What a fractional controller does for a small business, and when you need one.

The short answer: a fractional controller is a senior finance person who runs your finance function part-time. A bookkeeper records what happened. A controller checks it, then looks forward with a forecast, a budget and a monthly read on how you are tracking. Many small businesses do not need one yet, and the signals for "not yet" are as useful as the signals for "now."

The titles get used loosely, and for an owner in PEI or anywhere in Atlantic Canada the difference matters mostly in what you pay and what you get. Here they are in plain words.

Bookkeeper, controller or CFO: what is the difference?

Think of three questions about your money.

The bookkeeper looks back. The controller looks back carefully, then forward a year. The CFO looks further out and makes the big structural calls. Titles overlap in real life, and a small business rarely needs all three as separate people.

What does a fractional controller do for a small business?

"Fractional" just means part-time, shared across a few businesses, so you get the skill without a full-time salary. At HarperCo the Controller is $2,450 a month, flat. It includes:

• everything in Monthly Books Plus, including payroll, bills and invoicing;
• a rolling 12-month cash-flow forecast, updated every month;
• an annual budget, with a monthly budget-vs-actual read;
• a KPI dashboard, meaning the handful of numbers that run your business, watched monthly;
• lender liaison, a hand through financing prep and bank reviews;
• a monthly strategy session on the decisions in front of you;
• one Lender Prep Package every 12 months.

The forecast is the part owners feel first. It turns "I think we'll be fine in February" into a number you can see in September. The budget-vs-actual is the part that changes behaviour, because it shows which line drifted and when.

Why does a lender care whether I have one?

When I read small-business files on the lending side, at Island credit unions and chartered banks, the files that moved easily tended to share one trait. Someone had already asked the hard questions before the lender did. A forecast that ties to the actual books, a budget with a track record, and an owner who can explain last quarter's variance: that is a file a stranger can follow. It is not a guarantee of anything. It just leaves fewer gaps for someone else to fill in.

That is also why the Controller includes a Lender Prep Package every 12 months. On its own, the Lender Prep Package runs from $1,250, one time.

When do you NOT need a controller yet?

Honest signals that it is too early:

• Your books are behind. A forecast built on stale books is a guess with decimals. Get current first. If you are months behind, that is a Books Rescue, at $295 for each month of backlog with an $885 minimum.
• You are not borrowing, hiring or buying anything big this year. Clean monthly books and a quarterly look may be all you need. Books Compliance is $395 a month. Monthly Books is $625 a month.
• Your cash is steady and predictable. If money comes in and goes out on roughly the same rhythm every month, a rolling forecast adds less.
• You need one decision thought through, not a monthly function. A single financing package or a big call is a project. See Financing & Strategy.
• You would not read the forecast. Worth saying out loud. A controller is only worth $2,450 a month to an owner who will sit down with the numbers every month.

When is it time?

Signals it may be the right step:

• You carry loans with covenants, meaning promises about your numbers the loan agreement makes you keep, and you want to see a drift before your lender does.
• Your lender is asking for budgets, forecasts or interim statements, and you are building them in a rush each time.
• Cash swings hard by season, which is common on the Island, and you keep getting surprised by the low months.
• You are making hiring, pricing or equipment calls often enough that a monthly session would change them.
• Your bookkeeping is solid and current, and you are ready to use it to look forward.

For many owners the step before the Controller is Monthly Books Bank-Ready at $850 a month, our standard scope, which adds the Bank-Ready Report every month. Monthly Books Plus at $1,200 a month adds payroll, bill pay and invoicing. The Controller sits on top of that.

How do I find out which one I need?

You do not have to diagnose it yourself. The free Books Checkup is 30 minutes with one page of written findings. It reads your books the way a lender would and names the smallest scope that keeps them right. Sometimes that is the Controller. If it is not, we will say so.

Key facts

• Controller: $2,450 a month, flat, including everything in Monthly Books Plus, a rolling 12-month cash-flow forecast, a budget with monthly budget-vs-actual, a KPI dashboard, lender liaison, a monthly strategy session and one Lender Prep Package every 12 months (HarperCo's own price, bookkeeping page).
• Monthly Books Plus: $1,200 a month (HarperCo's own price).
• Monthly Books Bank-Ready: $850 a month, the standard scope (HarperCo's own price).
• Lender Prep Package on its own: from $1,250, one time (HarperCo's own price, Financing & Strategy).
• Books Rescue: $295 for each month of backlog, $885 minimum, one time (HarperCo's own price).
• The free Books Checkup: 30 minutes, one page of written findings (HarperCo, free).
• What lenders notice is Dominic's experience from nine-plus years reading small-business files, not a published lending policy.

Notes like this are general information, not advice on your specific situation — that’s what the kitchen table is for. — Dominic