Bookkeeper, Controller, or CFO: What You Actually Need
Bruno the Bear
The short answer: A bookkeeper records what happened. A controller checks that the record is right and closes the month. A CFO decides what to do about it. Most companies buy up the ladder too early. If your books are late or wrong, you need a better bookkeeper, not a CFO.
Why every comparison table you've read points upward
Search this question and you'll find a dozen near-identical four-column tables. Bookkeeper, accountant, controller, CFO, with tidy revenue thresholds beside each.
They're all published by firms that sell the expensive end of that table.
We sell it too. So here's the version with the disqualifiers left in.
The three jobs, plainly
The bookkeeper records. Transactions get coded to the right account. The bank gets reconciled — meaning the ledger is checked line by line against the bank statement until they agree. Bills go in, invoices go out.
The controller checks and closes. They make sure the recording is right, run the month-end close, and produce statements you could hand an investor. They own accuracy.
The CFO decides. Pricing, hiring, raising, when to spend and when to stop. They own what happens next.
When you should hire down
This is the part nobody publishes.
- Your books are two months behind. You don't have a strategy problem. You have a data-entry problem. A CFO will spend their first quarter doing bookkeeping at four times the rate.
- You have a controller and no bookkeeper. It happens more than you'd think, usually after someone leaves. You're paying senior rates for coding transactions.
- Your questions are all "what happened." If you're not yet asking "what should we do," you're not ready for the person who answers that.
- You have fewer than about fifty transactions a month. Software plus a few hours of monthly review will hold you for a while. Spend the money on something that grows revenue.
The signals that you genuinely need more
Your close takes more than ten business days. An investor or lender has asked for something you couldn't produce. You've found errors yourself, more than once. You're making pricing or hiring decisions on a gut feel because the numbers arrive too late to use.
Any two of those together and it's time.
Related reading
If you're here because someone just left, start with Lost Your Bookkeeper? The First 72 Hours. For what a properly maintained set of books looks like, see What Clean Books Actually Look Like.
Not sure which of the three you need?
That's a short conversation, and we'll tell you if the answer is "less than you thought." Reach us at info@ursaconsultants.com.