Fractional CFO Expert Onboarding Checklist

The week between a fractional CFO signing their engagement letter and their first substantive working session is the most consequential period in the entire engagement. This checklist lives on the expert side of the table — it is what a seasoned CFO does in their first five days to build a complete picture of a company''s financial situation before they write a single spreadsheet or attend a board meeting. The goal of week one is diagnosis, not action. Week-one priorities include getting read-only access to the accounting system, bank accounts, and cap table, reviewing the last three months of P&L and cash flow statements, and scheduling a conversation with whoever handles the books. The questions asked in these early conversations reveal more about the company''s financial health than any dashboard. A CFO who knows what to ask — and listens carefully to the answers — can identify the two or three issues that, if fixed, will have the most impact on the company''s trajectory. By end of week two, the fractional CFO should produce a one-page financial health summary: current cash position, monthly burn rate, the three biggest financial risks, and a recommended priority list for the next 90 days. This is the first deliverable and the most important one — it establishes that the engagement will produce output, not just attend meetings. This checklist is designed for that first-week sprint. Use it in sequence. Do not skip the access step — a CFO without accounting access cannot do their job. Do not skip the bookkeeper conversation — it reveals the close process quality and the pain points that are not visible in the numbers alone.