Backed by Y CombinatorThree documents and three sheets that scope the engagement as a deliverable calendar, plus the KPI baseline that proves its value at renewal.
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What you get
Pack of 6 files: 3 documents, 3 spreadsheets
Fractional CFO Engagement Letter TemplateScope and Deliverables
[Firm Name]. Monthly retainer $__,___.00.
| Deliverable | Cadence | Budgeted hrs/mo |
|---|---|---|
| [Deliverable] | Weekly | __ |
| [Deliverable] | Monthly | __ |
| [Deliverable] | Quarterly | __ |
| Calendar subtotal | __ | |
| Ad hoc allowance | Monthly | __ |
| Total included | __ |
Hours past the allowance bill at $___.00 an hour, priced above the calendar’s own effective rate rather than below it.
Every fractional CFO template in circulation gets three things right: name the deliverables, exclude bookkeeping and payroll, and require a written change order before scope expands. Advisories on the retainer itself agree on a fourth: specify an hours range rather than a hard cap, with overage billed at a stated rate rather than argued over each month. All four rules are sound, and all four describe the letter rather than the year it governs, a gap only a repricing review can close, after the fact.
Cotterhill Outdoor Co., an $8.2 million wholesale and DTC outdoor gear brand, pays Marrowdene CFO Partners $8,500.00 a month against 24.0 included hours. Twenty of those are calendar hours across five named deliverables. The rest is a 4.0-hour ad hoc allowance, priced separately at $400.00 past the allowance rather than folded into one blended number. $8,500.00 against 24.0 hours is a $354.17 effective rate, defensible in the same terms an hourly quote would use. Scoping a books cleanup first counts a file the same explicit way, before either engagement is priced.
Year one ran 386.0 hours against 288.0 included, a 34.0 percent overage, and 79.6 percent of the 98.0 extra hours sat in the ad hoc line alone. The calendar itself ran 260.0 against 240.0 budgeted, only 8.3 percent hot. Set at kickoff, the Client KPI Baseline tracked days sales outstanding from 54 to 41 and gross margin from 33.8 to 36.1 percent. That alone pulled $292,054.79 forward in cash and $188,600.00 in margin against $8.2 million of revenue, a combined 4.71 times the year's retainer before a single ad hoc hour is counted.
Deliverable CalendarCotterhill Outdoor Co. Quarterly and annual lines shown as monthly-equivalent hours.
| Deliverable | Cadence | Budgeted hrs/mo | Annual equiv. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13-week cash flow forecast | Weekly | 6.0 | 72.0 |
| Board package | Monthly | 8.0 | 96.0 |
| Reforecast | Quarterly | 3.0 | 36.0 |
| Annual budget build | Annual | 2.0 | 24.0 |
| Board meeting attendance | Monthly | 1.0 | 12.0 |
| Calendar subtotal | 20.0 | 240.0 | |
| Ad hoc allowance | Monthly | 4.0 | 48.0 |
| Total included | 24.0 | 288.0 |
$8,500.00 against 24.0 included hours is a $354.17 effective rate. Hours past the ad hoc allowance bill at $400.00, above that rate rather than below it.
Time and RealizationYear 1 actuals against the calendar above. Calendar and ad hoc kept on separate lines throughout.
| Deliverable | Budget (yr) | Actual (yr) | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13-week cash flow forecast | 72.0 | 76.0 | +5.6% |
| Board package | 96.0 | 105.0 | +9.4% |
| Reforecast | 36.0 | 40.0 | +11.1% |
| Annual budget build | 24.0 | 27.0 | +12.5% |
| Board meeting attendance | 12.0 | 12.0 | +0.0% |
| Calendar subtotal | 240.0 | 260.0 | +8.3% |
| Ad hoc allowance | 48.0 | 126.0 | +162.5% |
| Total | 288.0 | 386.0 | +34.0% |
Ad hoc alone carries 79.6 percent of the year’s 98.0-hour overage. The calendar itself ran only 8.3 percent hot.
Client KPI BaselineSet at kickoff, before the first invoice. Revisited at month 12 for the renewal case.
| KPI | Month 0 | Month 12 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash runway (weeks) | 5.5 | 13.0 | +7.5 |
| DSO (days) | 54 | 41 | −13 |
| DIO (days) | 88 | 76 | −12 |
| Gross margin | 33.8% | 36.1% | +2.3 pts |
The DSO improvement alone pulls $292,054.79 forward in cash; combined with the margin gain, 4.71 times the year’s retainer.
Every included deliverable named with its cadence and budgeted hours, plus what it excludes, like transaction categorization.
Calendar hours and the ad hoc allowance totaled separately, so one blended number never hides which line is actually drifting.
The weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual rhythm the calendar assumes, including what each deliverable depends on to stay on schedule.
Actual hours logged against the calendar every month, calendar and ad hoc kept apart since the two overrun differently.
Cash, receivables, inventory and margin baselined before the first invoice, so renewal is a number rather than a feeling.
The renewal ask written from the realization sheet, priced from hours actually run rather than how the year felt.
Take the blank Word and CSV files now, no account required, or open this pack in River and have the agent build the calendar from what you send.
In River the agent reads whatever this client already gets, from a board package to nothing formal yet, and proposes calendar lines with a cadence and budgeted hours.
Every month, split actual hours between calendar deliverables and ad hoc requests, and flag any ad hoc category reappearing for a third time.
Record a KPI baseline before the first invoice, then recompute it at renewal so the value case and the pricing conversation both trace to a document.
Yes. Download the whole pack as Word documents and CSV sheets with no signup and no credit card. Edit with AI is a separate, optional path for firms that want the agent to build the calendar from a client's own reporting. The template library holds the rest of the packs.
Word documents (.docx) for the three narrative documents and CSV (.csv) for the three sheets, zipped into one file. They open natively in Word, Pages, Google Docs, Excel, Numbers and Sheets, with nothing to convert.
A scope of work names deliverables at signature and stops there. This tracks actual hours against that calendar every month, calendar and ad hoc kept apart, so drift shows up as a number rather than a feeling months before the renewal letter is due.
Usually a contractor. The IRS test turns on behavioral control, meaning whether the company directs how the work gets done rather than only what gets delivered. A calendar naming deliverables and hours supports contractor treatment better than a retainer that only commits hours with no output attached.
Then a designated person at the client, not the CFO, has to decide which recommendations actually get implemented. AICPA guidance lists deciding which recommendations to implement or prioritize as a management responsibility, and a member may not assume one, even on an engagement this well scoped.
It creates a free River account and installs this exact pack as a private workspace. It opens ready to read whatever reporting this client already gets and whatever the client has said they want, which is where the first calendar draft comes from. Nothing is written until you send something.
Accounting and advisory firms running a fractional or part-time CFO retainer, especially one that also sends a monthly reporting package to the same client or maintains a rolling forecast alongside it. The calendar here scopes the CFO seat itself, not the quarterly advisory review that seat runs on top of the monthly package.
Written by
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent build the calendar from what this client already gets.
Edit with AI