How We Work
How does a fractional CFO engagement work?
Top Practice CFO works in a 3-phase ladder: a 14-Day Financial X-ray to find the money, a 6-Week Profit Command Sprint to fix the highest-value problems, then a Command Retainer that runs your financial command center every month. Every engagement starts read-only, and every number you see is computed from your ledger in code, then reviewed by a CFO before it reaches you.
How does a fractional CFO engagement start?
It starts with a fixed-scope diagnostic, not a long contract. You grant read-only access to your accounting file, payroll, and practice management system, and within 14 days you get a written Financial X-ray that quantifies where cash, margin, and tax are leaking. From there you choose whether to fix those findings in a 6-Week Sprint and continue on a monthly retainer.
- The first phase is the 14-Day Financial X-ray, priced at $1,500 to $2,500.
- Access is read-only at every stage: we observe and compute, we do not move money or change your books.
| Phase | Timeline | Investment | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14-Day Financial X-ray | 14 days | $1,500 to $2,500 | Written diagnostic of recoverable cash, margin, and tax |
| 6-Week Profit Command Sprint | 6 weeks | $9,800 to $14,500 upfront | Fixed-scope build of the systems that capture the findings |
| Command Retainer | Monthly | $3,500 to $7,500 per month | Ongoing CFO oversight, forecasting, and board package |
Takeaway: You see the value before you commit to anything ongoing.
Top Practice CFO is built so the first step is low-risk and proves itself in writing.
What is the 14-Day Financial X-ray?
The 14-Day Financial X-ray is a fixed-scope diagnostic that pulls your last 12 to 24 months of financial data and computes the metrics most owner-operated practices never see: profit by service line, true provider compensation load, cash runway, and tax exposure. You receive a written report that names specific dollar figures and ranks the opportunities by size and effort. It is $1,500 to $2,500, and complimentary for acquisition or exit-track practices above $10M in revenue.
- The X-ray reviews 12 to 24 months of ledger, payroll, and practice management data.
- Quality engagements often surface $100,000 to $300,000 in the first 90 days. (Illustrative range; results depend on your numbers.)
Takeaway: It answers one question: where is the money hiding in your practice?
Top Practice CFO delivers the X-ray as a standalone first step, so you can start without committing to a retainer.
What is the 6-Week Profit Command Sprint?
The 6-Week Profit Command Sprint is a fixed-scope, paid-upfront engagement that builds the systems to capture what the X-ray found. Over six weeks we stand up profit-by-service-line reporting, a 13-week rolling cash forecast, a KPI scorecard, and a driver-based budget, then hand you the working tools and the playbook to run them. It is $9,800 to $14,500, with the scope agreed in writing before we start so there are no surprises.
- The Sprint is $9,800 to $14,500, paid upfront, with a scope fixed before kickoff.
- Deliverables include profit by service line, a 13-week cash forecast, a KPI scorecard, and a driver-based budget.
Takeaway: The Sprint turns a list of findings into installed financial systems.
Top Practice CFO runs the Sprint as a defined project, not an open-ended retainer, so you know exactly what you get and when.
What does the monthly retainer include?
The Command Retainer is ongoing CFO oversight at $3,500 to $7,500 per month, month to month. Each month you get a refreshed 13-week cash forecast, an updated KPI scorecard, AR and AP optimization, peer benchmarking, and a board or lender package your CPA and bank can rely on. A real CFO reviews every number and walks you through the decisions it points to.
- The retainer runs $3,500 to $7,500 per month, far below a full-time CFO at roughly $180,000 to $250,000 in annual total comp. (Compensation range per general market data.)
- Monthly capabilities include the 13-week forecast, KPI scorecard, AR/AP optimization, benchmarking, and a board or lender package.
| Deliverable | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| 13-week cash forecast | Whether cash covers the next quarter |
| KPI scorecard | How the practice is trending against its targets |
| Profit by service line | Which services make money and which drain it |
| Board or lender package | A clean story for partners, banks, or buyers |
Takeaway: You get a finance department running in the background without a finance department on payroll.
Top Practice CFO is the fractional CFO for owner-operated practices that want CFO-level oversight at a fraction of the cost.
How do you make sure the numbers are right?
Every metric is computed in code directly from your ledger, never estimated or generated by AI. The pipeline runs in four steps: pull the data read-only, compute every metric in code, use a language model only to narrate and flag what the numbers mean, then a CFO reviews and signs off before anything reaches you. The result is a report you can hand to a bank or a buyer with confidence.
- Pipeline: pull data, compute every metric in code, narrate and flag with a language model, then a CFO reviews. The AI never computes a number.
- Every number is computed from your ledger and reviewed by a CFO. No figure is generated by AI.
| Step | Who or what does it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Pull | Read-only connection to your systems | We never touch or move your money |
| Compute | Code, run against your actual ledger | Numbers are exact, not estimated |
| Narrate | A language model explains and flags | Plain-language insight, never new figures |
| Human gate | A CFO reviews and signs off | A person owns every number you receive |
Takeaway: The math is deterministic, the language is AI-assisted, and a CFO is accountable for the result.
Top Practice CFO is built on that human gate: the AI explains the numbers, it never invents them.
What access do you need?
We need read-only access to three places: your accounting file, your payroll system, and your practice management software. Read-only means we can see and compute, but we cannot move money, send payments, or edit your books. You can revoke access at any time, and we use scoped, least-privilege connections so we only see what the work requires.
- Required: read-only access to your accounting file (such as QuickBooks Online), payroll, and your practice management system.
- Read-only means observe and compute only: no payments, no transfers, no edits to your books.
| System | Access level | What we read |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting file | Read-only | P&L, balance sheet, AR and AP detail |
| Payroll | Read-only | Provider and staff compensation |
| Practice management | Read-only | Production by service line and provider |
Takeaway: Least access required, revocable any time, and nothing that lets us move your money.
Top Practice CFO keeps the relationship read-only by design, so you stay fully in control of your own books.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to start with the X-ray?
- Yes, in nearly all cases. The 14-Day Financial X-ray is what tells us, and you, whether there is enough recoverable cash, margin, or tax to justify a Sprint or a retainer. It is a low-risk first step that proves the value in writing before you commit to anything ongoing.
- Is the work done by a real CFO or by software?
- Both, in defined roles. Software pulls your data and computes every metric in code, and a language model narrates what the numbers mean. A real CFO, Cory Salisbury, reviews and signs off on every report before it reaches you. No figure you receive is generated by AI.
- Will you have access to move money in my accounts?
- No. All access is read-only, which means we can see your data and compute from it, but we cannot send payments, move money, or edit your books. You can revoke our access at any time, and we use the least access the work requires.
- Do you require a long-term contract?
- No. The X-ray and the Sprint are fixed-scope projects, and the Command Retainer is month to month. You can stop after any phase. We would rather keep you because the numbers prove their worth each month than lock you into a term.