing sophisticated financial leadership and lacking the resources for a full-time CFO hire. This creates a dangerous gap where critical financial decisions get delayed, growth opportunities are missed, and founders become bottlenecks in their own organizations. The challenge intensifies as companies scale, requiring more complex financial modeling, investor-ready reporting, and operational financial systems that most founders simply don’t have time to do or master. This challenge has given rise to an increased need for Fractional CFO services that provide experienced financial leadership on a flexible, part-time basis. 

Today’s leading Fractional CFO providers go far beyond basic consulting to deliver comprehensive financial guidance that includes real-time reporting, cash flow forecasting, fundraising support, and seamless integration with executive teams. What distinguishes exceptional firms is their ability to adapt quickly to each client’s unique growth stage while maintaining the long-term vision needed for sustainable scaling. Understanding this landscape reveals why Ascent CFO Solutions has become a top-rated Fractional CFO company, earning recognition through our Inc. 5000 ranking and delivering measurable results for startups and scale-ups through our collaborative Fractional CFO services. Our approach of becoming integrated team members rather than external consultants demonstrates how we work to transform financial operations into growth engines.

What sets a top-rated Fractional CFO company apart?

The best Fractional CFO companies stand out by combining strong financial backgrounds with big-picture business thinking that extends far beyond basic bookkeeping. According to recent research, top-performing Fractional CFOs combine formal qualifications like MBA degrees and CPA or CFA certifications with hands-on scaling experience in fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, and operational turnarounds. Companies like Ascent CFO Solutions exemplify this approach by offering comprehensive services that include financial modeling, cash flow forecasting, fundraising strategy, and M&A support, ensuring clients receive both strategic oversight and practical implementation.

Beyond expertise alone, flexibility and scalability represent another defining characteristic of top-tier providers, allowing businesses to access exactly the financial leadership they need at each growth stage. Industry analysis reveals that leading firms offer engagement models ranging from a few hours per week to interim full-time coverage, adapting seamlessly as companies evolve through startup and scale-up phases. This scalability extends beyond time commitment to include supporting team members—Ascent CFO Solutions provides fractional accounting services with Controllers, Accounting Managers, and Financial Analysts who can scale up or down with business needs. The ability to customize service delivery while maintaining strategic continuity allows growing companies to avoid the common pitfall of outgrowing their financial leadership or overpaying for capabilities they don’t yet need.

The most impactful Fractional CFO companies master “psychological ownership”—creating such seamless integration with leadership teams that fractional executives feel like dedicated full-time partners. Research from SHRM identifies three attributes that drive this success: exceptional accessibility and responsiveness, intimate knowledge of the business through deliberate relationship-building, and active co-creation in strategic processes. Top providers embed their Fractional CFOs in regular leadership meetings, strategy sessions, and board preparations, ensuring they contribute meaningfully to decision-making rather than simply producing reports. This integration approach, combined with proactive communication and deep understanding of each client’s unique challenges, transforms the fractional relationship from a service engagement into a true strategic partnership that drives sustainable growth through tailored financial strategies.

1: Integrity and responsiveness at the core

Building a successful Fractional CFO relationship starts with trust, and research shows that 72% of investors identify trust as the most important quality when choosing a financial advisor—ranking it even higher than performance or experience. Ascent CFO Solutions builds every client relationship on integrity and responsiveness, ensuring we always operate at the highest ethical level, both internally and externally. This commitment creates the transparency that growth-stage companies need when navigating complex financial decisions.

Proactive communication has become the new minimum standard for exceptional client service in financial advisory relationships. Rather than waiting for problems to surface, Ascent CFO Solutions anticipates the financial challenges that startups and scale-ups face at different growth stages. Our team-based approach means clients receive consistent, timely guidance whether they’re managing seasonal cash flow fluctuations or preparing monthly board reports. This responsiveness addresses the communication failures that drive client turnover, as poor communication ranks as the primary reason clients switch financial advisors.

This proactive approach creates a trusted financial partnership that extends far beyond typical consulting relationships. Financial integrity research demonstrates that businesses with strong ethical foundations and transparent practices build stronger stakeholder relationships and achieve better long-term outcomes. When your Fractional CFO becomes a trusted extension of your leadership team, they provide objective perspective during critical decisions while respecting your company’s vision and culture. This partnership approach means receiving strategic guidance that adapts to your evolving needs rather than generic financial advice that doesn’t account for your specific growth trajectory.

2: Seamless integration with your leadership team

The most effective Fractional CFOs don’t operate as external advisors—they become integral members of your executive team, participating in executive-level decisions and operational planning sessions. According to a recent Harvard Business Review podcast on fractional leadership, “The company should not know that you’re fractional. They should feel that you’re there in all of the key moments.” This approach transforms the traditional consultant-client relationship into a true partnership where your Fractional CFO understands your company’s unique context, culture, and business-focused priorities. Ascent CFO Solutions operates as an extension of your executive team, providing the same level of high-level input and operational oversight you’d expect from a full-time CFO while adapting to your specific leadership style and decision-making processes.

Successful seamless integration with leadership teams requires more than just financial expertise—it demands cultural adaptability and clear communication protocols that align with your current processes. Research from the Forbes Human Resources Council emphasizes that “fractional leaders need both autonomy and seamless integration with key stakeholders,” requiring structured onboarding, regular touchpoints with leadership, and clearly defined decision-making authority. This integration model enables your Fractional CFO to contribute meaningfully to board meetings, investor discussions, and business planning sessions. At the same time, they maintain the flexibility to scale their involvement based on your company’s evolving needs. The result is accelerated decision-making and business initiatives that move forward with the same focus and precision as if you had a full-time CFO driving them.

What distinguishes exceptional Fractional CFO partnerships is the ability to adapt quickly to your company’s unique culture, meeting schedules and reporting preferences. A recent study on Fractional CFOs found that successful engagements depend on “cooperative, team-oriented approaches” that ensure smooth integration with established leadership structures. Virtual CFO services that integrate with your cloud-based systems and remote workflows demonstrate this adaptability in practice, providing real-time business guidance that fits seamlessly into your established systems. This level of integration means your Fractional CFO can respond to urgent financial questions, participate in leadership calls, and provide input on executive decisions with the same immediacy and context awareness as an in-house executive.

3: Customized financial strategies for every growth stage

Effective Fractional CFO partnerships recognize that a pre-revenue startup needs fundamentally different financial guidance than a company preparing for Series B funding or acquisition. Ascent CFO Solutions puts this into practice by matching clients with CFOs whose experience aligns with their specific business maturity. This approach ensures every engagement begins with comprehensive discovery to understand where your company sits today. From there, strategies develop around where you need to go next.

The customization process extends beyond initial strategy development to include ongoing adaptation as your business scales. Northwestern University research emphasizes that scaling requires “mapping development strategies specifically and evaluating them against unit economics that may change with scale.” Ascent CFO Solutions addresses this by building financial models that connect operational inputs to financial outcomes, enabling scenario planning and sensitivity analysis as market conditions and business priorities shift. For SaaS companies, this might mean developing ARR/MRR models with churn analysis, while manufacturing clients receive working capital optimization focused on inventory management and supplier relationships—with each approach benchmarked against industry standards to ensure competitive positioning.

What makes these customized financial strategies truly effective is their focus on actionable, measurable outcomes rather than theoretical frameworks. Financial planning research from Ramp recommends treating financial plans as “living documents” that inform real-time decisions, and Ascent CFO Solutions delivers this through custom dashboards that track KPIs relevant to each client’s company stage and business model. Whether you’re managing cash runway in the early phases or preparing investor-ready reporting for fundraising, the strategies remain aligned with your immediate operational needs while building toward longer-term objectives. This ensures that financial guidance translates directly into better decision-making and measurable business improvements.

4: Real-time financial reporting and business intelligence

Business intelligence dashboards are visual tools that turn your complex financial data into easy-to-understand charts and graphs that update automatically as new information comes in. Ascent CFO Solutions delivers these custom dashboards as part of a complete financial intelligence service, creating decision-ready intelligence that connects all your financial and operational metrics in one place. Rather than waiting days or weeks for monthly reports, you get instant visibility into cash flow, revenue trends, expenses by department, and key performance indicators that matter most to your business growth.

The impact of real-time financial reporting on decision-making speed and accuracy is substantial. These dashboards help you spot problems before they become costly operational issues—like identifying cash flow gaps weeks in advance or catching unusual spending patterns that could signal deeper concerns. For example, one Ascent CFO Solutions client saved 10-15 hours monthly on report generation while gaining the ability to drill into expenses and resolve issues immediately.

Beyond these operational benefits, what sets industry-leading Fractional CFO firms apart is the combination of sophisticated data integration with user-friendly interfaces that anyone on your leadership team can understand. Modern up-to-the-minute reporting systems show a strong positive correlation with investor confidence. The technology automatically pulls data from your accounting systems, CRM, and other business tools. It then presents this information through customized dashboards that update in real-time, giving you the competitive advantage of making informed decisions while your competitors are still waiting for their monthly reports.

5: Proactive, empathetic communication and support

Great communication turns a basic CFO service into a true partnership that helps business leaders make confident decisions. Studies show that CFOs who “invest in empathy” and explain the “why” behind financial information create much stronger team support and trust. This matters especially for growing companies where things change fast. Leaders need to understand what the numbers mean and how to act on them. When Fractional CFOs focus on responsive and proactive communication, they adapt to how their clients prefer to communicate—meetings, email, Slack, or phone calls—so information flows smoothly and executives stay informed without barriers.

The best CFO partnerships go way beyond monthly reports and compliance tasks. Research with over 500 employees found that supervisors who really listen and show empathy see 25% higher employee engagement. The same thing happens with CFO relationships. When Fractional CFOs listen to understand challenges, celebrate wins, and provide support during tough decisions, they create lasting value. Companies working with CFOs who prioritize building strong client relationships feel genuinely supported through both opportunities and problems. They know their CFO partner understands their vision and always acts in their best interest.

Being proactive means spotting needs before they become urgent problems and staying in regular contact so business leaders feel confident about their financial position. Finance experts point out that clear, simple messaging from finance leadership helps attract the right investors and employees while making organizational changes smoother. This shows up in practical ways like preparing board meetings with context-rich financial packages, explaining complex scenarios in plain English, and providing reassurance during uncertain times. When Fractional CFOs combine technical skills with genuine empathy and clear communication, they become trusted advisors who help executives navigate growth challenges while maintaining financial discipline.

Frequently asked questions about top-rated Fractional CFO companies

CEOs and founders evaluating Fractional CFO services consistently ask these questions during initial consultations and discovery calls. These inquiries address the practical considerations that matter most when selecting outsourced finance and accounting services for your business.

What industries does Ascent CFO Solutions specialize in supporting?

Ascent CFO Solutions serves a diverse range of industries, with particular expertise in SaaS & Technology companies, Professional Services, Construction & Real Estate, Manufacturing, Retail & eCommerce, Healthcare, and Financial Services. The firm also supports emerging sectors including FinTech, HealthTech, AI, Blockchain, Aerospace, Energy, Education, Logistics, and Travel & Entertainment, providing specialized financial guidance across all business models and markets. However, we find that what’s more important is finding a Fractional CFO partner with the skill set and previous experiences that match your goals, regardless of industry.

How quickly can a Fractional CFO begin making an impact?

A Fractional CFO can typically begin contributing within the first week of engagement, with measurable value delivered in 30 days or less. The rapid impact comes from experienced CFOs who arrive “ready from day one” with proven frameworks for financial assessment, reporting improvements, and strategic planning. Most engagements start within two weeks of the initial discovery call, allowing businesses to address urgent financial priorities without the months-long search and ramp-up required for traditional CFO hires.

What makes Ascent CFO Solutions’ reporting and business intelligence unique?

Unlike software-only solutions, Ascent’s business intelligence dashboards are built and interpreted by experienced CFOs who understand the strategic context behind your metrics. Our Insights platform provides one source of truth for financial and operational data, live cash flow forecasting, multi-entity consolidation, and presentation-ready visuals designed specifically for investor meetings and board presentations. This CFO-led approach ensures your dashboards deliver actionable insights rather than just attractive charts.

How does pricing work for Fractional CFO services?

Fractional CFO engagements typically start at $60,000 per year with no long-term contracts and flexible month-to-month terms that can scale up or down based on your business needs. This represents significant cost savings compared to a traditional CFO hire, which averages around $300,000 annually plus benefits and equity. The flexible engagement model allows you to access experienced financial leadership during busy periods like fundraising or M&A while maintaining cost efficiency during steadier operational phases.

Can Ascent CFO Solutions help with investor presentations and due diligence?

Yes, Ascent CFO Solutions provides comprehensive support for fundraising and due diligence processes, including investor-ready financial models, pitch deck preparation, and secure data room organization. Our CFOs lead financial due diligence discussions, defend forecasting assumptions, and ensure your documentation meets institutional investor standards. This preparation typically reduces due diligence timelines by several months while strengthening your negotiating position with potential investors or acquirers.

Partner with Ascent CFO Solutions for strategic financial leadership

The rise of fractional leadership reflects a fundamental shift in how scaling businesses access senior expertise—with LinkedIn showing over 110,000 professionals now identifying as fractional leaders—a 5,400% increase from just 2,000 two years ago. This trend validates what forward-thinking CEOs like you already recognize: strategic financial leadership shouldn’t require full-time overhead. Fractional CFO Services provide the strategic depth, real-time insights, and proactive partnership that enhance how you make decisions, manage cash flow, and pursue growth opportunities.

Your business deserves a CFO partner who understands your vision, integrates seamlessly with your team through our collaborative approach, and delivers the financial intelligence you need to navigate every stage of growth. Fractional executives help startups and scale-ups access senior talent they couldn’t otherwise afford while maintaining the agility to scale support as needs evolve. 

Ready to experience the difference that tailored, responsive financial leadership makes? Book a CFO Call today and discover how the right partnership can elevate your financial operations and accelerate your path to sustainable growth.

A Controller Isn’t Enough: Knowing When to Bring in a Fractional CFO

You’ve built a capable finance function. The books are accurate, reports go out on time, and your controller keeps operations running smoothly. But if financial leadership still feels reactive—focused on what already happened rather than what’s next—it may be time to evolve from control to strategy.

When Accuracy Isn’t Enough

Every scaling company eventually reaches a point where accounting excellence alone can’t drive performance. As revenue grows, transactions multiply, audits become more complex, and stakeholder expectations rise, that’s where Controllers excel.

Controllers bring order and accountability to the numbers. They ensure accuracy in reporting, manage audits, uphold compliance, and maintain the internal controls that form the foundation of financial integrity. Their focus is historical—verifying that yesterday’s numbers are right so today’s reports can be trusted.

That precision is essential. But precision without perspective limits what leadership can do next.

When the Controller Function Hits Its Ceiling


A Controller’s expertise lies in compliance and precision (generally not in capital planning, scenario modeling, or strategic decision support.)

Controllers can identify margin compression, but they’re not always equipped to model how new pricing strategies might improve it. They can flag rising costs, but not necessarily forecast how those costs will affect liquidity or debt covenants. As the business scales, that analytical gap becomes more visible and more costly.

Accuracy doesn’t equal strategy and at a certain stage of growth (see the “Indicators” section below), that gap becomes impossible to ignore.

The Cost of Staying Reactive

Without forward-looking financial leadership, a company’s decision-making becomes reactive, even if the books remain clean.

  • Cash flow volatility appears despite strong revenue.
  • Operational teams make decisions without clear financial context.
  • Leadership meetings focus on reconciling results rather than forecasting outcomes.
  • Growth opportunities—new markets, financing rounds, acquisitions—are delayed or missed for lack of financial visibility.

At this stage, the company is operating at speed but without clear navigation. Growth slows not from lack of effort, but from lack of strategic finance.

Strategic Finance as a Solution

Recognize when it’s time to bring in a Chief Financial Officer (CFO): someone who not only reads the financial map but charts the path forward.

A CFO’s perspective shifts the entire function from accounting accuracy to strategic foresight. They translate data into business strategy, align capital with priorities, and establish the financial architecture for sustainable growth.

While a Controller ensures the numbers are right, a CFO ensures those numbers are utilized to make better strategic decisions.

Together, they form the foundation of a mature finance function: one focused on both accuracy and direction.

Indicators That It’s Time for CFO-Level Insight

Recognizing when your organization has outgrown a Controller isn’t always straightforward. Look for these signs that your finance function has reached its limit:

  • Rapid growth is straining systems and processes. Reporting remains accurate, but decision-making lacks real-time insight.
  • Financial complexity—new entities, investors, or debt—has made visibility murky.
  • Cash flow timing issues persist despite profitability on paper.
  • Investor or lender expectations exceed current forecasting capability.
  • Leadership feels reactive, closing the books efficiently but struggling to plan effectively.

These are inflection points, not failures. They signal the need for strategic finance leadership to complement existing accounting excellence.

What a Fractional CFO Contributes That a Controller Can’t

Controllers maintain the integrity of the numbers. CFOs leverage those numbers to shape the future.

A Fractional CFO integrates seamlessly with existing teams, providing executive-level strategy without the full-time overhead.

Financial Strategy & Planning

  • Builds models that connect financial performance to long-term business objectives.
  • Develops capital allocation frameworks to prioritize investments and hiring.
  • Introduces KPI dashboards that link operational and financial metrics for real-time decision-making.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Variance Analysis

  • Establishes structured budgets supported by rolling forecasts.
  • Uses variance analysis to identify performance gaps early.
  • Provides actionable recommendations to improve margin, cash efficiency, and ROI.

Cash Flow Management & Scenario Modeling

  • Builds 13-week and annual cash flow forecasts to anticipate liquidity needs.
  • Models best-case, base-case, and downside-case scenarios to prepare for uncertainty.
  • Improves board and investor confidence through visibility and discipline.

Risk, Controls & Governance

  • Identifies financial and operational risks before they impact performance.
  • Strengthens internal controls and ensures GAAP compliance.
  • Supports audit readiness and maintains strong governance for lenders and investors.

Capital Strategy & Stakeholder Communication

  • Prepares investor-ready reports and data-driven narratives.
  • Supports equity, debt, or M&A initiatives with credible financial modeling.
  • Improves communication with boards, private equity partners, and lenders through structured insight.

Why Fractional CFOs Fit Growing Companies

For many scaling businesses, hiring a full-time CFO isn’t practical or necessary yet. A fractional model provides flexibility, depth, and senior experience on demand.

  • Scalable: Access high-level expertise aligned to your stage of growth.
  • Cost-Effective: Pay only for the scope and cadence you need.
  • Objective: Gain an external perspective to challenge assumptions and improve systems.
  • Collaborative: Strengthen—not replace—your existing controller and accounting team.

The result is a finance function capable of steering (not just recording) growth.

Building a Partnership Between Controller and CFO

Bringing in a CFO doesn’t replace your Controller—it amplifies their impact. The most effective finance functions treat the two roles as complementary.

  1. Clarify Responsibilities
    Controllers oversee accounting operations and reporting. CFOs guide financial strategy and planning. Defined boundaries prevent overlap and improve collaboration.
  2. Integrate Systems and Data
    Unified visibility across ERP/accounting, CRM, and operations enables real-time insight into profitability and cash flow.
  3. Establish Communication Cadence
    Regular collaboration between Controller and CFO ensures reporting accuracy supports forward-looking planning.

Mature finance leadership is about alignment, not hierarchy.

Ascent CFO Solutions: Your Strategic Growth Partner

At Ascent CFO Solutions, we help growth-minded companies evolve from operational accuracy to strategic foresight.

Our Fractional CFOs bring experience across FP&A, cash flow and financial modeling, capital strategy, and board communication.

We partner with Controllers and leadership teams to refine systems, strengthen governance, and build the financial roadmap that turns growth into stability.

Whether you’re preparing for funding, optimizing cash flow, or navigating expansion, we provide the clarity and confidence that true financial leadership delivers.

Speak to a CFO

If your finance team keeps the numbers right but lacks the strategic direction to guide what’s next, it’s time to explore a more forward-looking approach.

Schedule a discovery discussion with Ascent CFO Solutions to assess how fractional financial leadership can help your business scale with clarity, confidence, and control.

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Scale Up Series: How to Build a Strong Foundation for Scalability

Scale Up Series: Part 3

This article is Part 3 of the Scale-Up Series. Please read Part 1: “Are You the Bottleneck? A Founder’s Guide to Growth and Scale” and Part 2: “Why Every Growing Business Needs a Roadmap.”

Key Takeaways

  • Build flexible, scalable infrastructure from the start rather than waiting for systems to fail under growth pressure.
  • Track metrics that directly impact growth and financial health and transform them into real-time dashboards for proactive decision-making to fuel your growth.
  • Implement rolling financial forecasts that evolve with reality to anticipate cash shortfalls and maintain adequate runway as you scale.
  • Prioritize integrated systems that create a single source of truth across finance, operations, and customer management, solving real problems today while scaling tomorrow without costly mid-growth platform switches.
  • Growth requires evolving from managing everything to designing systems where the right people make the right decisions through clear roles, autonomy within aligned goals, and structured communication rhythms.

Moving from startup to scale-up is one of the most exhilarating points in an entrepreneur’s journey. You’ve proven your concept, gained some traction, and have customers who believe in your solution. But here’s the reality: reaching your next growth curve requires intentional systems, smart infrastructure, and financial clarity to make sure growth is sustainable rather than chaotic.

In this article, part of our Scale Up Series, we’ll:

  • break down what infrastructure really means for a scaling business
  • look at the warning signs that your systems are breaking under growth pressure
  • share why designing for scale from the beginning saves headaches down the road
  • reveal which financial and operational systems matter most. 

From KPIs and dashboards to cash flow forecasting, SOPs, and technology, we’ll give you both strategic insight and tactical examples you can apply immediately.

Signs Your Systems Are Breaking Under Growth Pressure

Rapid growth is thrilling. There are new customers, new sources of revenue, and expanding opportunities. But growth often uncovers hidden cracks in your foundation. Here are a few telltale signs that your systems aren’t keeping pace with your ambition:

  • Missed deadlines and dropped balls: What used to be manageable with a small team becomes overwhelming as tasks multiply.
  • Lack of visibility into your business: You’re unsure where money is going, or you don’t have a clear view of real-time performance metrics.
  • Cash surprises: Payroll, vendor bills, or tax obligations sneak up because there’s no consistent forecasting model.
  • Burnout creeping in: The team spends more time firefighting than strategizing.
  • Fragmented data: Sales, marketing, and finance use different tools, none of which talk to each other.

If these symptoms sound familiar, you’re not alone. Most companies encounter them when scaling. But waiting until systems “break” before fixing them is costly. Anticipate these stress points and build for scale ahead of time.

Design for Scale from the Beginning

Many entrepreneurs focus their energy on product development or customer acquisition, leaving infrastructure as an afterthought. But retrofitting systems later can feel like rebuilding the foundation of a house while people are still living inside it.

The better approach? Design for scalability from the start. This doesn’t mean building out every possible process prematurely. It means identifying the core systems that will carry your business through the next stage of growth and putting flexible structures in place early.

Key Financial and Operational Systems for Scale

At the heart of scalable infrastructure is financial clarity. Entrepreneurs don’t need to become experts in finance, but they do need systems that turn financial & operational data into insights — and insights into decisions. Let’s explore the four core pillars.

1. Establish KPIs That Align with Business Growth Goals

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the scorecard of your business. Without them, you’re flying blind. But not all metrics are created equal. Vanity metrics (like website traffic or social followers) may feel good but don’t necessarily drive growth.

Instead, focus on KPIs that align with your vision and strategy. Common examples include:

  • Revenue growth rate
  • Gross margin
  • Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
  • Customer lifetime value (LTV)
  • Churn rate
  • Cash conversion cycle

The key is to select a handful of KPIs that reflect both your financial health and your growth trajectory. For a SaaS business, this might mean monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and churn. For an eCommerce company, it could be average order value and repeat purchase rate.

From KPIs to Dashboards

KPIs are most powerful when you can see how you’re performing in those areas in real time. That’s where live dashboards come in. A well-designed dashboard integrates data from your accounting system, CRM, and other platforms to give you a clear view of your performance at a glance.

Dashboards answer questions like:

  • Are we on track to meet our revenue goals this month?
  • Is our cash position improving or declining?
  • Which products or customer segments are most profitable?

At Ascent CFO Solutions, we offer Insights by Ascent CFO, a tool that brings KPIs into focus for leaders. With live dashboards, you’re making proactive decisions for tomorrow.

💡 Offer for eCommerce founders: Get our free KPI Tool for Shopify and eComm companies to get started tracking the right metrics today.

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2. Implement Cash Flow Forecasting and Rolling Financial Models

One of the biggest killers of growing businesses isn’t lack of revenue — it’s running out of cash. Growth consumes cash quickly, and profitable companies can still fail if cash flow isn’t carefully managed.

Cash Flow Forecasting

A cash flow forecast projects when cash will come in and when it will go out, helping you anticipate shortfalls before they become crises. For example:

  • If you know payroll is due in two weeks but receivables won’t arrive for four weeks, you can plan ahead for financing or adjust spending.
  • Seasonal businesses can prepare for revenue dips by building cash reserves during peak months.

Rolling Financial Forecasts

While budgets are static, rolling forecasts evolve with reality. Instead of planning once a year and locking it in, you update forecasts quarterly (or even monthly) with actual results.

This approach helps answer critical questions:

  • If revenue slows down, where can we cut costs to preserve the runway?
  • If sales accelerate, do we have the capacity and cash to deliver?
  • How does a potential price increase affect our projections?

A rolling forecast acts like a financial GPS. If conditions change, don’t scrap the whole map.  You just adjust the route.

3. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Financial visibility is crucial, but growth also demands consistency in operations. That’s where Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) come in.

Documenting repeatable processes, such as onboarding, invoicing, customer service, and expense approvals, eliminates ambiguity and saves time. SOPs:

  • Reduce training time for new hires
  • Improve accuracy and accountability
  • Free leadership to focus on strategy instead of micromanaging details

The earlier you start codifying your processes, the easier scaling becomes. As we’ve mentioned before, AI tools make SOPs a less arduous task for founders. Record your screen, upload the video to your AI tool of choice, and ask it to create a process document from it.

4. Technology That Grows With You

Your tech stack can be your best friend or your worst enemy. The wrong tools create silos, waste time, and generate frustration. The right ones create efficiency, clarity, and speed. As your company scales, the technology choices you make become even more critical — because switching platforms mid-growth is costly and disruptive.

Consider:

  • Communication Hubs: As your team expands, email becomes a bottleneck. Platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams create real-time communication channels that reduce inbox overload. Organized by topics, projects, or departments, they help maintain focus while ensuring critical conversations don’t get lost. For distributed or hybrid teams, these hubs are essential for keeping culture and collaboration alive.
  • Task/Project Management: Tools like Asana, Monday.com, or ClickUp provide structure and accountability as your to-do list outgrows sticky notes and spreadsheets. With clear task assignments, deadlines, and progress tracking, teams stay aligned without constant check-ins. The goal is transparency — everyone knows who is responsible for what and when.
  • Finance Systems: Early on, QuickBooks or Xero may be enough to manage accounting. But as complexity increases — multiple entities, international transactions, or subscription billing models — you may need a more robust system like NetSuite or Intacct. Choosing the right finance system at the right time prevents painful migrations later and gives leadership confidence in the accuracy of the numbers driving decisions. Contact us for guidance on the best finance & accounting system for your business or assistance migrating to an ERP system.
  • Integrations: The most powerful tech stacks are interconnected. CRMs, ERPs, HR systems, and finance tools should “talk” to each other, creating a single source of truth. Without integrations, you risk fragmented data, duplicate entries, and manual reporting that eats up valuable time. The right integrations free your team from chasing spreadsheets and let them focus on strategy. At Ascent CFO Solutions, we help companies integrate their systems into a live dashboard to serve as a single source of truth for their company. Contact us to learn more.

The golden rule: choose technology that solves a real problem today and has the capacity to scale with you tomorrow. 

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Signs That It’s Time to Upgrade Your Tech Stack

  • Your team spends hours manually entering the same data into multiple systems.
  • You can’t generate reliable reports without stitching together spreadsheets.
  • Different departments use disconnected tools that don’t share information.
  • License costs are climbing but efficiency isn’t improving.
  • Decision-making slows down because leaders don’t trust the data.
  • Onboarding new team members takes too long because tools are confusing or inconsistent.
  • Customer experience suffers due to delays, errors, or miscommunications caused by system gaps.
  • You’re paying for multiple apps that duplicate functions instead of consolidating.
  • Scaling operations (e.g., more customers, new locations, new products) feels impossible without a complete overhaul.
  • Security risks increase because data is scattered across too many unmonitored platforms.

If any of these sound familiar, your technology is holding back your growth. Addressing these gaps now can prevent bigger disruptions later.

Team and Process Scaling (A Preview)

Financial and technical systems form the backbone of scalability, but they’re only half the equation. The real engine of growth is your people. As your company grows, your team and processes must evolve in lockstep with your infrastructure. Otherwise, even the best strategy will grind to a halt.

Scaling introduces new complexities that small teams rarely face: layers of management, multiple departments, competing priorities, and increased pressure on communication. To stay effective, leaders must shift from “managing everything” to designing a system where the right people can make the right decisions at the right time.

Here are three areas where scaling businesses often hit inflection points:

1. Evolving Organizational Structure

At five people, a flat structure works fine. Everyone talks to everyone. At fifty, that structure breaks down. Reporting lines become blurred, decisions slow, and accountability fades. Scaling requires evolving your org chart intentionally: defining roles, responsibilities, and decision rights so that growth doesn’t devolve into chaos.

2. Promoting Autonomy Without Losing Alignment

Entrepreneurs often struggle to let go of control, but growth demands it. Teams must be empowered to make decisions without waiting for executive sign-off on every detail. That autonomy, however, has to be grounded in clear goals and shared values. Done well, autonomy speeds execution while keeping everyone moving in the same direction.

3. Maintaining Coordination Across Teams

As departments expand, silos naturally form. Marketing might not know what Product is building, or Finance may be left out of operational planning. To counteract this, scaling companies need strong communication rhythms: weekly team check-ins, cross-functional planning sessions, and shared documentation systems. The goal is to make coordination the default, not the exception.

Scaling your team is less about adding headcount and more about evolving how the team works together. This means cultivating a leadership culture that balances autonomy with accountability, and coordination with speed. We’ll dive more into this topic in the next article in the Scale Up Series.

Putting It All Together: The Roadmap to Scalable Infrastructure

Scaling a business is both art and science. On one hand, growth is a series of structured steps that successful companies consistently follow. On the other, each step introduces complexity unique to your industry, product, and team.

The good news is, with the right infrastructure, you can:

  • Anticipate problems before they derail you.
  • Make confident decisions rooted in data.
  • Align your team around a common set of goals.
  • Preserve cash while fueling growth.

At Ascent CFO Solutions, we help entrepreneurs build these systems early so scaling feels less like chaos and more like momentum.

Turn Vision into Action

Scaling doesn’t mean doing everything at once. It means strategically building with the right systems in place. Whether you’re wrestling with KPIs, forecasting cash flow, or deciding which tools belong in your tech stack, you don’t have to do it alone.

Ascent CFO Solutions connects you with experienced fractional CFOs who specialize in helping startups and scale-ups design infrastructure that fuels sustainable growth. From financial forecasting to operational dashboards, our team provides the expertise you need, when you need it.

💡 Remember, we also have our KPI Tool for eComm Companies and eComm founders to start tracking the right metrics and build success. Ready to scale with confidence?

Book a call with a Fractional CFO and start building the foundation for your next stage of growth.

Ascent CFO Solutions Ranks No. 3191 on the 2025 Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies

With Three-Year Revenue Growth of 126 Percent, This Marks Ascent CFO Solution’s Second Time on the List

NEW YORK, August 12, 2025 – Inc., the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future, today announced that Ascent CFO Solutions is No. 3191 on the annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The list provides a data-driven snapshot of the most successful companies within the economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent, entrepreneurial businesses. Past honorees include companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Chobani, Under Armour, Timberland, Oracle, and Patagonia.

“We are honored to be named a Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Company for the second year in a row,” says Dan DeGolier, Founder & CEO of Ascent CFO Solutions. “This award reflects our commitment to growth and excellence in helping companies reach their highest potential through strategic and hands-on financial guidance.”

This year’s Inc. 5000 honorees have demonstrated exceptional growth while navigating economic uncertainty, inflationary pressure, and a fluctuating labor market. Among the top 500 companies on the list, the median three-year revenue growth rate reached 1,552 percent, and those companies have collectively added more than 48,678 jobs to the U.S. economy over the past three years.

For the full list, company profiles, and a searchable database by industry and location, visit: www.inc.com/inc5000.

“Making the Inc. 5000 is always a remarkable achievement, but earning a spot this year speaks volumes about a company’s tenacity and clarity of vision,” says Mike Hofman, editor-in-chief of Inc. “These businesses have thrived amid rising costs, shifting global dynamics, and constant change. They didn’t just weather the storm—they grew through it, and their stories are a powerful reminder that the entrepreneurial spirit is the engine of the U.S. economy.”

About Ascent CFO Solutions

Ascent CFO Solutions is a Fractional CFO firm for growing companies. The firm helps businesses navigate the financial and operational complexities of growth and change by providing CFO expertise scaled to a company’s needs. By partnering with Ascent CFO Solutions, companies gain access to a top-tier CFO and a full-stack team on a part-time or interim basis—without the cost or commitment of a traditional full-time hire.

Methodology

Companies on the 2025 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2021 to 2024. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2021. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2024. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2021 is $100,000; the minimum for 2024 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

Scale Up Series: Why Every Growing Business Needs A Roadmap

This article is Part 2 of the Scale-Up Series. Read Part 1: “Are You the Bottleneck? A Founder’s Guide to Growth and Scale.”

Moving from start-up to scale-up fits into nearly every entrepreneur’s idea of success; it’s where the hard work pays off and impact multiplies. But scaling isn’t just a function of size, it’s a function of a smart strategy. Growth requires thoughtful steps that turn a dream into execution, and for that—we need a roadmap. 

The value of the growth roadmap

For entrepreneurs, ideas aren’t usually the problem. Even if ideas are flowing in abundance, businesses can fail from a lack of clarity and strategy. A growth roadmap helps turn ideas into action and ultimately scalability, while aligning your team, resources and priorities

Naturally, there are many different roadmaps that could take a business from point A to B. Many successful businesses use structured systems like EOS® (Entrepreneurial Operating System). In this guide, we’ll explore the baseline principles of a growth roadmap, alongside helpful aspects of EOS®: vision, revenue, people, and infrastructure.

It all starts with vision

Every path starts with a vision. You can’t hit a target you can’t see, and without a vision to tether a leader and their team—efforts are easily scattered. A vision is the blueprint for a company’s growth. From pricing strategies to partnerships to product development, having a vision only benefits your business:

  • Faster and clearer decisions. When you’re clear on your vision—you know what to say yes to (and more importantly, no). Your choices naturally align with your values.
  • A stronger team. Knowing your vision means you know who to hire—team members that share your goals and values.
  • Easy prioritization. As an entrepreneur, knowing how to prioritize is your superpower. Vision provides the framework for prioritization.  

The list goes on. There’s no denying the importance of vision in any venture, but how do you craft a viable one?

As goes the quintessential business advice by Simon Sinek, Start With Why. Your vision should be founded on the answers to these questions: Why do we do what we do? Why do I want to grow my business? Once you establish your clear why, you can set mid-range milestones and long-term goals:

  • Mid-range milestones: Vision means having a clear idea of what you want your business to look like 3-5 years from now, including: revenue, team size, offerings, culture, and so forth. Knowing your mid-range milestones can help bridge the gap between where you are now and the long-term goals.
  • Long-term goals: Where do you want your business to be ten years from now? Long-term goals are both inspiring and ambitious, but should also be clear and measurable. For example: reach $20M in annual revenue and become the top-rated product in our category. Ambitious, clear, measurable.

Aligning revenue targets with the vision

Why do 70 to 80% of small businesses fail within their first five years? Largely because having a vision doesn’t take you all the way there.

Many business owners find themselves stuck in the Vision/Traction gap—the space between initial product or service release and the point of minimum viable traction (MVT). This gap often determines whether a company will take off or fall apart—and revenue is central to the conversation.

Establishing revenue targets is key for turning a vision into actual (measureable) growth. Trusted advice is to start with the end in mind: consider the level of revenue required to support your long-term vision. From there, determine the levers that drive your revenue, such as:

  • Transaction size
  • Customer lifetime value
  • Conversion rates
  • Market expansion

It’s also important to align your revenue targets with quarterly or monthly goals. If it feels daunting, you are not alone.  Founders are rarely experts in accounting and finance. An entrepreneur is destined to wear a lot of hats, but it’s also critical to know when to hire an experienced financial professional for informed strategy and execution, especially as you plan to scale.

Fractional CFOs turn finance into a growth engine

At Ascent CFO Solutions, we provide CFO experience precisely scaled to your needs. In early-to-mid stages of the growth journey, a company may not need a CFO full-time. That’s why we connect businesses to strategic financial guidance from a proven CFO on a part-time or interim basis—it is often a better fit in regards to cost, commitment, and quality. 

If you’re looking for help building a sustainable financial foundation for accelerated growth, book a call with a CFO here.

The EOS® approach to revenue

EOS® uses a Vision/Traction Organizer® to help leaders clarify their vision, but also the steps for getting there (traction). From there, The EOS ScorecardTM enables management to stay accountable with what is needed for progress. As far as revenue goes, EOS® teaches the 8 Cash Flow Drivers—a structured approach that allows businesses to understand the key factors driving profitability. 

Revenue is your vision playing out in the world. It is essential for investing in the resources, infrastructure, and team necessary to expand. A deep understanding of this step, aided by support from a Fractional CFO and/or EOS® tools, can help keep your business alive. 

Our Fractional CFOs are experienced in EOS® and our firm has worked with many companies using it. While certainly not required, having both resources can be a powerful combination for setting and reaching the right targets.

Putting the right people in the right seats

Having the right people in the right seats continues to be sage advice for the entrepreneur scaling their business. Even the best strategy will flop in the hands of the wrong people, or with the right people in the wrong roles.

A growing company needs people who can grow with it. “Right people, right seats” is a dynamic approach to building a team that can uphold culture, execution, and accountability—all key for growth. Taking an honest look at your team is an ongoing necessity. What are you looking for?

  • Quantity – The stronger the team, the stronger the growth potential. In a scaling scenario, hiring ahead of revenue is sometimes necessary to prevent bottlenecks. And sometimes it’s not about the number of people in the room, but the number of skills. Team size should be assessed alongside future goals—what kind of org chart is necessary to get from here to there?
  • Quality – One mistake business owners often make is hiring for talent alone. In the long term, it’s wise to hire individuals who are aligned with company values. Maturity also plays into the conversation: a growing business needs structured & mature leadership that can elevate strategic thinking, accountability, and a cross-functional approach.
  • Full-time/Part-time/Fractional – Not every team member has to be a full-time employee. Evaluate your options. Oftentimes, you can get a top-quality professional on your team for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire by going the fractional route.

The EOS® approach to people

Right people, right seats is a fundamental EOS® principle.  Here is a closer look:

  • Right people: Finding the people who align with your company’s core values. “Right people” isn’t a standard, it’s subjective and based on the nature of your business.
  • Right seats: This is about clarifying responsibilities that each person is accountable for. “Right seats” means maintaining an agreements-based culture, as in: everyone is clear about what they do and why they do it.

Regarding people, EOS® offers another helpful framework known as GWC: Get It/Want It/Capacity to do it. As you assess your team and roles, ask three questions about a person:

  1. Do they get it?
  2. Do they actually want the role?
  3. Do they have the capacity to meet (or exceed) the expectations of the role? 

It’s helpful for entrepreneurs to remember: who got you here, might not be who gets you there. Being an exemplary leader sometimes requires the tough but invaluable decision to evolve the team in service of the vision.

The evolving team: A real-life example

Growth happens in stages, and certain stages require different areas of expertise. The journey of SendGrid, a Denver tech startup, is the perfect example of this. 

When SendGrid was founded in 2009, co-founder Issac Saldana served as the company’s CEO to guide them through the startup stage. In 2011, he stepped down to focus on product development, as Jim Franklin became CEO—leading the company through an era of major growth. During Franklin’s time as CEO, SendGrid went from 20 employees to 250, and from a few thousand customers to over 175,000.

In September 2014, Sameer Dholakia stepped in as the CEO, taking the company even further on their growth roadmap. He played a key role in their 2017 IPO and its acquisition by Twilio for around $2 billion. Growth happens in stages, case in point, and the team has to evolve along with it.

Infrastructure: Systems for success

If you live in a growing city, then you’re familiar with the specific type of issues that accompany an increasing population: infrastructure.

Growth will immediately spotlight the structural strengths and weaknesses of a company. Without solid infrastructure, decision-making slows down, important items slip through the cracks, and overwhelm becomes the dominant culture. 

Strong infrastructure allows a business to operate effectively and consistently. This encompasses tangible aspects, like your physical assets and the people in your organization. But it also includes the intangible, processes like workflow, legal and compliance, and technology. Infrastructure warrants its own conversation (coming soon), but these are some of the key components: 

  • Data Frameworks – A growing business needs regular access to insights from the data tracking its metrics of growth—revenue, churn rate, customer acquisition, etc. Forecasts and dashboards are examples of infrastructure that can help leaders detect and solve issues before they amplify.
  • Standard Operating Procedures – Standard procedures are a simple way to save time and increase the efficiency of your team. Processes like onboarding, invoicing, and customer service can be documented and repeatable. 
  • Technology – Determining which technology will best support your operations is an important aspect of sustainable growth. Your tech stack—inclusive of task management platforms, communication hubs, etcetera—should be able to grow with you. In a world full of tech platforms, the right match matters.

When it comes to infrastructure, the key is to implement it before things start to break down. Don’t wait for chaos to rebuild your city, so to speak. When it’s done right, infrastructure will speed things up, create more space for strategy, and create a culture of confidence.

The roadmap: Putting it all together

When you take a step back and look at the roadmap to growth in totality, it’s a bit of a paradox. On the one hand, it’s just a series of steps; a pattern remotely consistent across successful companies. On the other, the closer you get to the roadmap, the more complex it becomes. Each step is its own winding road.

Such is the nature of running a business. As Warren Buffet famously said, “business is simple, but not easy.”

Creating a roadmap to growth is what turns a vision for scaling your company into reality. It also is a living reminder that your vision, revenue, people, and infrastructure aren’t isolated—they’re interdependent. Companies doing it right keep their roadmap visible. It’s actionable and revisited regularly. Because growth isn’t something you stumble on by chance, it’s something you build—one step at a time.

The question is, where is your company now on the roadmap to growth and scale? And even more importantly: what’s your next move?

Wherever you are in your growth trajectory, Ascent CFO Solutions is here to provide the expertise you need. From bootstrapped ventures to private equity and venture capital-backed organizations, our team brings highly relevant experience and industry-specific insights to your unique challenges. Reach out today and start the conversation with a CFO.

About the Author: Dan DeGolier is the Founder & CEO of Ascent CFO Solutions. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs ‘Upward’ to help them understand their finances and cash flows and obtain the capital needed to grow. A special thanks to Justin Boling, EOS Implementer® at EOS Worldwide, for contributing to the EOS portions of this article.

Scale Up Series: Are You The Bottleneck? A Founder’s Guide To Growth & Scale

It takes more than a spark of passion to start a business. Launching a new venture is a standout commitment that requires time, energy, and sacrifice. To get things off the ground, a founder often wears every hat.

At the beginning, a business has to start small with a lean team. In this stage, it’s natural for the CEO to have a hand in everything: finances, marketing, legal, product, operations, and so forth. But this approach can only last for so long. As we’ve said before—what gets a company off the ground isn’t what it takes to scale it.

Scalability creates a new context for leadership and organization. But for the founder who has been intertwined since day one, stepping out of the way can feel like abandoning their own creation. And that’s often where they become the bottleneck of their own company.

The hub-and-spoke model: It works (for a little while)

The startup phase of any company requires simplicity; this era is defined by limited resources and capacity. Consequently, a “hub-and-spoke” structure settles into place, where the founder is the hub and each team (or employee) represents a spoke.

In a hub-and-spoke model, information flows through the central hub, the founder.

The main benefit of the hub-and-spoke structure is efficiency. As the hub manages decision-making and resource allocation, the spokes deliver on goals and benchmarks. The spokes operate leanly by drawing on the hub—for resources, instruction, and decisions. This model keeps employees close to the founder’s vision, establishes culture, and upholds values.

The problem is: once you’ve become the hub, your company can’t operate without you. You bump up against the Theory of Constraints: “A business system’s performance is limited by its most critical constraint—the bottleneck.” If progress in your company stalls in your absence, the reality is: you are the number one constraint.

Signs that you might be the bottleneck of your own company

1. Employees turn to you for decision-making and direction.

If employees repeatedly come to you for instructions, or if getting your sign-off on every project is the status quo—you might have trained your team this way. Involvement in every aspect of your business might feel like a comforting form of control, but it creates a cascade of impact that ultimately restricts the growth of your business.

2. You’re too bogged down with low-level tasks to get the most important things done.

If you’ve assigned yourself as a touchpoint in every sphere, low-level tasks could be piling up. If you’re constantly behind and rarely able to tend to larger priorities, you’re probably the bottleneck. Distraction and procrastination are adjacent signs that you’ve gotten in your own way. 

3. You aren’t meeting sales and profit goals.

If you are the bottleneck in your own company, the numbers will eventually show it. When critical parts of the business are waiting on you, the pace of execution slows. Decisions are delayed, and the business can’t scale beyond your personal capacity. This inevitably puts a ceiling on your revenue.

4. Progress flatlines if you aren’t there.

Back to the hub-and-spoke model: if you’ve built your organization such that all progress hinges upon your approval, then your business will stall in your absence. It might feel like you have more control of your company, but growth will require that your employees are empowered to work without you.

5. You’re missing work-life balance.

When was the last time you took a vacation? If a founder is the bottleneck, then the entity cannot run smoothly in their absence. Understandably, this makes a founder hesitant to step away. If your personal life has shrunk with the demands of your business, it’s likely that you’re struggling to let go of control.

6. You’re the only person who can do a particular skill.

If you are the only person who can do a critical skill (like coding or product development), your company’s output is immediately limited by your availability. If you are wrapped up in specialized work, then you aren’t available to spend your time growing the business. It’s time to shift from the “doer” to the “leader.”

The new model: Becoming the CEO

If you’ve determined that you’re currently the bottleneck in your organization, what comes next?

Understand that things aren’t suffering because you lack the skill or capability. When it’s time to scale, a new model of leadership is simply necessary. Instead of thinking like a founder or an entrepreneur, it’s time to start thinking like a CEO.

Stepping into the CEO mindset means it’s time to spend less time working in the business, and more time working on the business. This doesn’t mean you resign from working on your company’s objectives; it means you adapt your management style to be less of a facilitator and more of an accelerator.

Immad Akhund, CEO of fintech company Mercury, describes this dynamic well: “As a CEO, you can apply pressure and improve things in a way that accelerates progress… In a system where you’re not a bottleneck, your progress continues on an upward trajectory even without you there, but the curve of that trajectory steepens when you are.”

But isn’t it easier said than done? You may be wondering. If you’ve been holding all the strings, surrendering control can feel scary or even like a threat to the well-being of your business. But every growing venture requires an evolving leadership model. So how do you get from here to there?

It’s about moving from efficiency to effectiveness.

Your guide to stepping out of the bottleneck position

Embrace delegation

The simplest advice for no longer being the bottleneck: Do less. The first step to evolving your management structure is honing the art of delegation. But delegation isn’t just offloading tasks (if it was that easy, you would have done it already).

Effective delegation is about giving employees ownership over the work they do. It’s about providing your team autonomy to make decisions and take action without reliance on you. Giving your teams independence means giving them responsibility—fueling motivation, adaptability, and productivity. 

But what if something goes wrong? The key is to prepare your employees for inevitable difficulties instead of trying to avoid them altogether. In this case, perfect is the enemy of good. Mistakes will be made, but the growth will be worth it.   

Hire smarter

Offloading work will be much easier if you trust the employees you’re handing it over to. Often, founders get stuck in the predicament: “It will take me less time to do it myself, than to train someone else.” But this is only a temporary salve. In the long run, others must be able to take over our responsibilities so that we can focus on higher-level tasks.

This also means identifying areas where you might be the only person with a necessary skill, which inevitably caps your potential. The objective is to replace yourself in that role by hiring or training another individual. Even if they only start at 70% proficiency, you are that much less the bottleneck of your organization.

Documentation

As a business gets up and running, a founder ends up with a lot of specialized knowledge living in their own head. So long as this is the case, your team will be dependent on you. Documentation externalizes this information—making systems, workflows, and rules all available to the team. Without it, no one can act independently. 

Documentation is about clearly articulating processes and ensuring that tasks are completed the same way every time. You are no longer the gatekeeper of key information, making the business more self-sustaining. Even better, documentation allows for clear measurement of progress and makes space for improvement.

AI tools make creating documentation a less arduous task for founders. By recording your screen, uploading the video to your AI tool of choice, and asking it to create a process document from it, you are quickly on your way to training someone on a task only you know how to do.

Create decision-making frameworks

A founder having to make all of the decisions is a common and serious bottleneck. Embracing the CEO role means setting up others to make decisions successfully without your input—and that’s where decision-making frameworks come in.

These frameworks allow individuals to make consistent and aligned choices. They help transfer smart judgment by creating structure. Some examples of decision-making frameworks include:

  • The 80/20 Rule: The 80-20 rule suggests that 80% of outcomes result from 20% of causes. By using this as a decision-making framework, CEOs can focus efforts and resources where they will have the biggest impact. For example, you may find that 20% of your customers drive 80% of your revenue and decide to direct resources to protect, grow, and replicate that high-value segment.
  • The 5 P’s: The five P’s stand for: Purpose, Principles, Priority, People, Plan. This is a widely accepted framework for project organization.
  • DACI Model: This approach provides a structure to role and responsibility assignment by determining: Driver, Approver, Contributors, Informed.

Your role is to create these frameworks, teach your teams how to use them, coach them through the early stages, and then step back

The financial bottleneck

When a founder has their hand in every pot, critical aspects of scalability fall to the wayside. Strapped for time and resources, a founder is likely making financial decisions without knowing the full picture, working out of static spreadsheets and outdated financial models. Over time, overseeing financial strategy alone can become a bottleneck as the business grows.

Transitioning financial leadership to an experienced professional is a key step on the path to scale. For many growing companies, hiring a full-time CFO isn’t practical or necessary, but bringing on a Fractional CFO offers a smart, flexible solution. A Fractional CFO is a part-time or contract-based financial executive who provides high-level strategic guidance without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.

They can take ownership of critical areas like pricing strategy, fundraising preparation, profitability analysis, and financial forecasting—allowing the founder to step back from day-to-day financial oversight that’s contributing to the bottleneck. At Ascent CFO Solutions, we specialize in connecting growing companies to the financial expertise they need, when they need it.

Often that looks like an outsourced CFO. But we can also support accounting process and infrastructure needs, capital and fundraising initiatives, financial modeling and cash flow forecasting, and M&A advisory. Whatever your current objectives are, we step in on a fractional or interim basis to get you from here to there.

Contact us and learn more!

The benefits of giving up control

When you are no longer the bottleneck in your own business, your time and capacity are freed up for the high-level tasks required for scalability. Instead of just trying to do things right, you’ll be able to focus on the right things. Making the switch from efficiency to effectiveness will benefit your entire company: 

  • Faster execution. When your teams aren’t waiting on you, projects can move forward and objectives will be met more quickly. 
  • Scalability. When you are no longer the bottleneck, the company can grow beyond your personal capacity. 
  • Employee satisfaction. When you empower your team to take ownership, they feel motivated and positive about their individual contributions.
  • Retaining talent. Similarly, top talent wants room to breathe and exercise their expertise; they don’t want to follow orders. Giving your all-stars autonomy is key to keeping them happy.
  • Higher innovation. Breaking away from the hub-and-spoke model increases problem solving across the organization, making space for new ideas to emerge.
  • Higher valuation. A company that is self-sufficient will be more attractive to investors and capital firms


Your entire business benefits when you actively remove yourself as the bottleneck. And so do you, individually. This shift allows you to focus on the growth of your company—the vision and the strategy. It’s hard to maintain a bigger perspective when you’re bogged down by low-level tasks.

What’s more, this shift can take away the stress and burnout that you might have normalized in over-controlling the company. You can take a vacation from time to time and even enjoy running your business, instead of merely surviving it. 

The bottom line

With as much time and passion you’ve poured into your company, it’s understandable that you want to stay at the center.  

But as a company grows, so does the CEO role itself. Your job is no longer about doing it all, but about building a business that works without you. That means stepping out of the bottleneck and fully into leadership. The irony is—the more you let go of control, the more you grow. And as they say, anything that’s scary and exciting is worth doing. 

That said, you don’t have to do it alone. The best CEOs and leaders know when to ask for help. When it comes to financial expertise, we can support your every step to growth and scale. At Ascent CFO Solutions, we are here to customize a solution that supports your business as a whole and your vision for what it can be. 

Using Fractional CFOs to Help Your Healthcare Practice Thrive

Do you ever wonder if your medical practice needs a chief financial officer? What if you could have the strategic financial guidance without the full-time executive price tag? Today’s guest explains how fractional CFOs are helping healthcare practices thrive while letting providers focus on what matters most, patient care.

This is episode #166 of the Thriving Practice with Tracy Cherpeski featuring Lizette Peña, Fractional CFO at Ascent CFO Solutions.

Introduction

**Tracy:** Welcome to Thriving Practice, the podcast for healthcare providers who are masters of two worlds, exceptional patient care, and savvy business ownership. I’m your host and guide, Tracy Cherpeski. If you have ever felt like you’re running a three-ring circus instead of a medical practice, you’re in the right place. We understand the unique challenges you face, the constant balancing act between providing top-notch care and managing the business side can leave you feeling stretched thin, perhaps questioning your decisions and even wondering if this is really what you signed up for.

If there was a way to not just survive, but truly thrive, would you explore it? To feel energized about your practice, confident in your business acumen and deeply fulfilled in your career? Well, that is exactly what we’re here to help you achieve.

Each episode of Thriving Practice brings you conversations with successful healthcare entrepreneurs and industry experts who’ve navigated the same choppy waters you’re in. They will share battle-tested strategies to streamline your operations, boost your decision-making confidence, and reignite your passion for your work. From staff management and marketing to strategic financial planning to achieving work-life harmony and more, we dive into the practical insights you need to grow or scale your practice.

Our goal is to help you create the rewarding career you envisioned when you first hung out your shingle. So if you’re ready to stop merely keeping your head above water and start riding the wave of success, hit the subscribe button now. Join us on Thriving Practice, where we prove that outstanding patient care and business excellence are not mutually exclusive. They’re the perfect prescription for a fulfilling career. Welcome to Thriving Practice. It’s your time to turn your challenges into triumphs and your practice into a beacon of success. Let’s dive in.

Meet Lizette Peña, Fractional CFO

**Tracy:** Welcome back. It’s me Tracy. We have had several fractional CFOs on the show over the years because I believe their creative entrepreneurial approach to finance is exactly what healthcare practices need. Each brings their unique perspective and methodology, and today’s guest is no exception. Let’s be honest, you did not spend all those years in medical school to become a financial expert, yet as a practice owner, you’re expected to make critical business decisions while providing excellent patient care. That is where today’s guest shines.

Lisette Peña is a CPA with over 30 years of experience and is now a fractional CFO with Ascent CFO Solutions, a fractional CFO firm based in Boulder, Colorado. After years in public accounting and private industry, Lisette discovered her passion for helping mission-driven organizations use business as a force for good.

In this episode, we explore how fractional CFOs help healthcare practices thrive by providing high-level financial strategy without the full-time cost. Lisette shares practical insights on managing cash flow, understanding key performance indicators, and making data-driven decisions. She also explains why sometimes paying vendors quickly isn’t always the best strategy and how to balance the clinical and business sides of running a practice.

So whether you’re struggling to keep up with the financial demands of your practice or simply want to optimize your business operations, this conversation offers valuable insights for healthcare providers at every stage of practice ownership. What I particularly appreciate about Lisette’s approach is her understanding of the unique challenges healthcare providers face as entrepreneurs. So let’s dive into my conversation with Lisette Peña about using fractional CFO services to help your practice thrive.

**Tracy:** Lizette Peña, thank you so much for coming on the show. I’ve just so enjoyed chatting with you the last couple of minutes, so I’m excited to share your story. And welcome into the show.

**Lizette:** Thanks, Tracy. Yeah, it’s exciting to be here. And I’m happy to participate and share some wisdom.

What is a Fractional CFO?

**Tracy:** Awesome. Well, tell us about Ascent CFO solutions first. And then maybe tell us, you know, how you came to decide that being a fractional CFO is the path that you wanted to take.

**Lizette:** Yeah. Ascent CFO solutions is a fractional CFO firm. We’re based in Boulder, Colorado, but we serve clients all over the country. So it’s funny because I just started a new client this week, so now I officially have a client in three time zones. So it’s fun because most of my clients I have met in person, and so it’s really evolved to we can do a lot of work remotely, but we can also help our clients in person and go to their offices if that’s really what they need.

So I, my background is as a CPA. I’ve worked as a CPA for 30 years and I started my career in public accounting. So doing audits and tax returns and some business consulting and it was really when I started working with a particular client that was a worker owned cooperative and mission-based a certified B Corp that I really realized like wow there’s really a different way to do business and to actually use your business as a force for good and that was when I really left public accounting and went to work in a private company as their director of finance.

So as a fractional CFO, I’ve been able to combine my experience of working with inside a company as their director of finance and really knowing what goes on the day-to-day, managing cash flow, making decisions, risk-based and contracts and managing employees and teams and providing leadership support, as well as doing accounting. And that was something that I really didn’t understand just working in public accounting as an auditor, because you really only see the end product like the financials at the end of the year and you go once a year.

So that really helped me combine those skill sets of coming in once a year and really diving deep and quickly from a strategic standpoint and understanding the risks of an organization and then being able to apply recommendations and just some knowledge from those two viewpoints. So it’s really been kind of a fun marriage of those two skill sets that I’ve been working as a fractional CFO.

**Tracy:** What I’m kind of hearing is like when you get to combine the two, like I have an MBA, but I’m not an accountant, but my vague recollection of accounting is it’s, you know, a lot of times it’s historical and you don’t get to be as strategic, but it sounds like you also get to take like your understanding of how it works and apply that to the strategic side, you know, when you get to work with that, with your clients, with, you know, you’re talking about leadership support and, you know, with their teams and everything. So I would imagine it’s pretty fun. It sounds fun to me.

**Lizette:** Yeah, it’s sometimes I, we kind of joke, it’s like, wow, I didn’t know accounting could be so exciting. There are just sometimes that hard decisions need to be made or hard conversations need to happen. I think accounting has really evolved from what we all thought it was when we went to college and we were learning, you know, debits and credits and balance sheet and income statement. But that’s just the basics. Like with any profession, I suppose, that’s just really the foundation.

And it’s what you do with that information and really apply that to help your clients succeed. And really just knowing and seeing like, okay, well, I’ve seen this before, I’ve seen it work well. And then I’ve seen it also not work so well. And just really having that, that knowledge to be able to, that fountain of knowledge to be able to draw on.

And that’s the other cool thing about Ascent CFO is that it’s a team of about 30 of us. So we’re at different levels, we have folks from senior accountant, accounting manager, controller, CFO. So there’s just different levels that we can all help support each other. We’ve all worked with different industries. We have different focuses and we can say, hey, has anybody ever seen this issue or can anyone recommend a payroll provider? Like there’s just so much wealth of information that we help each other draw upon and can help our clients succeed with that knowledge.

Why Work With a Fractional CFO?

**Tracy:** I love that. And I think one of the things that I see supporting the clients that we work with when they bring in a fractional CFO is, yes, a provider owner is a business owner, but they often don’t have business training. And so, all of that responsibility for the business on top of the responsibility for the clinical side of the practice is huge. And there’s already enough pressure as there is.

And something that we’ve seen over the years, given the option between taking care of something that’s urgent or imminent clinically and something that’s urgent or imminent business-wise, they’re always going to default to clinical. So I’m curious if you can help explain for our listeners, like why would they wanna work with a fractional CFO? Like that sounds, it sounds big and it sounds expensive. So to, you know, why would it make sense to work with a fractional CFO as opposed to like maybe hiring somebody in and like we were saying as we’re warming up, you know, why can’t the practice manager just do this?

**Lizette:** Yeah, that’s a great question. And, you know, honestly, there’s some organizations that do better with a fractional CFO and some others that want to have a person in house. So let’s talk about those two different situations.

So the opportunities of working with a fractional CFO really gives you access to someone that has a varied skill set, right? So we have a whole team of a fractional CFO. People have different focus points and different backgrounds, like so many, many years to draw upon. Whereas if you just hire one person, you have that one person’s background that’s going to be on your team. Now that’s not to say that there’s anything that’s detrimental, but again, you’re just kind of limiting your advice that you’re getting from that CFO just to that one person.

But the other thing about working with a fractional CFO is that it’s, you have more time, right? So you’d think that there’s limited time because this person is only going to be working on your account, you know, a certain amount of hours, but the focus time that you’re going to get from that person is pretty dedicated. And you can kind of rely on that.

And so what we usually do with our clients is we’ll have weekly check-in meetings. So there’s always something that recurs. And so you always can plan for that. You kind of eliminate the back and forth with a lot of questions or emails throughout the week. Like you could save things that are not urgent or imminent and talk about those in your weekly discussions. I like to have one on one specifically with the CEO or the practice director because there’s usually conversations that you want to have with just that person. And then it’s also important to be part of an accounting team meeting that whether you’re either managing that practice’s accounting team for them or if you also have a fractional accounting team.

So everyone’s staying on point with deliverables, deadlines, reports, KPIs and information that the practice manager needs to have on a timely basis. So it’s really staying put with deadlines and appointments that you have set because I think as a fractional CFO, we’re managing several clients. So you have to work in a cadence as opposed to, I mean, I know when I was working as the director of finance, you kind of get pulled in 100 different ways, and then you had your HR hat on, and then you had other things that you got drawn into.

So I think it’s a little bit easier for me as a fractional CFO to be able to have those boundaries, and the client is more willing to have those boundaries for you, right? Because they don’t want you spending time working on things that maybe you can help, but maybe it’s not really what you’re best suited for. So it helps have clearer boundaries with what you’re here to help with, and you can really focus on that skill set and provide that value for them.

And the other thing about a fractional CFO is that sometimes you can monitor or control the number of hours that you’re working with a client. Like usually when I start working with a client, there’s a lot more hours at the onset, right? You’re trying to get to know everyone on the team and really dig around and figure out what’s going on. Where can I really provide value?

And then once you get that cadence going, sometimes there’s another professional that I could bring in that maybe be at a lower rate, right? because my goal will be to provide the most value and to work at a level that is best suited for the client to be very conscious of cost because that’s, you know, any money that is going to go towards any outside fees is really money that needs to be allocated properly and just included as part of a budget. So, yeah, so it kind of helps to have that, the differentiation.

Key Financial Metrics for Healthcare Practices

**Tracy:** I mean, I think there’s so much value in that, right? And even it speaks to your integrity to say, like, hey, there might be somebody who I can bring in at a lower rate who’s going to get the things, you know, once you understand what your client needs to get the proper things done, still have high value and still be mindful of cost. I mean, of course, we want our numbers people to be mindful of cost, but it doesn’t always work out that way, right? So I’m sure that that’s encouraging to our listeners to hear like, oh, so it doesn’t have to cost an arm and leg to do this.

You mentioned KPIs. And I’m curious about what are some of the metrics and KPIs that specifically a medical or health care practice owner wants to really know so that they can go and take a look at them, obviously, maybe even prepare in advance for your weekly meetings. But to have a really good handle on so they know how to make strategic decisions.

**Lizette:** Yeah, that’s a great question. And a lot of that’s been evolving. And I feel like that’s one of the things that I was able to do when I start with a new client. It’s always good to put fresh eyes on things. So just like, what have we been getting information on? What have been or what of our metrics, are they even relevant anymore? And so really taking a look at that.

And what I’ve found for the practices that I’ve been working with, and again, different practices are going to have different needs, right? Like if you compare a dermatology practice to a low-income clinic, you’re going to have different metrics, right? Because one is going to be more revenue. It’s going to have higher revenues. The other clinic is gonna be dependent on grants and other types of funding.

But from just a patient-centric type metric, I would say that one of the things that’s really been helpful for my clients is really looking at your cancellation and no show rates and understanding like, why are we having these blocks of time that were set for these appointments and then the folks aren’t showing up. And so that really helped us dig into, and again, this is nothing to do with accounting, has more to do with business, but it helped us understand that we needed to get better at the prepatent check-in, like following up and reminding people.

And I know we all hate to get those robo calls about the appointments, but I finally understand like why it’s important because a missed appointment is a missed revenue opportunity for our practices. So really ensuring that we have a handle on why do we have what is our cancellation rate and no show rate? How does that trend out? Is it relevant to the time of year? Do you serve a lot of teenagers or students that maybe in the summer you’re going to see more or less of them because they’re on vacation or not? So those kinds of things really help you understand your staffing and just how you’re doing with your patient service.

The other thing that I think is important to know is what your payer mix is. And again, this may not be relevant for all types of practices, but if you’re accepting insurance, it’s really helpful to know, what is my mix of Medicare/Medicaid patients? What is my mix of private pay patients, and then how many patients are we seeing that are just paying their own bill? And why does that matter? Well, because it kind of matters of how much money you’re going to be able to generate from those visits and how you’re filling up those appointments. So really understanding the payer mix. And that also triggered for us like, “Hmm, maybe we need to look at or contracts with our payers, our insurance companies, to make sure that we were current and billing as much as we could possibly get paid by these insurance companies.

**Tracy:** Yeah, and stay on top of that because it changes frequently, right? And insurance, I mean, I have yet to work with anybody or speak with any provider who’s like, you know what I love the most is the insurance structure, right? So, but it is what it is. It’s the system that we have, you know, to work with. So it’s really important, you know, we recently interviewed somebody who’s very, very specific niche specialty is coding and just how incredibly important it is to hire a professional who’s a certified coding professional, right? And like to the tune of millions of dollars left on the table if things are done correctly, right? So I think this is the biggest headache that we hear from most of our clients, too. It’s like, “Oh, start talking insurance in their eyes roll and their steam comes out their ears,” you know.

**Lizette:** Right. And I think that’s when you said it correctly. It’s like you really want to have someone on your team that’s really good at that, that knows what they’re doing. And I think there’s a whole other set of KPIs for that whole team, which is the revenue cycle management team, right? So that’s going to be like the claims denied. Can you track that? Are we getting better at this? Are we seeing the same types of reasons coming up for our claims getting denied? And then also just collections like days to get paid. That all gives you insight into how are we doing with our revenue cycle.

Cash Flow Management Tips

**Lizette:** Yeah. So those are all specific to practice areas, but there’s also some KPIs just for general business purposes that I think are important for healthcare practitioners to keep an eye on. And one of those, which is one of the other things that I noticed when I first started working with a recent client, was how quickly you were paying your payables. Like, you know, if you’re accepting insurance, it’s going to take a while, right? It’s going to take a month or however long or 90 days sometimes to get paid. But you really want to try to marry your payments out to your vendors to match the timing of when the money’s coming into the practice so that you’re not…

And I’ve seen it even with non-clinical practices. I’ve seen it with construction and another industries where we’re so anxious and we want to pay our vendors on time, which is so great and very admirable. But you have to be careful that you’re not paying too quickly, right? And then you’re sending out all your cash and then it’s a struggle to meet payroll. So really managing that cash flow, understanding your cash flow is and what’s your cash burn for the month.

Understanding that and then working with that accounting team so that they’re really managing their payables like if somebody if your vendors giving you 30 days to pay take it. It’s okay, right if they’re giving you 60 days to pay really it’s okay to take 60 days to pay because it’s because as long as it’s not costing you interest or anything like that, but I’ve just seen time and time again where folks kinda like the accounts payable, folks just wanna get it off their plate, they wanna get it paid. But then you have other constraints, right? Now you’ve used that money and maybe you needed to use it to stock up on some pharmacy supplies or anything like that. So you really wanna be able to have your CFO to be able to have a handle on on what your cash flow is and managing that properly.

**Tracy:** If there’s anything I’ve seen in my nearly 15 years of doing this, it has been so much fear around money, fear or scarcity or wanting to hide and run away from it. But it’s so, what I’ve seen happen with our clients is it’s so empowering to understand how it all works because then the stress levels come down and clear thinking comes through, better decisions are made. Sometimes they end up recovering more and ending up with a better profitability in the long run.

I can imagine that it’s like a soothing bomb at some point, maybe not in the beginning, but once you get into that cadence that you were speaking of that you must see your client’s stress levels just drop and come and confidence increases. This is something that you see a lot too, is like it’s hard to be a provider and a business owner. Those are two very different hats to be wearing and there’s often less confidence with the business side.

**Lizette:** Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s just not, it’s not everyone’s skill set, right? We can’t do all these things. And that’s really one of the things that I’ve seen like a difference between those practices and even businesses in general that succeed is those leaders that realize that and that’s okay. And then they delegate and trust in those others to help support them in those areas that maybe they either don’t have time or just don’t have the skill set to really manage that. I mean, that’s why we all a diverse workforce is so important because we also bring something different to the table.

Overcoming Resistance to Fractional CFO Services

**Tracy:** I would imagine that your clients, do you ever like when you first meet with someone have they already decided or are they kind of like yeah, I don’t know I heard about this or somebody said I should talk to you and you know, do you do you get resistance?

**Lizette:** Yeah. Yeah, we do. And actually, it’s sometimes not only on the offset at the beginning, sometimes it continues, right? I think, like you said, I think there’s a lot of fear around money and some of the discussions. Like, unfortunately, you know, it’s like, I feel like, why do I, why am I always the one that’s bringing this bad news? I feel like, but it’s not bad news, right? It’s really just informing what the facts are and how are we going to react or what are we going to do with this knowledge?

So I feel that we get different types of clients. Some have already made up their mind that they want to work with a fractional CFO and they come with a referral from another client that’s had a really good experience. And then others just are at a point where their CFO internal has just left and now they have no other place to turn. We’ve seen both extremes.

And so really, it’s just important to build that trust from the beginning and to listen, which is what I try to do is like to listen to what are the issues that they’re trying to solve. What are the problems that they’re carrying that they don’t need to anymore because they have other things to worry about and that they can like hand that off and say here, Lizette, I need you to help me with this and I need to know that it’s in good hands and I don’t need to worry about it anymore.

And so that’s really when I think the relationship and the bond can form when that CEO or that practice director has that trust and that openness to share. What are the concerns? Because if there is a closed personality or they don’t feel like this is going to work or anything like that, then that’s going to become a difficult relationship. It’s like with anything, right? You’ve got to have that trust from the beginning on both parts that you’re telling me everything so that I know all facts and then I can make the best decision for the organization and then guide you to make your best decisions. And that’s really just a win-win situation, working together, trusting, and then asking questions.

Letting Go and Focusing on What You Do Best

**Tracy:** Yeah. I think it’s also important to just remind our listeners that just even if you’re pretty business savvy and you’re finance savvy, your brother’s a CFO and informs you or whatever, this is all well and good, but just because you could doesn’t mean that you should. And I think this is a really big key piece to send home from my perspective is if you want to keep loving what you do, you do not do it 24 hours a day.

It’s important to be able to turn it off at the end of the day. And if you’re going home and you’re working on your financials or you’re still charting or whatever and your day becomes a 16 or 17 hour day at some point that will catch up with you in a not positive kind of way. And one of the keys to what we want for our clients and what we want for our listeners is that freedom.

One of the reasons that any business owner goes out on their own, but especially providers who go out on their own, is because they were looking for the freedom. And It’s many things, oftentimes it’s control over their time or control over their earning capacity or an ability to spend more time with patients, to be more patient-centric. And I promise you that letting go of some of these duties and handing them over to a very capable professional or a team of professionals will buy you so much more brain space and so much more energy that it will, at the at least it’ll come out in the wash, but most of the time you come out ahead financially for it. And if it’s not the money you’re concerned about, then think about your trust, your energy and your stress levels.

**Lizette:** Perfectly said. Yep, I see that all the time. It’s just, you know, it’s difficult, right? Because you’re said, you’re doing, this is your baby. It’s your own business. You want this to work, and you want it to go in a certain way, and that’s okay. It’s just really being that kind of like that servant leadership where you’re really trusting in others, giving all of you in a way that is not in a controlling way.

But there’s so many great resources out there to help you. It’s more of a personal development standpoint that I see that really holds some of us back. Even as CFOs, I see it as well, right? Like you really want a CFO that is a team player and that isn’t going to work, they’re going to want to, like I was saying, you’re going to want someone at a lower level to be able to, if there’s work that they can do, you would want them to do it.

And then you’re developing up that next level of individuals that are going to work up. And then you’re teaching another generation with new ideas, more technology. So there’s just so many benefits of being open to trusting in folks. But again, you have to, there’s a lot of things involved with that, right? Like you have to hire the right people. You have to have a good interview process.

There’s so many things that you could be spending your time on and then you let the CFO worry about financial statements, board reports, metrics, because there’s so many other things in a practice that really, you could be providing more value to.

**Tracy:** Yeah, and I think that speaks to, you mentioned personal development and a little earlier, you talked about the leadership support and I imagine that this is a big part of it, right? Part of being an effective leader is learning where to let go, learning when, how, and to whom delegation and, you know, the listening and learning, which I know physicians and practitioners are very good at. How many years of school do they have? You know, like, so I know that this is already a skill that they possess.

Something that we sometimes notice with our clients is it’s like, oh, I didn’t realize that all this stuff I already do clinically, I can take over here as the business leader, so I don’t have to learn an entirely new skill set. And usually it’s just a matter of saying like, well, you already do that. You already do it with your clinical team. Now you just need to understand the bigger picture of what you wanna do with your business admin team and how are they gonna go and do that?

So, if you’re a listener and you’re going, wow, this sounds really great, but that first six to eight weeks of working with a CFO, fractional CFO sounds I’d rather, you know, poke on needles in my eyes, have faith, because I think that, you know, ultimately this working, I mean, I’m a big fan of fractional CFOs for many businesses, especially for healthcare practices, because, you know, no money, no practice. I mean, that’s just sort of the end of the end of story, right? So to be able to free up your time and energy as a provider to be more strategic with your business and to kind of turn that piece off and go back to providing the highest level of care possible, which is probably why you went into this in the first place, you know.

**Lizette:** Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’s been, it’s really rewarding to hear some of those patient stories, right? Because as the CFO, you’re kind of always behind the scenes or you’re working with the back office, but this, but really hearing about how the fact that now the front desk now has a good check-in process and they’re confident and comfortable, and so they’ve created a really calming environment for their patients to come in and getting five-star reviews.

That’s what makes a difference. It’s not whether or not some of these metrics that we’ve talked about, but still healthcare organizations are the core of an impact and mission-driven organization. They’re dealing with humans, such an important thing, our health, like if our health isn’t good, that’s like, you know, we can’t do anything else. So it’s such an important job, such an important service that they’re all providing.

So it’s just really a great opportunity to leverage those others around you that have other skills so that you can be left to do what you do best, whether that is seeing patients or coming up with a new way to, um, a new care or I don’t know, but like something that will help you and free you from some of these business things that, you know, is not really what, I don’t know, just something that will help you get to the next level in your practice.

**Tracy:** Yeah. To be at, you know, performing at the top of your licensure. I mean, that should be the goal, really, yeah. Yeah, well, you speak my language. I’ve so enjoyed our conversation. I’m curious if there’s anything that we haven’t talked about that you really wanted our listeners to hear today.

Data Visualization

**Lizette:** One of the things that we’re really excited about at Ascent CFO is our data visualization platform, Insights by Accent CFO, that we’ve been using with some of our clients. And it’s really just a fancy way of simplifying some of these KPIs that, you know, we’ve usually just done in Excel charts and stuff. So we’ve really been able to just make it more fun and exciting, right, to have them clean and simple.

And so if you could check out our website, ascentcfo.com, it talks a little about, a little bit about the data visualization. And I think that is, is important, important because we can get inundated with data and just facts that not everyone likes to see numbers on charts or a list of numbers. So, just trying to find a unique way to present information to business owners and their leadership team.

**Tracy:** An actual visual, right? So, you can literally get a picture of what’s going on.

**Lizette:** Yeah. Like a dashboard that’s just kind of…

**Tracy:** Yeah. I love that. That sounds pretty cool. So you said it, but let’s say it again, where can people find you if they want to learn more about this?

**Lizette:** Yes, they can go to AscentCFO.com. And there’s a link there that you could go to and see our data visualization and also talks about our you know, what we’re excited about and what our expertise is.

**Tracy:** Perfect. We’ll make sure that’s easily clickable in the show notes as well. Lizette Peña, what a wonderful conversation. Your passion is palpable and your commitment to like supporting these mission-driven professionals and helping them, you know, do better at business so they can go back to doing what they do best and providing, you know, the best level of care possible is just really commendable. Thank you.

**Lizette:** Thank you, thank you. It’s really rewarding to do this work. Thank you so much.

**Tracy:** Thanks again for coming on.

Key Takeaways

**Tracy:** I really enjoyed my conversation with Lizette Peña about the positive impact of a fractional CFO and what they can do for your healthcare practice.

My few takeaways from our discussion:

  • First, understanding your KPIs, your key performance indicators. From no-show rates to pair mix, it isn’t just about the numbers, it’s about making informed decisions that improve both patient care and practice profitability.
  • Second, cash flow management doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Sometimes simple adjustments like strategically timing your vendor payments can make a huge difference in your practice’s financial health.
  • And finally, remember that being a great healthcare provider and a savvy business owner are not mutually exclusive, but you don’t have to do it all yourself. Working with professionals like Lizette allows you to focus on what you do best, providing excellent patient care, while having confidence that your business is being strategically managed.

If you’d like to learn more about Lizette and Ascent CFO solutions, you can visit their website at ascentcfo.com. This is where you can check out their innovative data visualization tools that make financial metrics actually enjoyable to review. We’ll see you next time.

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