“I have a bookkeeper and a CPA. Why do I need a CFO?”
Understand
the
difference
If you’re a managing partner of a small to mid-size law firm, you may personally be responsible for everything from monthly accounting and financial management tasks to dealing with profitability pressures like these:
Then there are the operational issues you’re likely also handling — important aspects of running the practice like:
You might be the partner spending your otherwise billable hours doing ALL of this work, or you’re overseeing an office manager or bookkeeper’s efforts.
But what if the one person you rely on leaves … and even if they are still in place, are you and your partners certain about how thorough their processes are?
Does anyone else in the firm know how to ‘do’ all that’s required (from payroll and reconciling your account, to partner distributions and proactively managing the 401K)?
We are ... THE LAWYER’S CFO™
You may not even know what’s missing operationally — or where improvements can make a substantive difference.
If you feel overwhelmed with all these responsibilities, we understand. It’s hard work to interpret and connect the right dots into a useful fiscal and operational strategy to grow and manage your practice … the right way.
A fractional CFO from CFO Simplified offers a solution. We bring deeper expertise to your current financial processes — going far beyond the basic reports you’re likely currently producing — along with insights you won’t get with less experienced in-house staff.
Plus, as your part-time CFO, we address and improve your operations, encompassing everything from organizational efficiencies to detailed KPIs. In short, we help with every aspect of operations that affects your income, expenses and ultimately, your profitability.
Because everything in your practice builds your firm’s financial strength.
The results of retaining a fractional CFO? A positive impact on your bottom-line, and peace of mind for all the partners about how your practice is managed overall.
We provide a full range of QuickBooks services, including:
“I have a bookkeeper and a CPA. Why do I need a CFO?”
Understand
the
difference
“Managing a law firm’s finances is more than just tracking revenue and expenses. It’s strategizing and planning that helps you better manage the business.”
– A. Grais, former Law Firm Managing Partner
A true CFO does significantly more than just preparing financial statements and handing them to the managing partner.
A true CFO focuses on driving strategic goals and objectives, providing the organizational plan you might be missing, and solving long-standing control problems, whether your firm wants to safeguard its money, ensure protections against adversity, or simply enjoy strong and secure growth over time.
More than deep CFO expertise, CFO Simplified’s team also brings COO experience to your firm, guiding you through a range of common concerns:
“Our Firm hired CFO Simplified to help us navigate during a critical juncture. From the outset, their team exhibited a solid understanding of our unique needs and the urgency of the situation.
They were able to jump in with both feet and helped overcome some of our immediate challenges, demonstrating a commitment to our success and working collaboratively with our leadership team and internal staff.”
– Sandi Cohen, Human Resource Director, Harrison, LLP
Unlike CPAs concerned with taxes and bookkeepers handling ledgers, your firm’s fractional CFO provides unbiased, valuable guidance on all things finance, operations and strategic planning.
Your CFO works on-site with you through our Deep Dive Strategic Analysis to identify shortcomings and create a realistic strategy to correct them — and a plan to get your firm where it needs to be to reach the next level.
Clients typically engage with us for six months to two years, and benefit from:
Read more About Us and Meet Our Team
“Thank you for helping our firm through tough times — and getting us on the right path. We really appreciate it and we’re happy to provide referrals to CFO Simplified.”
– Partner and Executive Committee Member, Chicago Law Firm
When Does the CFO Order Office Supplies?
The short answer is “never”. Read more about what happens when a back-office administrative function lacks accountability and structure.
Who’s in Charge Here?
What would happen if your firm’s office manager just up and resigned and refused further communication? We describe what we did to bring order to financial chaos.
"We had just retained CFO Simplified to conduct its analysis of the operation and financial systems for our multi-state law practice when our Office Manager left unexpectedly. On top of immediate operational needs, including payroll and routine accounting issues, we needed to coordinate a year-end reconciliation and determine upcoming partner payments — all with immediate deadlines.
CFO Simplified jumped in immediately and pivoted from the scheduled “Deep Dive” on our systems to handling day-to-day financial matters as an interim CFO. Very quickly, CFO Simplified was able to get a handle on our somewhat antiquated systems and assist us to complete the time-sensitive matters and put us on track for smoother financial operations.
We were very impressed by their proficiency and willingness to roll up their sleeves and do what was needed on such short notice.
We now have significant confidence in our financial systems, and our partners have the comfort of knowing that everything is being managed. Hiring CFO Simplified was a very good decision for us, and we look forward to additional positive results as we continue to work with CFO Simplified.”
– Managing Partner, Mid-size Chicago Law Firm
Clients hire you because you know the law. Partner with us for financial and operational expertise that brings you stability, control and certainty.
Contact Lawrence Chester to explore how CFO Simplified can make a difference for your firm. Schedule your 10-minute discovery call now:
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Our people are unique CFOs. They are all operationally
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