Companies unfamiliar with the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), a common occurrence among early stage startups and small businesses, often confuse this role with that of an Accountant or even a Bookkeeper. The CFO is a strategic, forward-looking senior executive, the Accountant is a tactical operator.

In previous articles, we have argued that early stage startups and small businesses will be better served by a Fractional rather than a full-time CFO. In any event, the participation of the Fractional or Full-time CFO, in the development of the overall business strategy is imperative. We present several reasons below: