Disclosure: Walden is our firm, and it is one of the 13 entries. The firms are grouped by who they are built for and listed alphabetically inside each group. They are not ranked. Every fact about another firm comes from its own website, checked on November 5, 2026, with a link. Where a firm doesn't publish something, we say so instead of guessing.
The best virtual CFO service depends on two things: what kind of company you run, and whether your books are right yet. Venture-backed startups are well served by plans built around fundraising and board reporting, like Pilot, Zeni, airCFO, Graphite Financial, and Kruze Consulting. Owner-led businesses doing $1 million to $20 million need cash, margin, and pricing work, and usually need the bookkeeping fixed underneath it. That is where Anders CPA + Advisors, Bennett Financials, Bookkeeper360, Ignite Spot, Michigan CFO Associates, Preferred CFO, and Walden compete. Past $10 million, vcfo is built for you.
Nine of the 13 publish a price for CFO work. Starting prices run from $1,599 a month to $7,000 a month. Where a firm says what a typical client pays, the figure lands between $5,000 and about $7,150 a month. A full-time CFO costs about $325,000 a year once salary, taxes, and benefits are added.
Quick comparison
| # | Firm | Built for | Published CFO price | Books included? | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner-led businesses, about $1M to $20M | |||||
| 1 | Anders CPA + Advisors | $1M to $75M, typically $5M to $15M | $1,650 a week on average (about $7,150 a month) | Add-on | Ongoing, 30 days notice, plus an onboarding fee |
| 2 | Bennett Financials | Service businesses, $2M to $20M | $5,000 a month | Yes, plus tax returns | Not published |
| 3 | Bookkeeper360 | Startups to established businesses | From $1,600 a month | Separate, from $400 a month | Month to month or annual, auto-renews |
| 4 | Ignite Spot | Service businesses, $1M to $10M | Not published | Yes, it's the core service | Month to month, 30 days notice |
| 5 | Michigan CFO Associates | $1M to $20M, many in manufacturing | $2,100 to $11,500 a month | Not listed | Not binding, stop any time |
| 6 | Preferred CFO | Businesses of all sizes | Not published | Offered alongside | Most engagements run 12 to 24 months |
| 7 | Walden | Owner-led, $1M to $20M | $7,000 to $10,000 a month | Yes | Month to month, 30 days notice |
| Venture-backed startups | |||||
| 8 | airCFO | Pre-seed to Series B and beyond | From $1,600 a month for 8 hours | Separate, from $1,600 a month | Not published |
| 9 | Graphite Financial | Early stage to pre-IPO | From $2,000 a month | Separate, from $1,500 a month | 6-month term, auto-renews |
| 10 | Kruze Consulting | Raised at least $500K in venture capital | Not published | Yes, it's the core service | Not published, plus an onboarding fee |
| 11 | Pilot | Startups and growing businesses | From $1,750 a month, billed annually | Sold separately | Billed annually or quarterly |
| 12 | Zeni | Venture-backed startups | From $1,599 a month, plus a $2,000 setup fee | Separate, from $549 a month | Not published |
| Companies past $10M | |||||
| 13 | vcfo | $10M to $100M | Not published, quoted by statement of work | Controller services; bookkeeping not stated | 30 days notice, either side |
What a virtual CFO service is
A virtual CFO is a senior finance lead who works for your business part time and remotely, for a monthly fee instead of a salary. "Virtual," "fractional," and "outsourced" are three labels for the same job. The work is a cash forecast, margin by customer and product, pricing, budgets, and getting the numbers ready for a lender, an investor, or a buyer. We cover what's included, what "virtual" means day to day, and when you need one on our virtual CFO services page.
How we compared them
The comparison list that ranks for this search today was written by one of the firms on it, which put itself first. We are one of the firms here too, so we kept the method mechanical. Each firm was checked against five questions, using only its own website:
- Who is it built for? Startup plans price by money raised and monthly spending. Owner-led plans price by revenue and complexity. Buying from the wrong side means paying for work you don't need.
- Is a price published, and what does it buy? A number, the hours or meetings behind it, and any setup fee.
- Who keeps the books? Included, sold separately, or left to you.
- What does the contract say? Minimum term, auto-renewal, notice period, refunds.
- How is it delivered? Remote, on site, a named lead, or a team.
What virtual CFO services cost in 2026
Starting prices don't compare cleanly. Pilot sells meetings, airCFO sells hours, Michigan CFO sells days, Anders bills by the week, Walden prices by how much of the finance work it takes on, and some firms put the bookkeeping on the same bill while others don't. So we put every firm with a published price on the same footing: the lowest first-year cost for CFO work plus bookkeeping, at the prices each firm publishes.
| Firm | First-year cost at published prices | The math | What's not in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper360 | $24,000 | ($1,600 CFO + $400 bookkeeping) × 12 | Setup fee, amount not published |
| Zeni | $27,776 | ($1,599 CFO + $549 bookkeeping) × 12 + $2,000 setup | Higher tiers carry a $6,000 setup fee |
| airCFO | $38,400 | ($1,600 finance + $1,600 accounting) × 12 | Only 8 CFO hours a month at that price |
| Graphite Financial | $42,000 | ($2,000 finance + $1,500 accounting) × 12 | Onboarding fee, amount not published |
| Bennett Financials | $60,000 | $5,000 × 12 | Nothing listed. Tax returns are included |
| Walden | $84,000 to $120,000 | $7,000 to $10,000 × 12 | Cleanup of past months, quoted once. Tax returns stay with your CPA |
| Anders CPA + Advisors | About $85,800 | $1,650 × 52 weeks, the CFO tier average | Bookkeeping add-ons and the onboarding fee |
| Pilot | $21,000, CFO only | $1,750 × 12, billed annually | Bookkeeping, sold separately |
| Michigan CFO Associates | $25,200 to $138,000, CFO only | $2,100 × 12 to $11,500 × 12 | Bookkeeping, which it doesn't list as a service |
Four things stand out.
The cheap plans are startup plans, and they buy a little time. Pilot's $1,750 plan comes with one CFO call a month. airCFO's $1,600 plan is 8 hours, which works out to $200 an hour ($1,600 ÷ 8). Its higher tiers hold the same rate: $2,500 for 12 hours is about $208 an hour, and $4,200 for 21 hours is $200. That is a fair price for board decks and a burn-rate model. It is not enough time to rebuild a margin report for a contractor with 40 open jobs.
Your price is set by your size, not the starting price. Startup plans step up with spending. airCFO's entry tier stops at $100,000 a month in total expenses, and a $5 million business spends more than three times that. At about a 10% profit margin, it spends roughly $375,000 a month ($5,000,000 × 90% ÷ 12), which lands in airCFO's middle tier. Anders publishes an average of $1,650 a week, and says that example assumes a service company with $5 million in revenue and about 25 employees. Ask for the price at your size, not the "from" price.
Where firms say what a typical client pays, it clusters at $5,000 to about $7,150 a month. Michigan CFO says its weekly level, at $6,300 a month, is its most common. Anders' average works out to about $7,150 a month ($1,650 × 52 ÷ 12). Bennett charges everyone $5,000. That is the realistic range for an established owner-led business that wants a CFO every week, before the bookkeeping question is settled.
The price doesn't tell you what the work is. An ecommerce company that sells subscriptions came to us paying another virtual CFO $7,000 a month, right in that range. Most of what it got was adjusting entries. The CFO didn't work with the rest of the team, waited to be asked instead of raising problems, and charged extra for any meeting beyond the plan. Nobody was guiding strategy. Revenue was slipping, and the plan was more marketing. Once we split new subscribers from cancellations, the problem turned out to be churn, not growth, and the company moved money from marketing to keeping customers. Before you sign, ask a firm to show you what a current client received last month.
Virtual CFO firms for owner-led businesses ($1M to $20M)
1. Anders CPA + Advisors: best for owners who want a CPA firm behind the CFO
At a glance: St. Louis CPA firm · Weekly subscription · Clients from $1M to more than $75M, typically $5M to $15M · Pricing page
Anders sells virtual CFO work as a subscription from a full CPA firm. A dedicated CFO leads the engagement, backed by the firm's accountants, CPAs, and tax staff. There are three tiers: Virtual Accountant, Virtual Controller, and Virtual CFO. The CFO tier adds 36-month forecasting, KPI tracking, bank relationships, exit planning, incentive plans, and what the firm calls "unlimited advisory support."
Price: Average prices of $1,650 a week for the CFO tier, $1,250 for the controller tier, and $950 for the accountant tier. Those are about $7,150, $5,417, and $4,117 a month (each × 52 ÷ 12). The firm says the price scales with revenue and the options you add, and is updated each March 1. Bookkeeping, payroll, and tax are add-ons. An onboarding fee covers the first six to eight weeks and isn't included in the weekly price. Its amount isn't published.
Terms: Billed weekly, no long-term contract, cancel with 30 days notice.
Good fit if: you want tax and CFO work under one roof. Watch for: the onboarding fee, and add-ons for bookkeeping that push the weekly figure up.
2. Bennett Financials: best for service businesses that want one all-in price
At a glance: Knoxville, Tennessee · Founded 2018 · One package, no tiers · Service businesses doing $2M to $20M · Pricing page
Bennett sells a single package to every client: bookkeeping, tax returns, tax planning, a CFO dashboard, and exit planning, delivered by a dedicated team led by its founder. It says it is not a fit for businesses under $2 million or pre-revenue, and it lists SaaS, law, healthcare, agencies, and ecommerce among the industries it serves. A free "Leak Check" comes before any paid work, and the firm says full deployment takes 120 days.
Price: $5,000 a month. "No tiers. No add-ons."
Terms: Contract length, notice period, and setup fee aren't published.
Good fit if: you run a service business over $2 million and want tax returns on the same bill. Watch for: ask for the contract terms in writing, since the site doesn't list them, and ask what happens to the price if you outgrow the package.
3. Bookkeeper360: best for a low starting price with the books on the same bill
At a glance: Founded 2012 · Remote, US-based team · Bookkeeping, tax, payroll, HR, and CFO · Suggests adding a CFO at $1M to $5M in revenue · Pricing page
Bookkeeper360 is a bookkeeping firm with a fractional CFO plan on top. The CFO plan includes a dedicated CFO, monthly reporting and KPI dashboards, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow analysis, and fundraising support. It also sells one-off projects: a 12-month budget from $1,500 and a three-year forecast from $10,000.
Price: Fractional CFO from $1,600 a month. Bookkeeping from $400 a month. Bundle discounts exist, but the amount isn't published.
Terms: Read these closely. The pricing page offers month-to-month and annual options. Its subscription agreement auto-renews unless you give written notice within 30 days of the term's end, raises fees 5% automatically after the first 12 months, and says you get no refund of any kind, prepayments included, if you leave.
Good fit if: you're near $1 million and want a light CFO plan next to clean books. Watch for: the renewal, price-increase, and no-refund clauses before you prepay a year.
4. Ignite Spot: best for service firms that want a dedicated accountant first
At a glance: Salt Lake City · Founded 2008 · Remote, US-based W-2 accountants · Service businesses doing $1M to $10M · CFO services page
Ignite Spot is an outsourced accounting firm first. Each client gets a dedicated accountant, and fractional CFO work is added on top, led by a CPA who runs its CFO department. It focuses on service firms such as agencies, consultancies, and IT companies, works in QuickBooks Online or Xero, and says it is generally not the best fit for nonprofits.
Price: Not published. You get a custom quote.
Terms: Month to month with 30 days notice. Its FAQ says onboarding typically takes about 90 days.
Good fit if: your books need a full-time pair of hands more than a strategist. Watch for: no published price, so you can't compare before a call.
5. Michigan CFO Associates: best for buying a set amount of CFO time
At a glance: Clinton Township, Michigan · Founded 2006 · Virtual, on site, or hybrid · Clients typically $1M to $20M, with a manufacturing specialty · Virtual CFO page
Michigan CFO sells outsourced CFOs, at a flat monthly rate for a set amount of contact time. It isn't a CPA firm, and it doesn't list bookkeeping as a service. Its CFOs lead, train, and supervise your accounting staff instead.
Price: Four published levels. $2,100 a month for a one-day-a-month check-up, $3,200 for twice a month, $6,300 for weekly support (its most common level), and $11,500 for twice-weekly meetings. Hourly billing is used only "in rare occasions."
Terms: It describes its engagement letter as "not a binding contract." You can stop at any time.
Good fit if: you have an in-house bookkeeper or accountant who needs a senior lead, and you want to know exactly how much CFO time you're buying. Watch for: you still need someone to keep the books, and that cost sits outside the fee.
6. Preferred CFO: best for a full finance team, HR included
At a glance: Salem, Utah · Founded 2013 · Remote · Businesses of all sizes, across SaaS, healthcare, manufacturing, construction, and more · Virtual CFO page
Preferred CFO assigns a virtual CFO backed by the rest of its CFO team, and can add controllers, bookkeepers, and HR support. It is now "powered by Current," a national platform of independent accounting firms.
Price: Not published. The firm says costs depend on the services, the hours each month, and whether controllers or bookkeepers are involved.
Terms: "Most of our engagements are 12-24 months," with short-term projects also available. Notice period isn't published.
Good fit if: you want CFO, controller, bookkeeping, and HR help from one firm. Watch for: no published price, and engagements that typically run a year or more.
7. Walden: best for owners whose books need work before the CFO work starts
At a glance: Canton, Georgia, north of Atlanta · Remote-first, US-wide · Bookkeeping, controller, and CFO work from one firm · Owner-led businesses doing $1M to $20M · Virtual CFO services
Walden is our firm. We run the whole span: bookkeeping, AR, AP, and payroll at the bottom, a month-end close and controls in the middle, and CFO work on top. That means a 13-week cash forecast updated weekly, margin by job and customer, pricing, budgets, and lender reporting. The CFO work reads books we keep, which matters because most of what we find is in the accounting. At a railroad equipment distributor doing about $8 million a year, matching shipping invoices to orders showed customers paying 1% to 2% of the order for shipping that cost 5% to 7.5%. After fees and prices were fixed, gross margin went from 12% to 38% in about six months.
Every client gets one point of contact: the person on the first call is the person who knows the numbers and works with the team. Every file we've taken on has needed some cleanup first, usually on the balance sheet, so that is where the work starts.
Price: Published and flat, set by how much of the accounting and finance work we take on, not by hours. Accounting $1,000 to $4,000 a month, Control $3,500 to $7,500, and Advisory, the virtual CFO tier, $7,000 to $10,000. Each tier includes the one below it. Cleanup of past months is quoted once.
Terms: No annual contract, 30 days notice, and a money-back guarantee through your first monthly close, or 30 days, whichever is longer. We haven't lost a client since 2024. No software company pays us to recommend it.
Good fit if: your books are late or untrusted and you want one firm accountable for the numbers and the advice. Watch for: we're priced above the startup plans because the close and bookkeeping are included. We're remote-first, and in-person meetings happen in metro Atlanta. We don't do tax returns or audits, and we aren't built for venture-backed startups.
Virtual CFO firms for venture-backed startups
These five are built around fundraising, burn rate, and board reporting. If you own a profitable business with no investors, most of what they sell won't fit, and their price tiers step up with money raised and spending, not revenue.
8. airCFO: best for seed to Series B startups that want hours spelled out
At a glance: Remote, distributed team · Pre-seed to Series B and beyond · Accounting, finance, tax, and people operations · Pricing page
airCFO prices by stage, and it is the only firm here that publishes the hours behind each price. The stages step up with money raised, monthly revenue, and total monthly expenses.
Price: Project work at $400 an hour at the earliest stage, under $4 million raised. Then finance from $1,600 a month for 8 hours, $2,500 for 12 hours, and $4,200 for 21 hours. Accounting is separate, from $1,600 a month at the first monthly stage.
Terms: Contract length isn't published.
Watch for: the Zeni comparison list still cites airCFO's older stage limits. Check the current ones on airCFO's pricing page.
9. Graphite Financial: best for startups that want finance, tax, payroll, and HR from one vendor
At a glance: Since 2016 · Venture-backed startups, early stage to pre-IPO, plus established companies · Custom-scoped from starting prices · Pricing page
Price: Finance, which includes fractional CFO support, FP&A, and board reporting, from $2,000 a month. Accounting from $1,500, tax from $400, payroll from $500, and HR from $700. The firm calls these starting points.
Terms: Core services run on a 6-month term and auto-renew by default. Billing is monthly in advance by ACH, there's a one-time onboarding fee, and price changes are opt-out.
Watch for: the 6-month minimum and the auto-renewal.
10. Kruze Consulting: best for funded startups that want a CPA firm
At a glance: San Francisco CPA firm · Funded Delaware C-corps that have raised at least $500K, pre-seed to Series C · Pricing page
Price: CFO work is quoted case by case and not published. Bookkeeping is published: $650 to $850 a month for the basic tier and $850 to $1,500 for the next one up. A one-time onboarding fee applies to each entity.
Watch for: it only takes venture-funded companies. Its CFO page says the work pays off most once a startup passes $1 million in revenue.
11. Pilot: best for startups that want a fixed plan and software
At a glance: San Francisco and Nashville · Founded 2017 · Startups and growing businesses · Three fixed CFO plans · Pricing page
Price: $1,750 a month billed annually with a monthly CFO call, $3,150 with a call every two weeks, and $5,250 with weekly calls. Billed quarterly, the same plans are $2,000, $3,600, and $6,000. Pilot calls its bookkeeping, sold separately, "the foundation every Pilot CFO engagement starts with."
Terms: CFO plans are billed annually or quarterly. There's no monthly option.
Watch for: the cheapest plan is one call a month. Pilot's pricing page also notes that it does "not provide any full-time or part-time corporate officers."
12. Zeni: best for startups that want AI-led bookkeeping with a CFO on top
At a glance: Palo Alto, California · Founded 2019 · AI software backed by human accountants and fractional CFOs · Venture-backed startups · Pricing page
Price: CFO Lite from $1,599 a month plus a $2,000 setup fee, CFO Premium at $2,990 plus a $6,000 setup fee, and Enterprise from $4,990 plus $6,000. Bookkeeping is separate, from $549 a month ($494 billed annually).
Watch for: setup fees of $2,000 to $6,000. Zeni's own comparison post still lists its CFO plan at $1,500. Its pricing page now says $1,599.
For companies past $10 million
13. vcfo: best for $10M to $100M companies that want a team on site
At a glance: Austin, Texas · Founded 1996 · Teams in Dallas–Fort Worth, Denver, and Houston · Companies doing $10M to $100M · vcfo.com
vcfo says it has completed more than 6,000 client engagements over 30 years. Its staff are W-2 employees, each client gets a dedicated team, and the work can run on site, remote, or hybrid, commonly two to four days a week. It also offers controller, HR, and transaction advisory services.
Price: Not published. Each engagement gets a statement of work, invoiced every two weeks.
Terms: "30-day notice. Always. Either side." No multi-year minimums.
Watch for: it is built for companies above most owner-led businesses' size. Under $10 million, you may be paying for a bench you won't use.
Read the contract before the proposal
The terms differ more than the prices. Here is what each firm publishes about getting out:
- Stop any time or month to month: Michigan CFO (letter "not a binding contract"), Ignite Spot (30 days), Anders (30 days), vcfo (30 days, either side), Walden (30 days, plus a money-back guarantee through the first close).
- Minimum terms: Graphite (6 months, auto-renews), Preferred CFO (most engagements 12 to 24 months), Pilot (billed annually or quarterly).
- Clauses to read twice: Bookkeeper360's agreement auto-renews, raises fees 5% after 12 months, and refunds nothing if you leave. Graphite's price changes are opt-out.
- Setup and onboarding fees: Zeni ($2,000 to $6,000), Anders, Graphite, and Kruze (amounts not published).
- Not published: Bennett, airCFO, and Kruze contract length.
One more reason to read terms first. We took over a client from a large CFO agency, not one on this list, that billed out-of-scope work by the hour. Some months the bill was $10,000. Some months it was $19,000. A business can't budget around that, so get the busy-month number in writing too.
How to choose
1. Start with who you are. If you've raised venture money and report to a board, start with the startup group. If you own a profitable business with no investors, start with the owner-led group. If you're past $10 million with a finance team of your own, look at vcfo and the larger owner-led firms.
2. Then look at your books. If your close lands on time and the numbers don't change after you see them, a CFO-only firm like Michigan CFO can work alongside your bookkeeper. If not, pick a firm that keeps the books too, or you'll pay a CFO to wait on bad data. Our free QuickBooks grade tells you which side you're on.
3. Then decide how much CFO you need. One call a month is a check-in. Weekly is a working relationship. Below about $1 million in revenue, you probably need clean books and a reliable close more than a CFO. One owner on Reddit, at about $1.7 million in revenue with seven employees, asked exactly this. At that size, we'd start with Control: the accounting handled, plus someone who has scaled back-office operations past this stage. A lot of companies break down between $1 million and $3 million, the stretch Alex Hormozi calls the swamp, because the admin work outgrows the owner. Add CFO time once the numbers can carry it.
4. Then compare real numbers. Get the monthly price at your size in writing, with what it covers and what it doesn't, and put it next to the cost of a full-time hire. Our pricing page does that math for any list of work.
Before any call, run these six questions past every firm, us included. They're explained on our virtual CFO services page.
- Who keeps the books your forecast reads?
- What is the monthly price, in writing, and what moves it?
- Who does the work, and is it the person on this call?
- What lands in my inbox, and on what date?
- Does a software company pay you to recommend it?
- How do I leave?