# Finance leadership decision brief

## Current situation
- Reliability of books and close:
- Control ownership and known gaps:
- Strategic decisions and deadlines:
- Operating complexity:
- Required senior leadership cadence:
- Urgency and data limitations:

## Role boundaries
- Controller: dependable accounting, close, reporting, and controls.
- Fractional CFO: scoped strategic finance support at agreed availability.
- Full-time CFO: daily embedded executive finance leadership.
- Keep bookkeeping, specialist advice, and execution ownership explicit.

## Transparent scoping rules
1. Books not reliable or controls not sound: prioritize an accounting/controller foundation. If not assessed, diagnose before assuming failure.
2. Recurring or major strategic decisions, a transaction/transition, or critical financial pressure: evaluate CFO-level support.
3. Both triggers: controller/accounting foundation plus CFO support in parallel, with separate responsibilities.
4. Strategic need plus daily embedded leadership: evaluate full-time or interim CFO capacity. Periodic/weekly leadership: evaluate fractional support.
5. Reliable foundation with routine needs: maintain or strengthen accounting coverage; a new hire may not be necessary.
6. Complex accounting alone does not automatically require a CFO. Do not use a universal revenue cutoff.

## Proposed scope
- Recommended workstreams and why:
- Evidence still needed:
- Deliverables:
- Decision authority:
- Accounting owner:
- CFO support owner:
- Meeting cadence and response expectations:
- Emergency coverage:
- Execution between leadership sessions:
- Access, confidentiality, and data handling:
- Exclusions and external specialists:
- Budget and capacity assumptions:
- Start date, review date, and change triggers:

## Limitations
This brief is an editorial scoping aid, not a validated model or a hiring recommendation. Verify assumptions with appropriate accounting, legal, tax, or financing professionals. Mixed cases, local obligations, and actual workload can change the answer.

## Background sources
- SBA: https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/manage-your-finances
- COSO: https://www.coso.org/internal-control