Modern Finance for Traditional Businesses
Fractional CFO service, customized for yours.
You’ve heard how newer companies use AI and modern tools to cut costs, move faster, and grow smarter. You want that for your business. You just need someone who can bring these tools in, set them up, train your team, and keep it running. That’s what we do.
Licensed CPA · Flat monthly retainer · No hourly billing · Cancel with 30 days notice
Sound familiar?
Modern Companies Solved These Problems Years Ago. Nobody Brought Those Solutions to You.
The business is strong. The back office hasn’t caught up. Here’s what that gap looks like.
Your books are handled by someone who learned on the job.
An office manager, a family member, or a bookkeeper with no formal training and no ongoing support. Good people, doing their best without the right tools or a second set of eyes.
Better tools exist, but nobody's brought them in.
Businesses half your size run on live dashboards and automated bookkeeping. Yours runs on aging software, spreadsheets, and paper. The tools are there. Getting them set up in your business just isn't anybody's job.
There's no financial model.
No budget, no forecast, no way to test a decision before committing the cash. Every hire, equipment purchase, and price change is a bet made on feel.
You only hear from your CPA in April.
They handle your taxes. But between filings, nobody senior is watching your margins, your pricing, or your cash. That gap is what a CFO fills.
Everything lives in one person's head.
The passwords, the vendor terms, the pricing exceptions, the way things get done. If that person leaves, the back office breaks overnight.
No plan for what comes after you.
Whether you pass the business to family, sell to a buyer, or hand it to a manager, the finances need to be clean enough to transfer. For most owners, they aren't.
None of this means anyone failed. It means the business outgrew its back office. That’s fixable.
Why UpstreamCFO
Why Owners Pick Us
We've done this at startups. Now we bring it to you.
Our founder is a licensed CPA who builds and runs financial systems for venture-backed companies every day. The same modern tools, the same processes, the same clarity those startups rely on to grow. We’ve spent years making it work. Now we bring that hands-on experience to traditional businesses, where it makes an even bigger difference.
Your team stays. They get better.
We don't replace your people. We set up the systems, train your team, and stay available. The person who's kept your books for ten years becomes twice as effective.
You always talk to the CFO.
No junior staff, no account managers, no handoffs. The person doing the work is the person on the call. Delivered fully online, wherever your business runs.
What we do
The Same Systems We Build for Startups, Adapted for Your Business
We take what works at modern companies, set it up inside yours, and train your team to run it.
Financial Model & Forecasting
A real budget, a rolling cash forecast, and scenario models so you can test decisions before committing the cash.
Monthly Close & Reporting
Books closed on time every month, with clear reports that show you where the money went and where the margin is.
Pricing Analysis
Your rates rebuilt from actual cost data: labor, materials, overhead. Then kept current so inflation doesn't silently eat your margins.
Modern Tools & Systems
We select and set up the right software for your business, replace what's outdated, and make sure everything talks to each other.
Team Training & Support
Your existing team stays. We train them on every system we set up, and stay available so they always have someone to ask.
Buyer-Ready Books
Owner comp separated, add-backs documented, processes written down. Useful every day, and worth real money if someone ever wants to buy you.
How it works
Two Phases, Transparent Pricing
We start by building the foundation, then step back into an ongoing advisory role once your team is trained.
Phase 1 · Build
Setup & Training
$5,000 /mo starting
- ✓Full diagnostic of your books, systems, and processes
- ✓Financial model and forecasting built from scratch
- ✓Chart of accounts restructured for your business
- ✓Modern tools selected, set up, and integrated
- ✓Your team trained on everything
- ✓Pricing analysis and rebuild
Phase 2 · Ongoing
CFO Advisory
$3,000 /mo starting
- ✓Monthly close and financial reporting
- ✓Cash flow forecasting, updated monthly
- ✓Ongoing pricing and margin review
- ✓Strategy sessions and scenario modeling
- ✓Continued team support and training
- ✓Buyer-ready books maintained
Both phases are flat monthly fees. No hourly billing, ever. Cancel with 30 days notice.
Actual pricing depends on complexity. We’ll scope it on the first call.
Why a flat fee
The Hourly Meter Works Against You
A number you can budget.
Same fee every month, agreed up front. No invoices that swing with how rough the month was.
Call before it's expensive.
Hourly billing makes owners hesitate to pick up the phone. On a flat fee, you ask early, while the fix is still cheap.
We're paid for outcomes, not hours.
A flat fee only makes sense for us if we make you measurably more profitable. Our incentive is results.
Off-the-clock thinking included.
We sit on your leadership team, not on a timer. Working through your numbers on a Tuesday night never shows up on an invoice.
Meet the founder
Who’s Behind This
The Founder
Licensed CPA · Fractional CFO
I spend my days building financial systems for venture-backed startups: real-time reporting, AI-assisted accounting, the tools that let small teams move fast with full visibility. I started UpstreamCFO because I saw how far ahead those tools put the companies I worked with, and how many traditional businesses were running blind without them. The same systems work. They just need someone who’s done it before to bring them in and make them fit. That’s what I do.
Read more about my backgroundExit readiness
Whether You Sell in Three Years or Never
Everything that makes a company worth more to a buyer (clean books, documented profit, a back office that runs without you) also makes it more profitable to own right now.
Exit readiness isn’t a separate project. It’s a side effect of running on real numbers. We don’t push you to sell. We get you to where selling is a choice, made from strength, at your number.
Industries
Built for Traditional Businesses
We work with hands-on, owner-operated businesses where the back office hasn’t kept pace with the operation.
Plumbing
Service line margins, price book rebuilds, membership plan economics
HVAC
Seasonal cash planning, agreement ROI, technician profitability
Electrical
Job costing, collections, commercial vs. residential margins
Construction
Job profitability, WIP visibility, cash flow forecasting
Run a different kind of traditional business? The system works the same. Let’s talk →
Ready to See Your Real Numbers?
One call. Bring your questions, we’ll bring straight answers about where your business stands and what the next step looks like.