Prevail Accountancy works as a Fractional CFO for our clients – helping with strategic financial management and digital transformation. Here, we explain what a Fractional CFO does… and what makes the approach such a good fit for construction industry businesses.

What is a Fractional CFO?

A Fractional Chief Finance Officer (or Fractional CFO) operates beyond the traditional roles of bookkeeper or accountant to offer strategic financial advice and planning services.

A Fractional CFO works part-time for your business – enabling you to access the expertise of an experienced Chief Financial Officer at a fraction of the cost.

As a construction firm leader, why might I want to hire a Fractional CFO?

You’re likely ready to hire a Fractional CFO if:

Cashflow is unpredictable
You’re growing but feel out of control
You want to bid for larger contracts
You lack visibility over project profitability
You’re firefighting instead of planning
You’re worried about compliance or risk
You want board-level insight without the cost of a full time CFO

If you recognise any of these challenges, a Fractional CFO could be a great fit for your business.

What are the benefits of working with a Fractional CFO?

Instead of paying a six-figure salary for a full-time executive, construction SMEs can hire a Fractional CFO to access the high-level financial strategy, forecasting and oversight of a senior executive at an affordable price point.

What are my options when it comes to hiring a Fractional CFO?

If you need the strategic guidance and financial forecasting that a Fractional CFO can deliver on a regular basis, you will probably want to hire a Fractional CFO as ongoing part-time support.

Alternatively, you may only need to hire the services of a Fractional CFO for the duration of a particular project. That might be to set the right direction and future strategy of the business. Or it might be to oversee a complex financial project, such as a digital transformation of your accounting operations.

Either way, working with a Fractional CFO offers an affordable solution so that you can access the high-level insight and experience you need.

What does a Fractional CFO do?

A Fractional CFO can undertake a variety of strategic financial management tasks.

These might include:

Helping you achieve cashflow stability
Achieving better control of project profitability
Embedding stronger commercial governance
Support for scaling and growing your business
Readying you for tendering and public sector work
Technology modernisation and digital transformation

Prevail Accountancy helps our clients with all of these strategic financial priorities. For example, at PAS SAFE Solutions we began supporting with the modernisation and effective deployment of the accounting system. This grew into supporting with the digital transformation of the entire business operations, including the integration of warehousing, sales and customer service solutions.

Our experience at PAS SAFE solutions highlights one of the great things about hiring a Fractional CFO: you can scale up and down the support a Fractional CFO delivers for your business based on business need and return on investment.

Why is a Fractional CFO such a good fit for construction industry businesses?

Construction consistently has one of the highest rates of business failure of any sector in the UK. There’s a reason for this.

Construction cashflow is notoriously lumpy. Retentions, delayed valuations, late payments and upfront material costs create constant pressure.

Accessing strategic financial advice helps construction SMEs to navigate these choppy waters more easily – so you can avoid becoming one of the 16 percent of construction industry businesses that fail.

One of the important ways in which a Fractional CFO can help you is by building cashflow forecasts aligned to project timelines. By putting in place forecasts and the systems and processes to monitor progress against them, a Fractional CFO helps you bring greater certainty to your project cashflow and profitability metrics.

Crucially, a Fractional CFO also brings the financial rigour needed to protect your margins.

This is one of the first and most important areas in which construction SMEs feel the impact of a Fractional CFO – and the relief.

How can a Fractional CFO help construction firms with commercial governance?

UK construction is heavily regulated, with legislation updated frequently. Staying up to date with your responsibilities is crucial.

A Fractional CFO can assist with:

CIS compliance
Registered and Gross Payment Status
Reverse charge VAT
Insurance and bonding requirements

For example, we supported RPMG Global to improve its CIS reporting. The business was able to achieve Gross Payment Status under CIS, freeing up additional cashflow and helping power the growth of the business.

Chris Cummins, founder at RPMG Global explained, “Within six months we’d achieved Gross Status with HMRC. It’s confirmation of the good work we’re doing and indicative of the good financial control we now have over the business. It means we can improve cashflow and simplify transactions.”

This example demonstrates how working with a Fractional CFO can help you to ensure your commercial processes are robust, compliant and audit ready.

Will a Fractional CFO help me grow my business?

Most SMEs bring in a Fractional CFO when they reach between £1m and £20m turnover.

There’s no doubt that working with a Fractional CFO will help you to grow your business. Most importantly, they will help you to grow profitably.

As well as helping you to forecast, monitor and track cashflow and profitability on a per-project basis, a Fractional CFO will also help you to build the financial infrastructure necessary to grow your business.

This might include building financial models for expansion, preparing frameworks for tenders, or strengthening your balance sheet. Often, it will mean implementing or modernising software and systems.

Prevail Accountancy is a leader in digital transformation. We punch above our weight in this sphere, winning the award for Digital Transformation at the 2025 Accounting Excellence Awards.

By using a Fractional CFO to shape, accelerate and guide your digital transformation, you can bring in the experience and expertise you need for the fraction of the cost of hiring such expertise inhouse.

In this way, you sustainably put in place the systems, processes and real-time information necessary to power profitable growth.

How does a Fractional CFO differ from a bookkeeper or accountant?

Many construction SMEs assume their accountant already covers the role of CFO.

However, the reality is these roles differ considerably:

Bookkeepers record transactions.
Accountants ensure compliance and produce year-end accounts.
Fractional CFOs drive strategy, profitability and growth.

Think of it this way: if your business needs forward-looking financial leadership rather than backward-looking reporting, a Fractional CFO is a better fit for you.

Is a Fractional CFO right for my business? How should I select a Fractional CFO for my construction firm?

The first step is to be clear where you want support.

For a construction SME, typical areas where support is needed include:

Cashflow forecasting and scenario planning
Monthly management accounts and board reporting
Project profitability analysis
Financial reviews
Supply chain and subcontractor cost control
Funding and finance applications
Risk management and compliance oversight
Strategic planning with directors

The Prevail Accountancy team can assist with all these requirements. Please get in touch with us if you would like to know more.

We find that many SMEs hit a growth ceiling because their financial infrastructure can’t support larger contracts. If this sounds like you, then you’re probably at the stage where a Fractional CFO is necessary.

Final thoughts: A Fractional CFO gives construction SMEs what you need to thrive

In a sector where margins are tight and risk is high, a Fractional CFO gives UK construction SMEs the strategic financial leadership they need to grow confidently.

It’s a flexible, cost-effective way to bring board-level expertise into your business – without the overheads of a full-time executive.

What next?

If you want to stabilise cashflow, improve project profitability and scale sustainably, a fractional CFO is one of the most powerful investments you can make.

To find out more, please get in touch with our team.

Call us: 01706 550 825

Message us: https://prevailaccountancy.co.uk/contact-us/