Using a virtual CFO seems to be the up and coming trend in financial management. The benefits are clear as to why using a virtual CFO can be such a big benefit to your business. They offer you the expertise and skill of a full time Chief Financial Officer without the worries of vacation time, health benefits and the full salary.

But what exactly is included when you work with a virtual CFO? Let’s take a look.

Strategic Guidance

As a business owner, your job is to run your business. You have plenty on your plate. Whether it’s managing employees, building a leadership team, running day to day operations, and I’m sure sitting in plenty of meetings—you don’t have a whole lot of time left over at the end of the day.

So, when you’re in charge of all of that, where’s the time set aside to plan out your financial strategy? Do you have the expertise to create a good financial strategy?

A virtual CFO gives you the expertise you need and the time you don’t have to create a great financial strategy. A financial strategy includes everything from deciding what to do in case of an acquisitions opportunity, to making sure your business has enough money to stay in business for years to come.

Stakeholder Interfacing

When you start a business, you’re creating a community that will be impacted by your decisions as a business owner. Your employees depend on you for their livelihood, your investors want to ensure their ROI is good, and your suppliers have come to rely on your business. But when do you have time to communicate your finances in a tactful way with everyone who needs to know?

A virtual CFO can also supply you with tactful stakeholder interfacing, especially when it comes to investors. Your virtual CFO can communicate agreed upon objectives that are financially reasonable for your company to attain, they can also manage expectations in order to reach those goals and keep everyone on the same page.

Managing stakeholders requires a certain amount of expertise in working with investors. A virtual CFO can meet those needs with decades of expertise and leave you free to handle the rest of your business operations.

The best part is, your virtual CFO can integrate smoothly with other members of your operating team to ensure a seamless transition. After all, a CFO needs to be able to work and communicate well with the team already in place.

Monthly Reports

As busy as you are, you still need to stay abreast of your financial situation or face severe consequences. A virtual CFO can provide you with concise, comprehensive monthly reports that keep you up to date while still leaving you free to run your business.

Reports can be customized for delivery on your schedule, whether that be monthly, quarterly, or otherwise. A virtual CFO customizes reports based on your goals, your business’s unique capabilities, and any other considerations that may come into play.

These reports highlight red flags for financial problems that let you head them off before they occur. Don’t financial problems sneak up on you without comprehensive monthly reporting. The average business owner doesn’t have the time or financial expertise to see every problem that could be coming their way. With comprehensive reporting by a virtual CFO, now you have someone on your team with the expertise you need to highlight problems that could occur before they happen.

Financial Statement Management

Believe it or not, your financial statements are vital to your business success. Without accurate financial statements, you could find yourself underestimating your cash flow and you could accidentally misrepresent your business to stakeholders.

Great financial statements should allow for financial transparency to down to the smallest of numbers on your balance sheets. This transparency will allow you to accurately evaluate tax liability to avoid a surprise at the end of the fiscal year when you find out you owe a lot more to the government than you had expected.

Just like accurate monthly reporting, accurate financial statements will also allow you to catch errors and mistakes that could cost you thousands before they have the chance. Above all, great financial statements will allow you to forecast and plan accurately.

Customizable Packages

GSS offers customizable virtual CFO packages that are tailored to your business’ needs and goals. Top-level expertise helps to validate business models, inform decisions, and streamline logistical processes to unlock your restaurant business for growth. Don’t deny your stakeholders the strategic expertise that could help take your business to the next level.

You don’t have to face your business’s financial management alone. Instead, contact Global Shared Services today. We provide high-performance, end-to-end virtual CFO services you can trust, delivered by an expert consultant and tailored to the needs of your business. Choosing our CFO service as part of a restaurant accounting or franchise accounting offering gives your restaurant business the financial insight you need to scale through operational efficiencies and effective decisions, without unnecessary overhead or risk.