How an Engagement Works

The First 100 Days

Bringing in an interim or fractional CFO should not feel like a leap of faith. Every Croftlands engagement follows a structured 100-day plan—so you know what happens, when, and what you will have at the end of it.

Engagement Methodology

Structured Around Your Immediate Priorities

While the 100-day plan provides a clear operational framework, execution is always adapted to your specific commercial requirements. We focus resources immediately on the core operational gaps, risk factors, or transaction deadlines driving your mandate.

Reporting Discipline

The numbers are late, inconsistent, or not trusted. The priority is a reliable monthly close and a board pack people can rely on.

A Fundraise or Sale

A raise or exit is on the horizon. The priority is investor-ready reporting, a clean data room, and a model that survives diligence.

A Finance Transformation

Systems and processes have not scaled with the business. The priority is the right finance stack, cleaner data, and robust controls.

Cover for a Departure

A CFO or Financial Controller has left, or is leaving. The priority is continuity, stabilisation, and a clean handover.

The Programme

Four Phases, One Hundred Days

Understand before changing. Build the reporting spine. Add the strategic layer. Prove the new rhythm works and set the forward run-rate.

Phase 01 · Days 1–15

Diagnostic & Baseline

Objective: understand what is actually true before changing anything. The first fortnight is spent listening, reconciling, and mapping—not reforming. Nothing gets rebuilt until the real starting position is established from source data rather than from dashboards or reported figures.

What this covers

  • Financial baseline — 3–6 months of management accounts, statutory accounts, and any existing model; bank reconciled to the ledger
  • Revenue baseline — rebuilt from contracts, invoices, and the sales ledger, testing for one-offs, at-risk revenue, and mis-annualised contracts
  • Cash position — current cash, burn rate, and runway, known within the first week
  • Systems & controls audit — accounting and billing platforms, shadow spreadsheets, bank mandates, and authorisation limits
  • Stakeholder mapping — investors, lenders and covenants, board cadence, key contracts, and existing advisers
  • Team assessment — the capability of any existing finance hires, and whether the structure needs to change

Output: a short written diagnostic memo to the founder or board — here is what was found, here is what is solid, and here is what needs fixing first.

Phase 02 · Days 16–45

The Reporting & Forecasting Spine

Objective: get a reliable, repeatable monthly cycle running. This is the backbone of everything that follows—a close that lands on time, a pack that can be trusted, and a cash forecast that is live rather than rebuilt from scratch each month.

What this covers

  • Monthly close process — a day-5 to day-10 timetable with a documented checklist and ownership agreed with the bookkeeper or FC
  • Management accounts pack — P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow, with variance commentary against budget and prior month
  • 13-week rolling cash flow forecast — the core cash management tool, updated weekly
  • KPI dashboard — core financial metrics plus 3–5 operational metrics specific to how the business actually makes money
  • Multi-year model — driver-based and rebuilt with the leadership team, with base, upside, and downside scenarios
  • Revenue recognition policy — documented and applied consistently under the relevant standard, so revenue is recognised the same way every month

Output: the first clean monthly board pack, delivered on the new cadence, with the cash forecast live.

Phase 03 · Days 46–75

The Strategic Layer

Objective: turn the reporting spine into decision-useful input, and get external-facing material investor-ready. With the numbers now reliable, the work moves from producing the numbers to interpreting them—and to getting the business ready for whoever is going to scrutinise it next.

What this covers

  • Board pack maturity — moving from “here are the numbers” to what they mean, the risks they flag, and what to do about them
  • Annual budget — built or refreshed, board-approved, and set as the variance baseline going forward
  • Margin & unit economics — pricing and profitability by product, service line, or segment, flagging anything structurally unprofitable
  • Transaction or fundraise readiness — data room, investor materials, and pre-empted diligence questions, where a deal is in view
  • Finance stack & team — AP/AR, billing and payroll decisions, and the target finance team shape
  • Audit readiness — early auditor liaison and evidence-gathering, rather than a scramble at year-end

Output: a board-approved budget, and transaction or fundraising materials substantially complete where relevant.

Phase 04 · Days 76–100

Consolidate & Set the Run-Rate

Objective: prove the new operating rhythm works, and hand the founder or board a clear view of steady state. The final phase is about durability—showing the change has held, documenting it so it does not depend on any one person, and being honest about what the engagement should look like next.

What this covers

  • First full quarterly board review — run entirely on the new reporting infrastructure, a natural checkpoint against day one
  • 100-day retrospective — what was fixed, what now runs on autopilot, what remains a risk, and the shape of the next 3–6 months
  • Handover documentation — the close, the model, and the dashboard written so a controller or successor can run them independently
  • Forward engagement shape — a recommendation to step down, step up, or hold, with the reasoning tied to the metrics agreed at the outset

Output: a proven operating rhythm, documented and low on key-person risk, and a clear plan for what comes next.

In Practice

The Plan Bends to Your Business

Phases 1 and 4 are fixed points—every engagement starts with an honest diagnostic and ends with a proven, documented operating rhythm. The middle is where the plan flexes. If the driver is a live fundraise, Phase 3’s data room and diligence work starts early and runs deep. If it is cover for a departure, the emphasis shifts to stabilisation and a clean handover. If it is a systems transformation, Phase 2’s finance-stack decisions carry the most weight.

The same applies by sector. A subscription business needs recurring-revenue and cohort checks built into the baseline; a project-based or contract business needs different revenue-recognition and work-in-progress discipline; a regulated business carries its own reporting and control overlay. Those sector-specific checks are layered onto the scaffold at the start, not bolted on later.

The result reads as tailored because it is—but it is built on a method that has been run before, not improvised on your time.

Interim CFO → Fractional CFO →

Let’s Talk About Your First 100 Days

Every engagement starts with a conversation about the driver—what has prompted the need, and what “good” looks like in three months.

Book a Discovery Call

Or reach out directly: graemeweeden@croftlandsconsulting.com