The cost of a fractional CFO in Chicago varies significantly based on the complexity of your business and the specific strategic outcomes you need. While a full-time executive in Chicagoland can have a total compensation package over $300,000, fractional services offer a more scalable investment.

At Loftis Consulting, we moved away from one-size-fits-all pricing. Instead, we structure our engagements based on the value and services required for your specific stage of growth. Factors that influence this investment include:

• Scope of Engagement: Are you looking for high-level monthly oversight or a deep-dive war room for a strategy change?
• Business Complexity: Factors like multi-entity structures, international operations, or specialized industry knowledge such as in healthcare, SaaS, non-profits, and manufacturing compliance and accounting will impact the depth of analysis required.
• Support Levels: Do you need a standalone strategic partner or a fully managed accounting department (from bookkeeping to CFO)?

The choice between a bookkeeper and a fractional CFO is essentially a choice between reporting the past and cultivating the future.

• Hire a Bookkeeper when: Your primary need is transactional accuracy. You need someone to record invoices, reconcile bank statements, and ensure your data is clean for tax season.
• Hire a Fractional CFO when: You have clean data but no clarity. If you find yourself asking, "We're profitable, so why is our cash low?" or "Can we afford to hire 10 people in our Loop office next quarter?"—you need a CFO.

A bookkeeper keeps the score; a Loftis Consulting Fractional CFO designs the plays that win the game.

No. One of the primary advantages of partnering with Loftis Consulting is our integrated  model. While many fractional CFOs operate as solo consultants who require you to have your own internal team, we can provide a turnkey accounting solution. We can deploy a cohesive team that includes:

• Bookkeepers to handle daily transactions.
• Controllers to manage month-end close and internal controls.
• CFOs to lead high-level strategy and board-level reporting.

This eliminates information silos and ensures that the person driving your strategy is working with data they know is accurate because our team produced it.

Absolutely. We are highly collaborative. If you already have a trusted bookkeeper or controller, our Fractional CFOs act as their strategic mentor and supervisor. We level up your existing team by implementing sophisticated forecasting tools (like 13-week cash flows) and establishing the high-level KPIs that transform their data entry into decision support.

Not at all. We are modular. Many of our clients already have a bookkeeper they love but realize they’ve outgrown their financial strategy. In those cases, I step in as a Fractional CFO to provide the oversight and modeling your bank or Board requires. Conversely, if you just need audit-ready bookkeeping to fix a messy ledger, we can provide that as a standalone service.