Fractional Advisor Agreement Template
Three documents and three sheets that log what an advisor or fractional executive actually delivers, so a cliff or renewal runs on evidence, not memory.
Free download · No account needed
Value Log · Thaxby Robotics, Inc. · Q1 2026, closed 2026-03-31
Two roles, two compensation models, read from the same dated log
| Person & Role | Commitment | Committed | Actual | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ines Callaghan, Strategic Advisor (equity) | Monthly calls | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| Ines Callaghan, Strategic Advisor (equity) | Warm introductions | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| Marcus Feldman, Fractional CFO (fee) | Deliverables on time | 6 | 4 | 67% |
| Marcus Feldman, Fractional CFO (fee) | Data room checklist | 24 | 18 | 75% |
Ines's combined Q1 rate is 80%, 4 of 5; Marcus shipped all six deliverables and two of them late. Neither figure is written anywhere in the FAST Agreement or the fee contract. Both are what the cliff and the renewal conversation actually get decided on.
Search fractional advisor agreement template and every result solves the same problem: what tier, what percentage, what vesting, what cliff. The Founder Institute's FAST Agreement, an advisor-agreement generator, a law firm's sample grant, all of them stop at the paperwork. None says what happens between the signature and the day that cliff or that fee renewal actually arrives, because none of them logs anything in between. A relationship graded on impression rather than a record produces the same argument every time: one side remembers effort, the other remembers gaps.
This pack borrows the cliff from the FAST Agreement: a Seed-stage company granting an Expert-tier advisor 0.75% of fully diluted shares, vesting monthly with nothing before month three. The Founder Institute says the cliff lets an unproductive relationship end without owing equity, and never defines unproductive. A fee-based role has the same blank on a shorter clock, and the IRS's common law test is why its hours are a range, not a company-set schedule. The Value Log fills what both leave open: one dated row per commitment, the day it is kept or missed.
At Thaxby Robotics, advisor Ines Callaghan held all three committed Q1 calls but delivered only one of two promised introductions, 80% of her combined commitments, logged the day each one resolved. Fractional CFO Marcus Feldman billed 54 hours against a 45-to-60-hour quarterly range, shipped his February board package four days late and his cash forecast six days late, and closed the quarter 18 of 24 items through the data room checklist. Neither number decided anything alone. Both became the evidence the review needed, the same discipline behind a coaching practice's own renewal tracker.
What's in the pack
Advisory Agreement
The frame around the role: services, term, independent contractor status, confidentiality and IP, with the actual scope and pay incorporated by reference rather than restated. For an hours-capped consulting retainer instead of an equity or fee-based advisory role, see the retainer agreement pack.
Scope and Cadence
Every commitment written as a count and a date, calls, introductions or hours, because a commitment that cannot later be marked met or missed on a specific day gives the Value Log nothing to record.
Equity or Fee Note
The FAST-tier grant or the fee retainer with its own real math: shares vesting monthly, the cliff amount in shares and percentage, or the effective hourly rate at each end of the range. Set the fee itself the way consulting pricing broadly is set, from real effort.
Deliverable Calendar
Every call, introduction and deliverable due on a named date, checked off or marked late the day it resolves rather than reconstructed at quarter end. The same estimate-versus-actual habit, run after an engagement instead of during one, is the engagement retrospective pack.
Time Allocation
Hours logged by month for a fee-based role, checked against the committed range with the effective hourly rate computed at both ends of it. Reconstructing hours nobody billed for at all is the harder version of the same problem, covered in engagement profitability analysis.
Value Log
The dated record itself: one row per commitment, logged the day it is kept, missed, or delivered late, with the gap in days kept visible instead of folded into one checkbox. Benefit tracking after an engagement runs the same baseline-first discipline for a different decision.
How it works
- 1
Open in River, or take it blank
Open the pack in River and send the scope you agreed with the company, or download the Word documents and CSV sheets and fill them in yourself.
- 2
State commitments as counts and dates
Write every call, introduction or deliverable as a number due on a date. A commitment nobody can mark met or missed gives the log nothing to record.
- 3
Log each period as it happens
Enter the date the moment a call is held, an introduction lands, or a deadline passes with nothing delivered, never reconstructed from memory before a review.
- 4
Read the log before the decision
Total the rate by commitment type, calls against calls, deliverables against deliverables, and read it together before deciding to continue, renegotiate, or end things. The same estimate-versus-actual discipline runs the engagement retrospective pack once the whole thing ends.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes. The zip is Word documents and CSV sheets, no account and no card. Edit with AI is the optional half: the agent turns your agreed scope into a Deliverable Calendar and starts the Value Log from whatever calls, hours or deliverables have already happened. The rest sit in the template library.
What format are the downloaded files?
Three Word documents and three CSV sheets in one zip. The sheets carry the columns that matter: committed count, actual count, the date logged, and the gap in days for anything delivered late. Open them in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, and the documents are .docx.
Should the role be paid in equity or in a fee?
Equity fits occasional, high-leverage input that is hard to bill hourly, an introduction, a piece of judgment. A fee fits recurring, operational work with a real time cost every period. The FAST Agreement ties equity to company stage and engagement level; a fee is set against an hours range instead.
Why does an advisor's equity still vest at the cliff after a weak quarter?
Because the cliff is a date, not a grade. FAST vests on schedule once the relationship reaches three months, whatever the commitment rate has been. The decision the Value Log actually informs is whether to continue past that date at all, not what percentage to adjust once it passes.
How do I avoid being reclassified as an employee if I'm paid a fee?
The IRS's common law test weighs whether the company controls how you work, among other factors. Writing your hours as a monthly range you manage yourself, rather than a schedule the company sets, is why the Scope and Cadence document is built that way.
What if the company and I read the same log differently?
The log states what happened and when, not what it means. A missed introduction with no prospect behind it and one that was simply never pursued are different findings even at the same 50%. Read the entries together before the review, and let the conversation, not the sheet, decide.
Log the period before the cliff needs it
Take the Word documents and CSV sheets blank, or send River the scope you agreed and get a Value Log that already has real dated entries.
Edit with AI