Fractional CFO

Job Description

• This is a remote position.
• Starting at approximately 4 to 5 hours per month, this remote fractional position provides expert financial oversight, model review, and strategic structuring advice for a growing SME. The primary focus is to review and stress-test financial models, diagnose current financial standing, and ensure full compliance across regulatory and tax obligations before key business decisions are executed.
• Working on an ad-hoc, project-commissioned basis, this role serves as a trusted oversight partner to company directors and works directly with the internal finance contact. The position offers high-level strategic involvement in reviewing loan book performance, refining pricing strategies, and evaluating funding structures without handling day-to-day bookkeeping.

Key Responsibilities

• Review and stress-test new or updated financial models, budgets, forecasts, and business cases prior to submission to prospective partners or management.
• Check and correct model logic, formulas, and underlying assumptions including growth rates, cost escalation, margins, and tax treatment.
• Conduct scenario and sensitivity testing (best, base, and worst case) for material decisions such as contract terms, capital purchases, or pricing changes.
• Provide clear written or verbal opinions detailing risk areas, recommended fixes, and elements to challenge before models are finalised.
• Perform monthly diagnostics on balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow to monitor liquidity, solvency, working capital, and profitability trends.
• Track key metrics and ratios—including current ratio, gross margin, debtor days, debt-to-equity, and interest cover—against prior periods to identify early red flags.
• Identify cost lines to renegotiate or cut, evaluate pricing strategies to improve margins, and optimize working capital collection cycles.
• Advise on capital allocation, debt-versus-equity funding, facility consolidation, and contract payment terms to optimise tax efficiency and lower interest costs.
• Review, edit, and finalise bi-annual funder reports covering claims book performance, arrears, book quality, and required credit calculations (including NROC).
• Reconcile reported metrics against internal tracking systems and flag potential covenant risks early.
• Oversee compliance and identify gaps across CIPC requirements (Companies Act 71 of 2008), SARS corporate/provisional tax, VAT, PAYE/UIF/SDL, financial reporting frameworks (IFRS for SMEs/full IFRS), B-BBEE, POPIA, COIDA, and relevant statutory obligations.
• Conduct an initial assessment of the business's regulatory footprint within the first weeks of engagement.

Requirements

Essential Requirements

• A recognised professional accounting qualification (CA(SA) preferred, or ACCA / CIMA.
• Prior experience as a CFO, Financial Manager, or Financial Consultant to SMEs, ideally working in a fractional, portfolio, or part-time capacity.
• Proven experience in preparing or reviewing funder and covenant reporting for loan or debtor books, including arrears, book performance, charge-off, and recovery metrics.
• Strong regulatory fluency in South African tax (SARS) and Companies Act/CIPC requirements.
• Ability to work autonomously on an ad-hoc, project-based model.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate technical financial details into plain language and clearly articulate risks.

Desirable Requirements

• Experience or familiarity with FSCA/FAIS, FICA, and the Debt Collectors Act.

Required Software Skills

• Sage
• Microsoft Excel