The 90-Day Fractional CFO Ramp – Savvy Accounting

How Savvy turns finance chaos into board-ready confidence for UK scaling SMEs.

Summary

For UK founders running £1–5 million businesses, finance chaos often hides behind growth. Late reporting, cash uncertainty, and investor anxiety make confident decisions impossible. The Savvy 90-Day Fractional CFO Ramp is a structured, hybrid approach that blends AI-enabled finance operations with CFO-level insight to rebuild control, credibility, and foresight in just three months.

From Chaos to Control

If you’re running a scaling business, you’ve likely felt it—the uneasy gap between ambition and financial clarity. Invoices pile up, month-end drifts later each time, and “cash visibility” means waiting for your accountant’s update.

Growth hides chaos until it doesn’t. Then suddenly, the board wants projections, the bank wants covenants, and investors want confidence you can’t yet prove.

That’s where the Savvy 90-Day Fractional CFO Ramp comes in—a structured path from firefighting to financial foresight. In just three months, Savvy helps founders transform their finance function into a board-ready decision system, powered by human expertise and AI precision.

The Problem: Late Numbers = Late Decisions

“Businesses that update cashflow weekly are 25% more likely to achieve funding targets.”

– UK Finance / Xero

Most scaling SMEs don’t fail because they lack opportunity. They fail because their numbers arrive too late to act.

• Cash anxiety: You’re unsure how long your runway really is.
• Operational drift: Spending accelerates faster than revenue.
• Investor distrust: Delayed reporting signals disorganisation, not ambition.

According to UK Finance benchmarks, SMEs with real-time cash visibility maintain 25% more working-capital headroom than those relying on manual monthly updates. Yet 60% still depend on spreadsheets stitched together by overworked bookkeepers.

Savvy’s CFOs call it spreadsheet lag—a silent drag on valuation, credibility, and confidence.

Our 90-day ramp replaces that lag with structure.

The 90-Day CFO Ramp Framework

Insight: “CFOs who automate close processes report 40% faster decision cycles.” – Gartner, 2023

The Savvy CFO Ramp is a three-phase operating model built for scaling UK businesses. It’s not theory—it’s the tested blueprint we’ve deployed across SaaS, e-commerce, and service firms to move from chaos to clarity.

Days 1–30: Diagnose & Stabilise

The first month is about regaining control. Your Savvy CFO partner runs a rapid audit of your financial systems, data hygiene, and reporting cadence.

• Map your close cadence and fix bottlenecks.
• Rebuild cash visibility with a 13-week rolling model.
• Define your KPI tree by sector (SaaS: ARR, NDR, CAC Payback; E-com: CM2, inventory turns).
• Use Savvy’s AI anomaly detection to flag data inconsistencies 10× faster than manual review.

By Day 30, founders have a living, breathing dashboard they can finally trust.

Days 31–60: Systemise & Automate

Now we move from stability to efficiency. Savvy’s finance ops team introduces automation to cut manual cycles and reduce reporting lag.

• Automate reconciliations and AR prioritisation.
• Build a rolling forecast linked to key metrics.
• Deliver a board-ready management pack for a single version of truth.

By the end of this phase, month-end closes shrink from 10–12 days to 3–5, freeing your CFO (and you) to focus on forward-looking strategy.

Days 61–90: Strategise & Lead

With stable numbers and clean systems, the final phase elevates your finance function to a CFO-grade operation.

• Establish your board reporting rhythm (weekly KPIs, monthly packs, quarterly updates).
• Integrate scenario planning for pricing, funding, and hiring decisions.
• Prepare for investor or lender discussions with data-backed confidence.

The outcome: a founder who makes informed decisions, not reactive ones—and a finance system built to scale, not strain.

Proof in Practice: Real-World Mini-Case

Client Insight: “The visibility we gained in six weeks changed the way we ran the business.” – Anonymised Client

Mini-Case Snapshot
Problem	E-commerce founder (£3.2m turnover) had no cash visibility; manual reporting lagged three weeks behind sales data.
Intervention	Savvy implemented 13-week cashflow forecasting, rebuilt the close cadence, and layered AI-based reconciliation.
Metric Lift	+18% cash headroom; month-end close reduced from 12 days to 5.
Timeframe	8 weeks from onboarding.
AI Element	Anomaly detection identified duplicate supplier payments worth £6,700—immediately recovered.

The Savvy Hybrid Advantage

Insight: “Hybrid finance models deliver 30% higher reporting accuracy.” – Accenture, 2024

Most “outsourced finance” models split the world in two:

• Bookkeepers who record history.
• Fractional CFOs who advise on the future.

Savvy bridges that gap.

We operate as a hybrid finance partner, managing your day-to-day operations and delivering CFO-level strategic insight. This model blends automation with human intelligence—ensuring speed, accuracy, and real context.

• AI handles reconciliations, forecasting, and anomaly detection.
• Your Savvy CFO interprets that data into strategic action: pricing, allocation, and funding.
• The ops team keeps your numbers reliable and real-time.

It’s not outsourcing. It’s building the finance department you wish you’d had sooner.

90-Day Results Snapshot

Metric	Pre-Savvy Baseline	After 90 Days
Month-End Close Time	12 days	4 days
Forecast Accuracy	±12%	±2%
Cash Visibility Horizon	2 weeks	13 weeks
Working-Capital Headroom	—	+15–25%
Board Report Timeliness	Ad hoc	Monthly cadence

At Savvy Accounting: The Infrastructure of Growth

We don’t just deliver compliance or chase numbers—we build the systems and strategy that make numbers mean something. Because clarity isn’t a luxury for scaling businesses—it’s the infrastructure of growth.

Next Step: Schedule Your CFO Strategy Session

Ready to stop chasing numbers and start building wealth? Savvy Accounting helps ambitious founders transform financial complexity into clear, actionable growth strategy. Schedule your complimentary CFO Strategy Session today to discuss how we can implement the systems, data visibility, and strategic planning required for sustained growth.