Fractional CFO manufacturing cost and what you get for it

Most manufacturers between $5M and $75M in revenue run on a controller or bookkeeper, an ERP that is only partly trusted, and a CPA who files the return. That keeps the books closed. It does not answer the questions that decide the year. Which product lines actually make money after overhead? Is inventory a safe asset or cash sitting on a shelf? What happens to the credit line if sales grow 25 percent?

Manufacturing finance has its own mechanics. Margin hides in standard costs, scrap, rework, freight and overhead allocation. Cash is tied up in raw materials, work in process and finished goods before a customer pays. A CFO who has worked in plants reads gross margin by product, inventory turns and the cash conversion cycle every month and ties them to pricing, purchasing, capital spending and the lender conversation.

• Rebuilds product and job costing so material, labor and overhead land on the right SKU or work order
• Reports gross margin by product line and customer, and flags the accounts that lose money after freight and rework
• Sets inventory targets, reserve policy and slow-moving stock review, and reconciles the count to the ledger
• Builds a 13-week cash flow forecast that includes purchase orders, payroll and equipment payments
• Prepares borrowing base certificates and covenant reporting for the bank or asset-based lender
• Models price increases, new capacity, automation and make-or-buy decisions with payback
• Prepares quality of earnings style numbers and add-backs for a sale, recapitalization or ESOP discussion
• Works with the CPA on inventory costing method, R&D credits and entity structure

As a general US market range, fractional CFOs typically charge roughly $150 to $500 per hour, and monthly retainers for one to three days a week commonly fall between $4,000 and $14,000. A smaller shop often starts with a fixed project for costing and the cash forecast, then moves to a lighter retainer. A multi-plant company with an asset-based loan or an acquisition in view sits at the top of the range. Each expert sets their own rate and you see it on the profile before you book. You pay the expert's rate plus the platform fee of your plan, from 12 percent on Starter down to 4 percent on Enterprise, with no agency markup. Pricing models are explained in the fractional CFO cost guide and plan details are on the pricing page.

For scale, a full-time CFO at a manufacturer with a finance team often costs well over $200,000 a year in salary before bonus and benefits, which is why most companies under roughly $50M add a fractional CFO to a strong controller instead.

• Revenue is up but gross margin and cash are flat or falling
• Inventory grows faster than sales and nobody can explain the difference
• Quotes are priced from last year's costs because current product costs are not trusted
• The bank asks for monthly certificates or covenant reports that take your team days to assemble
• You plan a new line, a second plant or an acquisition and need a model before you commit
• An owner is thinking about a sale, a recapitalization or succession in the next 2 to 3 years

These are commonly cited general reference points, not targets for every plant. A CFO sets yours based on industry, order pattern and customer mix.

Supplier invoices, packing slips and purchase orders feed all of these. Plants that run on paper documents often pull their numbers through AI document data extraction that reads invoices and purchase orders into structured fields, so the CFO works from clean data instead of rekeyed spreadsheets.

If the books themselves are the problem, start with a fractional controller. Most growing manufacturers keep the CPA, add a fractional CFO for monthly and strategic numbers, and bring in an operations consultant when throughput is the issue.

• Which manufacturers have you worked with, and what were their size, process and customers?
• Which ERP and inventory systems do you know, for example NetSuite, Sage, Epicor, SAP Business One or QuickBooks?
• How would you rebuild product costing and report margin by product to the owners each month?
• Have you prepared borrowing base certificates or covenant reports, and for which lenders?
• How do you handle inventory valuation, reserves and the physical count?
• How many hours a month do you expect this to take, and what would make it more?

You describe the company in one sentence: revenue, process, plants, systems, lender and the decision ahead. ExpertMatcher turns it into a match brief with weighted competencies such as product costing, inventory and working capital, and lender reporting, then shows 3 to 15 verified CFOs depending on your plan, each with a fit score and the reason for the match. You can send an NDA, book a paid intro call of 30, 60 or 90 minutes and agree a retainer or a fixed project on the platform. The full process is on how it works, and the general fractional CFO page lists every role we match. Contractors with similar cash timing can read about a fractional CFO for construction companies.