The gap this fills
Most growing businesses in this market have a bookkeeper and an owner, and nothing between them. The bookkeeper records what happened. The owner decides what to do. The layer that translates one into the other — what the margin trend means, whether the business can afford the hire, what happens to cash if the largest customer pays thirty days later — simply does not exist.
Owners handle it themselves, usually well, until the business gets large enough that instinct and a bank balance stop being sufficient. The classic symptoms are a profitable business that is always short of cash, a growth decision nobody can model, and a set of accounts that arrives too late to inform anything.
Hiring a finance director solves it and costs a senior salary the business may not yet support. This is the intermediate answer.
Which businesses this applies to
Owner-managed businesses roughly between AED 5 million and AED 50 million of revenue. Businesses growing quickly enough that the numbers have stopped being intuitive. Businesses preparing for investment, a sale, or a bank facility, where somebody needs to speak the counterparty’s language.
Also businesses that have a finance manager doing an excellent job on process and needing support on judgement, and businesses between finance directors, where the alternative is a gap of several months in a function that cannot pause.
The work, step by step
What this looks like in practice:
- Understand the business first. How it makes money, where the margin actually is, what the owner is worried about, and what decisions are coming.
- Fix the information, because judgement on unreliable numbers is worse than no judgement. Reporting has to be timely and organised around decisions before anything else is useful.
- Build the forward view. Budget, rolling forecast and cash projection, so the conversation is about what is coming rather than what happened.
- Attend a monthly session — the numbers reviewed, the decisions identified, the actions agreed and written down.
- Model the significant decisions: hiring, a new location, a large contract, financing, a price change.
- Manage the finance function, including supervising and developing whoever runs it day to day.
- Handle the external relationships where useful — banks, auditors, investors — and prepare what they ask for.
- Be available between sessions, because the decisions that most need a second opinion rarely arrive on schedule.
What a CFO does that a bookkeeper and an accountant do not
The distinction matters because businesses frequently buy one expecting another:
- Bookkeeper — records transactions accurately and on time
- Accountant — produces statements, handles compliance, files returns
- Financial controller — runs the finance function, owns the close, maintains controls
- CFO — interprets, plans, models decisions, manages capital and external relationships, and tells the owner things they may not want to hear
The last item is not a joke. A significant part of the value is having somebody with no operational stake who will say that the new location is not working, that the forecast is optimistic, or that the largest customer is a concentration risk rather than an achievement.
The profitable business with no cash
This is the most common problem we are brought in to solve, and it is almost never a profitability problem.
Profit is an accounting measure that recognises revenue when earned. Cash arrives when customers pay. A growing business funds the gap out of its own pocket: stock bought before it is sold, staff paid before the work is invoiced, invoices raised before they are settled. The faster it grows, the wider the gap and the tighter the cash, which is why growth can strain a business more than stagnation does.
The fix is rarely dramatic. It is usually receivables collected on terms rather than on habit, payment terms negotiated on both sides, stock levels matched to actual demand, and a facility arranged before it is needed rather than during the month it is needed. What makes it possible is a thirteen-week cash forecast, which is the single highest-return piece of work in this whole area.
Common mistakes
The expensive mistakes in this area are consistent:
- Hiring a finance director before the business can support one, which is an expensive way to solve a part-time problem.
- Expecting judgement on unreliable numbers. The information has to be fixed first, and that is not the interesting part but it is the necessary one.
- Monthly meetings with no decisions. A review that produces no actions is a report with extra steps.
- Confusing a CFO with an accountant. Compliance is a separate function and a different skill.
- Treating cash and profit as the same question, which is how profitable businesses run out of money.
- Bringing in senior support only when there is a problem, rather than while decisions can still be shaped.
When this needs to happen
Typically monthly, with availability between sessions. Some businesses need weekly during a specific period — a fundraise, a restructuring, a system implementation — and revert afterwards.
The trigger points worth acting on: revenue past roughly AED 5 million, a second location, an investment or sale process starting, a bank facility being negotiated, or the recurring experience of making significant decisions on instinct and hoping.
What you end up with
- A monthly session with agreed actions, written down
- A budget and rolling forecast that is maintained rather than produced once
- A thirteen-week cash forecast, updated weekly
- Decision models for significant choices as they arise
- Board or investor reporting where required
- Support and development for whoever runs finance day to day
What to have ready
To start, we need:
- Recent financial statements and management accounts
- Access to the accounting system
- Any existing budget or forecast
- An honest account of what is working and what is not
- The decisions coming up in the next six to twelve months
- Details of banking, facilities and any covenants
- Details of the current finance team and who does what
How this is priced
A monthly retainer based on the level of involvement — typically a day or two a month for a business of this size, more during a specific project.
The comparison worth making is not against doing nothing; it is against a full-time finance director’s total cost, and against the cost of the decisions that get made without support. Where the business grows past the point where part-time works, we will say so and help you recruit, which is a normal and correct end to this engagement.
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an outsourced CFO actually do?
Interprets the numbers, builds the forward view, models significant decisions, manages the finance function and handles external relationships with banks, auditors and investors. It is the layer between a bookkeeper who records what happened and an owner who decides what to do.
How is this different from our accountant?
An accountant produces statements and handles compliance — backward-looking and obligation-driven. A CFO is forward-looking and decision-driven: whether the hire is affordable, what happens to cash if the largest customer slows down, whether the new location is working.
When does a business need one?
Usually around AED 5 million of revenue, a second location, or the point where significant decisions are being made on instinct. Also when preparing for investment, a sale or a bank facility, where somebody needs to speak the counterparty’s language.
How much time do you spend with us?
Typically a day or two a month for a business of this size, with availability between sessions. More during a specific project — a fundraise or a system implementation — then back to the normal rhythm.
We are profitable but always short of cash. Why?
Because profit and cash are different questions. Profit recognises revenue when earned; cash arrives when customers pay. A growing business funds that gap itself — stock bought before sale, staff paid before invoicing. The fix is usually receivables discipline, payment terms, stock levels and a facility arranged before it is needed. A thirteen-week cash forecast is where it starts.
Will you tell us things we do not want to hear?
That is a large part of the value. Somebody with no operational stake who will say the new location is not working, the forecast is optimistic, or the biggest customer is a concentration risk rather than an achievement.
What happens when we outgrow this?
We tell you, and help you recruit. A business that has grown past what part-time support can cover should hire, and pretending otherwise would serve us rather than you.
Tell us what decisions are coming in the next six months. That conversation usually establishes quickly whether this is the right level of support.
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Last reviewed 27 July 2026. Rates, thresholds and deadlines change — the e-invoicing provider deadline has already moved once. Confirm current requirements with the Federal Tax Authority before acting, or ask us to check your position.