Talk to a fractional CFO in Charleston, SC.
Thirty minutes to work out where the finance function is breaking down, and agree on what happens next.
What sits between your bookkeeper and your CPA.
Element Accounting works the controller and CFO layer for owner-operated companies between $1M and $25M. Based in Charleston, South Carolina. Engagements run remotely.
The numbers stopped keeping up
Revenue grew, a location opened, a line got added. The reporting never caught up.
A second entity, no group view
Two sets of books and no agreed basis for reading them together. Settling that basis comes before any consolidation work.
Someone outside asked
A lender, a buyer, an investor. The request is reasonable. The answer takes three weeks and a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
Nobody is checking the work
Good bookkeeping going in, and no one accountable for whether what comes out holds up.
Where the line sits
Your bookkeeper keeps processing transactions and completing the agreed close tasks. Element Accounting does not replace that and does not post day-to-day entries. What the practice owns is the standard: the close calendar, review of the balance-sheet support and the reconciliations, the exceptions that come out of it, and the reporting that goes to a bank or a board. For a group, that extends to a management consolidation and intercompany matching, once the reporting basis is agreed.
Forward work sits on top of it — cash forecasting, budget and reforecast, and the analysis behind a pricing or capital decision. More on fractional CFO and controller services in Charleston →
An independent practice, not a franchise office and not a staffing bench. The person who scopes the engagement is the person reviewing your numbers. That also means a capacity limit, so you get told when work is not a fit rather than quietly queued. See how outsourced controller engagements work →
Ongoing engagements start at $3,500 a month, usually after a paid two-week discovery scoped in writing. A two-entity company and a ten-entity group are different jobs, so discovery is quoted per engagement.
What actually happens
- You pick a time on the calendar and get a confirmation immediately. Or email and get a reply within one business day with two or three times.
- Thirty minutes on a call. You describe where the books are and get the questions a controller would ask.
- You get a straight read on where it is most likely breaking down, what would have to be checked to confirm that, and whether it's worth paying anyone to fix. Sometimes it isn't, and you'll be told so.
- If it's a fit, the next step is normally a paid two-week discovery, scoped in writing. Any ongoing engagement is quoted separately after that.
No proposal arrives that you didn't ask for.
Pick a time, answer one quick question about what prompted the call, and it is confirmed on the spot.
Rather write first? Email instead.
Direct lines
info@element-accounting.com
(843) 284-3307
Charleston, South Carolina. Engagements run remotely, nationwide.