Bookkeeper, accountant, fractional CFO or consultant: who does what?
Four roles that are easy to confuse, and expensive to get in the wrong order. What each one does, the signs you need it, and how they fit together.
As a business grows, the finance questions change. “Are the invoices in?” becomes “Can we afford to hire?” and then “Why is margin falling?” Different people answer those questions, and a lot of frustration comes from asking the right question of the wrong person.
Here is who does what, in plain terms.
The four roles
Bookkeeper. Records what happened. Enters or checks transactions, reconciles the bank, runs payroll and chases invoices. The foundation everything else is built on.
Accountant (external). Prepares year-end accounts and tax returns, and advises on tax and structure. Usually looks at the business once or a few times a year, after the fact.
Fractional or part-time CFO. A senior finance person for a few days a month. Owns forecasting, cash planning, pricing and funding conversations, and sits with the owner on the big decisions.
Consultant. Brought in for a defined problem, for a defined period: a messy month-end, a first audit, a system that no longer fits, reporting nobody trusts. Diagnoses it, fixes it, and hands it back.
Side by side
| Compared | Bookkeeper | Accountant | Fractional CFO | Consultant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Looks at | Transactions | The year and tax | The future | One problem |
| How often | Weekly or daily | Yearly or quarterly | Monthly, ongoing | A project |
| Typical question | “Is everything recorded?” | “What do we owe and how do we lodge?” | “What happens if we hire three people?” | “Why does month-end take nine days?” |
| You get | Clean books | Compliance and tax advice | Forecasts and decisions | A fixed problem and a handover |
Signs you need each
- A better bookkeeper, if the bank reconciliation is weeks behind, supplier statements never agree, or payroll errors keep coming back.
- An accountant’s advice, for tax, structure, lodgements and anything with a legal deadline.
- A fractional CFO, if the owner is making hiring, pricing or funding decisions without a forecast, or the bank wants cash flow projections nobody can produce.
- A consultant, if the same finance problem has lasted for months, or it sits between finance and systems and nobody owns it.
The most common mistake: doing it in the wrong order
A fractional CFO working from unreliable numbers produces confident forecasts built on sand. A common pattern is hiring senior help before the basics are right, then paying senior rates for someone to clean up the data first.
The order that usually works:
- Reliable books: reconciled, on time, with a sensible chart of accounts.
- A fast, repeatable month-end, with reporting that comes out of the system rather than a spreadsheet. Our guide to speeding up month-end covers how.
- Management reporting the owner actually uses. See what a good board pack contains.
- Forward-looking finance: forecasting, scenarios and funding, which is where a CFO earns their fee.
Where we fit
We are not your tax accountant and we do not lodge returns or give tax advice. We are not your auditor either. We work on the middle of that list: diagnosing why the finance function is slow or unreliable, fixing the process and the systems behind it, and handing back something your bookkeeper, accountant or future CFO can run with.
If you are not sure which of these you need, the diagnostic scores your finance function and your systems together and ranks what to fix first. Or contact us with your question.
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