Today, I'm going to share 5 processes that are essential for every Fractional CFO.

Even though documenting processes is about as sexy as wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, they are the key to unlocking scalability, higher revenue, and excellent margins. 

The problem is that a firm could easily have upwards of 50 processes to document. The thought of documenting all of those is overwhelming, so most firm owners never start. Years later, they have no processes in place, and their firms struggle to grow.

That was my story, anyway.

A small handful of (the right) documented processes is all you need to unlock massive efficiency, scalability, and profitability gains. 

Before we get into the 5 essential processes, I want to highlight a few key points that may stop you dead in your tracks before you even begin.  

First, don't overcomplicate or describe your processes in too much detail. Write them so that a competent professional can follow along. For example, a Fractional CFO should not need a step-by-step process to log into QuickBooks.

Second, document your processes somewhere that's easy for you and your team to find—otherwise, people won't use them. We put them inside ClickUp, but a shared folder on Google Drive works just as well.

Finally, start with checklists. They are quick to produce and typically get you 80% of the way to where you need to be (don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough).

Key Process #1: New Client Onboarding

Onboarding is the single most important period in the entire customer lifecycle.

When you get onboarding right, it drastically increases the likelihood that a client will stick around longer and is even more likely to send you referrals.

When you get it wrong, clients wonder if it was worth handing over all that money in the first place. They start to look for reasons to leave (and they will find them!).

With all that's at stake, why leave onboarding to chance?

Start documenting everything from how you welcome new clients to what information you need from them to how you'll help them establish goals.

If you need some help, check out THIS FREE ONBOARDING GUIDE that I wrote that includes some of the biggest goof ups I've made when it comes to onboarding.

Key Process #2: Client Offboarding

Not being intentional about client offboarding is a missed opportunity to leave clients with a great last impression of your firm.

Here's a great real-world example of why it matters: 

Years ago, I decided to leave Verizon for T-Mobile. Porting cell service from one carrier to another is normally a royal pain. We've all been there—retention departments, stupid offers, etc. It can take an hour or longer.

On this occasion, when I called Verizon, they made the process super simple. Verizon immediately connected me with a super friendly lady who thanked me for being a customer and made the process remarkably easy. 15 minutes max. No hoops, no drama. 

At the end of the call, she thanked me again and asked me to keep Verizon in mind if my circumstances ever change.

It was a fantastic experience and I switched to T-Mobile without issue.

Seven years later, I'm still telling people how great the experience was and that Verizon is first on my list if I leave T-Mobile. Even though I'm no longer a customer, I'm still an advocate for Verizon.  

Wouldn't it be great if all of our former clients advocated for us for the next seven years?

Don't leave it to chance.
Create a tremendous offboarding experience, document it, and follow it.

Key Process #3: New Hire Onboarding

Hiring a new Fractional CFO isn't cheap. In many cases, you may be paying them a salary while they're learning how you do business. That means they aren't generating any revenue for your company.

All goes outs.
No goes ins.
Ouch. 

That's an expensive window of time for any firm owner - which is why you've got to be intentional about onboarding, especially Fractional CFOs!

Not sure what to include in employee onboarding? Here are a few ideas to get the juices flowing:

• Company values
• Team introductions
• System access (email, QBO, etc.)
• Join you on live monthly CFO calls
• Watch previously recorded CFO calls
• How you perform financial analysis and reviews

Time is money during onboarding. Don't leave it to chance.

Key Process #4: Employee Offboarding

The odds are that most of your team probably won't retire from your company.

That means that at some point, you'll need to offboard them.

Due to the nature of our work as Fractional CFOs, your employees and even 1099s have access to sensitive data. So when they leave your company, you need to have a streamlined off-boarding process to remove that access so that you can protect your and your client's information systems.

When developing your process, I recommend you start by reviewing your onboarding process and working from there.

Key Process #5: Financial Analysis

Financial analysis may be one of the three biggest reasons I see Fractional CFOs struggle (along with inconsistent prospecting and the fear of building a team)!

Performing financial analysis is SUCH a double-sided sword!... 

On one hand, it's kind of at the heart of what we do as Fractional CFOs. We love getting into the numbers, pulling the strings, peeling the onions back, and doing all sorts of other metaphors to uncover ALL the things.

On the other hand, it can be a MASSIVE time suck. You can easily go down a rabbit hole (more metaphors!) investigating something as seemingly harmless as a vendor payment and not come up for air for hours. Don't try to kid yourself or me; we've all been there.

The above-mentioned metaphors don't generally go over well if you're trying to handle ten clients per month without working 100 hours a week.  

I have found that documenting my process for how I perform financial analysis is a great start to mitigating the chance that I'll get sucked into the black hole. In that process, I include what I look for, how I analyze it, and what GOOD ENOUGH looks like.

My firm uses checklists and worksheets to keep us on track.

(Shameless plug - I have an entire playbook on how we do financial analysis inside The CFO Academy, which you can learn more about HERE)

Start by doing this:

Don't let the process of documenting your processes overwhelm you.

• Make a list of YOUR top 5 essential processes
• Next month, pick one and create a how-to checklist for it
• Use it a few times, line by line, to make sure it's complete
• Repeat the process, and you'll have 5 good enough processes by the end of the year.

Is it perfect?

Nope - but it's good enough and it may even be better than what you have today! 

Your Coach,
Michael