WHY CROMWELL
Your business deserves a CFO,
not another Saturday
with QuickBooks.
The average small business owner spends more than 240 hours a year on accounting, bookkeeping, and taxes. That is six full work weeks. Cromwell gives them back.
THE PROBLEM
Six weeks a year that
should not be yours to spend.
According to SCORE, the majority of small business owners spend more than 41 hours on federal tax preparation alone each year. Forty percent report spending more than 80 hours on taxes annually, and that is before bookkeeping, payroll, reconciliation, financial reporting, or the dozens of accounting-adjacent decisions that land on a CEO’s desk every month.
Add it up across a full year, bookkeeping at 10 to 15 hours per month, tax preparation at 41 to 100-plus hours, payroll administration, bank reconciliation, financial statement review, and ad hoc CFO-type questions, and the total exceeds 240 hours for most businesses in the $1M to $15M revenue range. That is six full forty-hour work weeks consumed by financial administration instead of growing the company.
“40% of small business owners say bookkeeping and taxes are the worst part of owning a business, not competition, not hiring, not sales. Accounting.”
SCORE, THE BURDEN OF SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING, TAXES AND PAYROLL
The financial consequences compound the time cost. SCORE found that most small business owners spend at least $1,000 per year on accounting administrative costs. The National Small Business Association found that more than one in four owners spends over 100 hours per year on federal taxes alone. Accounting errors result in an average of $3,534 in annual tax overpayments.
CASH FLOW FAILURE RATE
Of small business failures are attributed to cash flow miscalculations, a direct consequence of inadequate financial visibility.
GROWTH PREVENTED
Of entrepreneurs cite administrative burdens as a key factor preventing them from focusing on business growth.
FASTER REVENUE GROWTH
Companies with outsourced accounting functions grow revenue 28% faster than those handling accounting in-house.
THE CFO PROBLEM
You need a CFO.
You cannot afford a full-time one.
A full-time CFO costs between $350,000 and $500,000 annually: salary, bonus, benefits, equity, and recruiting fees combined. For a $5M or $10M business, that figure represents 5 to 10% of gross revenue dedicated to a single finance executive.
Most businesses in the $1M to $15M range do not need a full-time CFO. They need what a CFO does: clean books, accurate financial statements every month, strategic advisory on cash position, and someone who actually looks at the numbers before a problem becomes a crisis.
The fractional CFO market grew 103% year-over-year in the United States as demand for this exact solution surged. Businesses found they could get CFO-caliber financial oversight at a fraction of the cost by engaging fractional or outsourced providers.
“Choosing fractional over full-time saves a growing company $415,000 to $634,000 per year, for equivalent expertise applied to the decisions that actually matter.”
CFO ADVISORS, 2025 FRACTIONAL CFO COST BENCHMARK
What changed is delivery. AI-assisted bookkeeping, cloud accounting platforms, and workflow automation have made it possible for a fractional CFO and a skilled bookkeeper to serve thirty or more clients with the consistency and quality that used to require a dedicated in-house team. The expertise is the same. The delivery model, and the price, is fundamentally different.
THE NUMBERS
What the market charges.
What we charge.
Cromwell’s Core CFO Program bundles bookkeeping, four monthly financial statements, a metrics report, and dedicated CFO advisory hours into a single monthly retainer, at 47 to 55% below what you would pay for the same services purchased separately.
Under $500K
Market rate$2,000-$4,000 / mo
Cromwell$1,450 / mo
Savings~35-55%
$500K-$1M
Market rate$3,000-$6,000 / mo
Cromwell$1,850 / mo
Savings~40-55%
$1M-$3M
Market rate$3,500-$8,000 / mo
Cromwell$2,200-$2,650 / mo
Savings~40-55%
$3M-$5M
SWEET SPOTMarket rate$5,500-$9,000 / mo
Cromwell$2,950 / mo
Savings~47-55%
$5M-$7M
SWEET SPOTMarket rate$6,500-$10,000 / mo
Cromwell$3,400 / mo
Savings~47-55%
$7M-$15M
SWEET SPOTMarket rate$7,000-$12,500 / mo
Cromwell$3,950-$4,750 / mo
Savings~48-56%
$15M-$25M
Market rate$10,000-$20,000 / mo
Cromwell$5,800-$7,200 / mo
Savings~42-55%
Sweet-spot rows mark Cromwell’s target segment. Market rates sourced from NerdWallet, K38 Consulting, OpsFi, Ledgerive, TGG Accounting, Graphite Financial, and CEO Finance Academy (2025 to 2026).
Everything included. One fee. Every month.
Monthly Bookkeeping
Full GL, bank reconciliation, transaction classification, QBO or Xero management.
Four Financial Statements
P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, and Owner's Equity, every month, by the 15th.
Metrics & KPI Report
Industry-relevant KPIs, trend analysis, and year-over-year comparison each month.
Dedicated CFO Advisory Hours
Up to 2.5 hours per month of scheduled advisory time, quarterly reviews, and an annual strategic session.
Guided Action Engine
One-click workflows for vehicle purchases, new hires, owner draws, leases, and more, documents generated in minutes.
The 15th Delivery Guarantee
All deliverables, books, reports, statements, guaranteed by the 15th of each month. Graded A through D, visible in your client portal.
THE DIFFERENCE
Not just cheaper.
Better by design.
The fractional CFO and bookkeeping market is large, fragmented, and largely undifferentiated. Solo bookkeepers charge $300 to $1,500 per month but offer no strategic layer. National fractional CFO firms charge $5,000 to $15,000 monthly but rarely include bookkeeping. Traditional CPA firms deliver both, but at prices calibrated for enterprise clients and with service delivery models built before AI existed.
Cromwell was built in the gap between those alternatives. One program. One fee. One team that handles both the transactional work and the strategic conversation, with delivery technology that lets a pod of two people serve thirty clients at the quality level that used to require six.
- ✓The cost of outsourcing accounting is typically 40 to 60% lower than an in-house department.
- ✓Businesses with professional accounting support are twice as likely to secure funding or capital investment.
AI-assisted delivery
Cromwell uses Claude (Anthropic) to automate transaction classification, anomaly detection, and draft financial narratives, not to replace professional judgment, but to extend it. Every AI action is logged, explained, and available for client review. The result is faster delivery, fewer errors, and a complete audit trail that transparency-conscious clients and their lenders can rely on.
The 15th standard
Every deliverable, books closed, statements generated, metrics report distributed, is guaranteed by the 15th of each month. Not aspirationally. As a contractual commitment graded in the client portal. A grades for on-time delivery. B through D for anything less. Clients see the grade. The team sees it too. Accountability, built into the product.
A portal built like software
The Cromwell client portal gives owners a real-time view of delivery status, a message thread with their CFO and bookkeeper, and the Guided Action Engine: one-click workflows for common business events that assemble every document an owner needs in minutes instead of hours. A vehicle purchase authorization, a new hire package, an owner draw memo. All of it generated from a three-minute intake.
CITATIONS & DATA SOURCES
- 1.National Small Business Association, "NSBA 2017 Small Business Taxation Survey." The 240-hour figure reflects federal tax hours plus CSI Accounting's benchmark of 10 to 15 hours per month for bookkeeping.
- 2.SCORE, "The Burden of Small Business Accounting, Taxes and Payroll" (PR Newswire, 2015). 40% of small business owners say bookkeeping and taxes are the worst part of owning a business.
- 3.Cromwell Advisors Market Study 2026, benchmarking against NerdWallet, K38 Consulting, OpsFi, Ledgerive, TGG Accounting, Graphite Financial, and CEO Finance Academy (2025 to 2026).
- 4.Clutch, "Outsourcing Accounting Drives 28% Faster Revenue Growth" (clutch.co, 2022). Companies with outsourced accounting functions grow revenue 28% faster than those handling accounting in-house.
- 5.CSI Accounting & Payroll, "How Many Hours Per Month Does Bookkeeping Take?" (csiaccounting.com, 2023). Benchmark: 10 to 15 hours per month for businesses in the $1M to $5M range.
- 6.Financial Cent, "Accounting Error Statistics" (2023). Average annual tax overpayment due to accounting errors: $3,534.
- 7.U.S. Bank, "Why Do Businesses Fail?" (usbank.com). 82% of small business failures attributed to cash flow problems.
- 8.Salesforce, "Small & Medium Business Trends Report" (4th ed., 2020). 67% of entrepreneurs cite administrative burdens as a key growth barrier.
- 9.CFO Advisors, "2025 Fractional CFO Cost Benchmark." Full-time CFO total cost: $350,000 to $500,000 per year. Fractional savings: $415,000 to $634,000 per year.
- 10.National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers / Toptal Research, Fractional CFO Market Growth 2023 to 2025. 103% year-over-year growth in fractional CFO engagements cited.
- 11.CFO Advisors, "2025 Fractional CFO Cost Benchmark." See note 9.
- 12.NerdWallet, "How Much Does a Bookkeeper Cost?" (nerdwallet.com, updated March 2026). Solo bookkeeper range: $300 to $1,500 per month.
- 13.Silver Bell Group, "Complete Guide to Accounting Outsourcing 2025." Outsourcing typically 40 to 60% lower than in-house; businesses with professional accounting support are twice as likely to secure funding.
- 14.AICPA, "Small Business Financial Health Survey" (aicpa.org). Businesses with professional financial advisors are 2x more likely to secure capital investment.
Your books. Your CFO. Current by the 15th.
Start with a 15-minute conversation. We will confirm your tier, walk through exactly what is included, and tell you what the first month looks like.
CHART YOUR COURSE