Professional & Technical Services
Fractional CFO services for law firms, consultancies, A&E firms, and professional service businesses. Time-and-materials billing, utilization, project accounting.
Professional Services Firms Have Unique Accounting and Finance Challenges. Most CFOs Don't Know What They Are.
Revenue recognition, utilization rates, WIP billing, partner draws, and client concentration risk — the accounting and finance dynamics of a professional services firm look nothing like a product business. A generalist CFO will learn that on your dime. Our team already knows it.
We work with law firms, consulting firms, engineering and architecture practices, marketing agencies, and other professional services businesses. The common thread: revenue tied to people, time, and relationships — and the accounting and finance function that has to keep up with all three.
Whether you bill hourly, on retainer, by project, or some combination, we build the financial infrastructure around how your business actually generates revenue — and the reporting that tells you where you're making money and where you aren't.
Where We Focus
The Accounting and Finance Issues That Define Professional Services.
Revenue Recognition & WIP
When does revenue get recognized — at billing, at delivery, or over the life of an engagement? The answer depends on your contract structure, and getting it wrong distorts your P&L in ways that make it impossible to manage the business accurately. We build the revenue recognition policy and accounting infrastructure that reflects how your engagements actually work.
Utilization & Realization Rates
Billable utilization is the core productivity metric in a professional services firm — and most firms track it loosely if at all. We build the reporting that connects time to revenue to margin, so leadership knows which practice areas, which clients, and which people are generating the returns the business needs to be healthy.
Partner & Principal Economics
Partner draws, distributions, and compensation structures create accounting complexity that most general ledger setups aren't built to handle cleanly. We build the financial structure that reflects your ownership economics accurately — so the business financials and the ownership economics tell a coherent, consistent story.
Client Concentration Risk
When two or three clients represent the majority of revenue, the financial risk profile of the business changes significantly. We model and monitor concentration risk, help leadership understand the exposure, and build the financial reserves and diversification strategies that protect the business if a major relationship changes.
Cash Flow & A/R Management
Professional services businesses often have strong revenue but poor cash flow — because clients are slow to pay, billing cycles are irregular, or collections aren't actively managed. We build the receivables infrastructure and cash flow forecasting that closes the gap between revenue earned and cash in the bank.
Capacity Planning & Growth
Adding headcount in a professional services firm is a bet on future revenue. Getting the timing wrong — too early or too late — is expensive either way. We build the financial models that connect staffing decisions to revenue projections, utilization targets, and margin outcomes so leadership can make those bets with real data.
Start Here
Know Where Your Accounting and Finance Function Actually Stands.
The Financial Discovery Assessment™ is a structured diagnostic built for businesses like yours. It finds what your accounting and finance function is costing you, puts a dollar value on it, and tells you what to do about it.
Common Questions
Before You Reach Out
We're a small firm with a bookkeeper and a CPA. Is that enough?
It depends on what you need the accounting and finance function to do. A bookkeeper and CPA handle compliance — the books, the tax return, the basic records. What they don't provide is forward-looking financial leadership: cash flow forecasting, utilization tracking, partner economics, growth planning. If leadership is making major decisions without that layer, the answer is probably no.
Our revenue is project-based and lumpy. Can you work with that?
That's exactly the environment we're built for. Lumpy revenue requires more sophisticated cash flow forecasting, not less. We build the rolling forecasts and scenario models that help leadership navigate the gaps between project completions and new work starts — so the business isn't surprised by cash shortfalls that were actually predictable.
How does the engagement work for a firm our size?
We start with the Financial Discovery Assessment to understand exactly what your accounting and finance function needs. From there we deploy the right combination — typically a fractional CFO for strategy and oversight, supported by Controller and accounting resources as the work requires. The level of engagement scales to what the business actually needs, not a standard package.
Work With Us
Let's Talk About Your Firm.
Tell us about your business — the size, the structure, and what's driving you to look at your accounting and finance function now. We'll tell you honestly what we think.
Schedule a Discovery Call
How can we help? No pitch, no pressure — just a real conversation.