A part-time CFO in Australia costs $1,000 to $3,000 a month for five to ten hours a month at seed stage, and $5,000 to $10,000 a month for five to ten hours a week in a complex, fast-growing business. Solo operators charge up to about $210 an hour.
What a part-time CFO costs, by stage
These are the bands I publish in my First Finance Hire and First CFO Hire playbooks, and they are the numbers I quote founders when they ask. They are keyed to what the business needs from finance at each stage, not to a provider's price list, and they are a market read from the searches I run and the fractional providers I refer founders to, not a survey of invoices.[1]
| Typical cost and hours | What that tier is buying | |
|---|---|---|
| Seed, founder-led finance | $1,000 to $3,000 a month for 5 to 10 hours a month | A monthly review, a cash and runway view, and a sanity check on the model. The founder still runs finance day to day, with a bookkeeper on the transactions. |
| Hyper-growth or operationally complex | $5,000 to $10,000 a month for 5 to 10 hours a week | Close to a part-time executive: board pack input, forecasting discipline and investor reporting every week. The tier where the arithmetic starts pointing at a permanent hire. |
| Late Series A, raise under 12 months out | $8,000 to $15,000 a month, alongside a full-time head of finance | Raise readiness: the model, the data room, clean metrics and someone who has run a raise more often than you have, while the head of finance runs the function. |
| Hourly, for project work | Up to about $210 an hour solo, about $270 through a firm | A bounded piece of work, such as a model rebuild or a board paper, without a retainer. The firm premium buys cover, not a better operator. |
Two things in that table surprise founders. The first is how little the seed tier costs: most seed businesses need five to ten hours a month, not a day a week. The second is that the most expensive fractional tier sits later than people expect. At late Series A, with a raise less than twelve months out, the pattern I see work is a fractional CFO alongside a full-time head of finance: you get the raise readiness without paying for a full-time CFO before the role is full time.
Whether you should be buying fractional help at all, and the point at which you outgrow it, is set out separately.
Solo operator or firm: what the hourly difference buys
On an hourly basis, solo virtual CFOs typically charge up to around $210 an hour and firms up to around $270.[2] The gap is about $60 an hour, and it buys bench and cover rather than a better operator. A firm can put someone else on your board pack when your person is on leave, and it has a second pair of eyes on the numbers. A solo operator gives you one relationship and consistent judgement, with the risk that nobody covers them.
In practice, most of the providers I refer founders to are firms rather than individuals, as I said on the Honest Wealth Builders podcast. That is not a ranking of the two. At seed, when the value is judgement rather than throughput, a good solo operator is often the better buy.
What moves you up a tier
Complexity, not revenue. A single-product software business selling in one country can run a long way on the seed tier. A business with a lot of money moving through it, inventory, hardware, grants or more than one legal entity needs more hours sooner. On fintech, as I put it on the Behind The Story podcast, “you will need someone a little bit sooner because the operations of the business is finance itself.”
Going offshore is the other common step up. Most Australian startups need revenue from the US, Europe or APAC to reach the scale they are aiming for, and entity setup, cross-border tax and foreign compliance all land on finance.[3] That work is continuous, and continuous work is what pushes a retainer from hours a month to hours a week.
AI is starting to push the other way at the bottom of the range. What was a vCFO-level workload three years ago is increasingly something a financially capable founder can do with AI in the loop, and for an AI-fluent founder running a simple business that can take an hour or two a week off the retainer.[4] What the tools still do badly is challenge the assumptions behind the numbers, so the hours worth keeping are the ones spent pushing back on your plan, not building the spreadsheet.
How it compares to a full-time hire
This is the comparison every founder wants, and the honest version is that they are not really substitutes. My published band puts a permanent CFO at late Series A at $275k to $325k base plus equity.[5] An excellent first finance hire, someone who has been the first finance person before, sits around $180k to $200k-plus.[6] On top of base you carry superannuation, currently 12% of ordinary time earnings, plus leave and the other minimum entitlements under the National Employment Standards, payroll tax once you are over your state's threshold, and the recruitment cost. A $3,000 a month retainer is $36,000 a year against all of that.
| Annual cost, before on-costs | What you get for it | |
|---|---|---|
| Part-time CFO, seed tier | $12,000 to $36,000 a year | Senior judgement on the decisions that need it. No ownership of the close, the systems or a team. |
| First finance hire | About $180,000 to $200,000-plus base, plus super | Someone who has been the first finance person before and builds the function properly, usually as a head of finance or financial controller. |
| Head of finance, late Series A | $200,000 to $250,000 base plus equity, plus super | Owns reporting, FP&A, the board pack and the day to day. What most late Series A businesses actually hire. |
| First CFO, late Series A | $275,000 to $325,000 base plus equity, plus super | Capital, investors and the board, as a peer to the rest of the executive team. Often a promotion from a head of finance or a CFO from a smaller business. |
The retainer wins on the invoice and loses on ownership. A part-time CFO gives you judgement on the decisions that matter. They do not own your close, run your systems or lead a team. The shape that works for a lot of Australian startups is a strong financial controller or head of finance running the day to day with a fractional CFO on top. As I said on Behind The Story, some companies can run that way for a period and save the extra $50k to $100k a full-time CFO would cost.
If the real gap is ownership rather than advice, I set out the permanent CFO and head of finance salary bands by stage.
When the retainer stops being the cheaper option
Fractional finance buys you roughly 18 to 24 months of proper financial visibility before a full-timer is needed, and that is about the window where a part-time CFO is genuinely the best value.[7] Past it, the economics quietly invert. The retainer creeps up to cover work that has become continuous, and you end up paying hourly rates for what is now a full-time job.
The point it usually shows up is Series A, when the finance function becomes the bottleneck on hiring, board reporting and capital planning. For businesses reaching $20m ARR, I treat a full-time CFO as effectively mandatory, because fractional arrangements typically break down at that stage.[8] A useful test before that: if the retainer has crept into the top tier and stayed there for two quarters, price a permanent head of finance against it.
Why I refer fractional CFOs for free
I do not sell fractional CFO services. I place the first finance hire and the first CFO in Australian VC-backed startups and scale-ups. When a founder is too early for that, I introduce them to a good fractional provider and take no fee; once I did it inside four hours.[9] A fractional role can be five to ten hours a week or even a month, so any fee clipped from it would be tiny against the trust a free introduction builds. It runs the other way too: when a business outgrows its provider, the good ones refer it back to me for the full-time search.
Common questions
How much does a part-time CFO cost in Australia?
At seed stage most founders pay $1,000 to $3,000 a month for five to ten hours a month. A hyper-growth or operationally complex business pays $5,000 to $10,000 a month for five to ten hours a week. At late Series A with a raise under twelve months out, a fractional CFO alongside a full-time head of finance runs $8,000 to $15,000 a month. By the hour, solo virtual CFOs charge up to around $210 and firms up to around $270.
How much does a fractional CFO cost per month at seed stage?
Usually $1,000 to $3,000 a month for five to ten hours of work a month. That covers a monthly review, a cash and runway view and a sanity check on the model. If you are financially capable and comfortable with AI tooling, you may need even less, with a fractional bookkeeper covering the transactions.
Is a solo virtual CFO cheaper than a firm?
By about $60 an hour: solo operators charge up to around $210 an hour and firms up to around $270. The firm premium buys bench and cover when your person is away, not necessarily a better operator. At seed, where the value is judgement rather than throughput, a good solo operator is often the better buy.
Is a part-time CFO cheaper than a full-time one?
On the invoice, clearly. A permanent late Series A CFO runs $275,000 to $325,000 base plus equity, plus 12% superannuation, leave, payroll tax and recruitment cost; a $3,000 a month retainer is $36,000 a year. But you are not buying the same thing. A part-time CFO gives judgement on decisions and does not own the close, the systems or a team.
When does a part-time CFO stop being good value?
Usually after 18 to 24 months, or at Series A when the finance function becomes the bottleneck on hiring, board reporting and capital planning. If the retainer has crept into the top tier and stayed there for two quarters, price a permanent head of finance against it. Around $20m ARR a full-time CFO becomes effectively mandatory.
References
- The monthly bands are from my First Finance Hire playbook ($1-3k a month for 5-10 hours a month at seed, scaling to $5-10k a month for 5-10 hours a week) and my First CFO Hire playbook (at late Series A, a head of finance at $200-250k plus equity for most, with a fractional CFO at $8-15k a month alongside if a raise is less than 12 months out). Figures are AUD and exclude GST.
- The hourly benchmark I work to, published in my First Finance Hire playbook: solo virtual CFOs typically up to circa $210 an hour, virtual CFO firms up to circa $270.
- What I see in Australian startups: most need offshore revenue from the US, Europe or APAC to hit the scale they are aiming for, and international entity setup, cross-border tax and foreign compliance then fall to finance.
- From my First Finance Hire playbook: for an AI-fluent founder running a relatively simple business, AI can reduce reliance on a virtual CFO by an hour or two a week, and the virtual CFO's real value at that stage is in challenging the assumptions, which AI tools still do poorly.
- My published late Series A band, from the First CFO Hire playbook: $275-325k base plus equity, often a promotion from a previous head of finance or a CFO from a smaller business.
- What I tell founders pricing a first finance hire: at $180k to $200k-plus you are hiring someone who has been the first finance hire before, knows what you do not know, and will build it right the first time.
- As I said on the Honest Wealth Builders podcast: “the fractional relationship with a provider might only be 18 to 24 months. And then at the back end of it, when a business outgrows them, then they refer to me.”
- My playbook position: for businesses reaching $20m-plus ARR a full-time CFO becomes effectively mandatory, as fractional arrangements typically break down at that stage.
- A recent example: a founder needed a fractional CFO, and I introduced them to an outstanding one within four hours, with no fee attached.
These guides set out how we see it, drawn from the searches we run and the finance leaders we place. They are general information about the market, not financial, accounting or legal advice, and they are no substitute for advice on your own circumstances.