The choice between internal finance management or external CFO support depends on your resources, financial complexity, and level of expertise required.
Advantages of external CFO services:
- Reduced personnel costs (no full-time salary, benefits, taxes)
- Objective financial perspective from someone outside the business
- Experience and benchmarking from working with multiple companies
- Strategic financial insight rather than just transaction management
- Time freed up for founders to focus on business growth
- Responsibility for financial strategy and accuracy (separate from fiduciaire compliance role)
- Potential access to the CFO's network
Typical cases for external CFO services:
- Company scaling from CHF 1-2M to CHF 5M+ (complexity inflection point)
- Preparing for investor funding or acquisition
- Expanding to new markets or adding product lines
- Transitioning from founder-managed to team-led operations
- High growth requiring cash flow discipline (startups, deeptech, B2B services)
- Founder lacks financial background or confidence
Risks of inadequate internal finance management:
- Incorrect cash flow forecasting leading to surprise shortages
- Missed profitability insights by product/service line
- Poor pricing decisions due to hidden costs
- Weak financial controls and decision-making
- Investor conversations delayed or damaged by weak financial understanding
- Decisions made without understanding unit economics