What does a Fractional CFO do?

A Fractional CFO acts as a part-time Chief Financial Officer for your company. They own the full financial cycle — budget development, rolling forecasts, monthly variance analysis, financial risk assessment, and board reporting — without the cost of a full-time hire ($200,000–$500,000/year).

How much does a Fractional CFO cost in California?

Tatiana Simonchik offers three pricing structures: hourly advisory from $300/hr, monthly retainer from $4,000–$8,000/month for ongoing fractional CFO work, and fixed-price project engagements for specific deliverables like budget builds or M&A due diligence. All engagements start with a free 30-minute discovery call.

How quickly can a Fractional CFO start?

Tatiana Simonchik typically starts within 2 weeks of the initial agreement — compared to 3–6 months required to hire a full-time CFO. This makes a fractional CFO ideal for companies in transition, preparing for a funding round, or between finance hires.

What is the difference between a Fractional CFO and a Controller?

A Controller handles historical bookkeeping and closes the books. A Fractional CFO owns the forward-looking financial picture: budget, forecast, variance analysis, risk assessment, and strategic financial decision-making. Most growing companies need both — the Controller for the past, the CFO for the future.

What companies benefit most from a Fractional CFO?

Companies between $5M and $150M in revenue benefit most. This includes Series A/B startups preparing for their next funding round, manufacturing and tech companies without a dedicated finance function, companies between full-time CFO hires, and US subsidiaries of international companies that need local financial leadership.

Can a Fractional CFO help with M&A?

Yes. Tatiana Simonchik provides M&A financial support on both buy side and sell side — including financial due diligence, historical reporting cleanup, integration planning, synergy modeling, and consolidated reporting setup.

Can a Fractional CFO help prepare for a Series A or Series B round?

Yes. Preparing for a funding round requires a solid financial model, clean budget vs actuals history, a credible forecast, KPI framework, and a data room finance package. Tatiana builds all of these as part of a pre-fundraise engagement, typically 6–10 weeks before the round begins.

Tatiana Simonchik | Fractional CFO & Finance Services for Startups and Growing Companies

What I Do

The full financial cycle.

A monthly retainer covering everything a finance function should do — from budget to board reporting. Also available for one-time projects: financial preparation for venture investment rounds, M&A support, or a complete finance department setup for startups.

Prefer to start with a specific project? Budget build, variance framework, or financial process design — fixed scope, fixed price, no ongoing commitment required.

Core Service

Fractional CFO

Most growing companies have someone closing the books and someone making decisions — but no one connecting the two. I step in as your Fractional CFO and own the entire financial cycle: from budget build to monthly variance, from risk assessment to management reporting. One person with full context.

FRACTIONAL CFO · MONTHLY RETAINER · BAY AREA & NATIONWIDE

📊 Monthly Variance Analysis

Budget vs actuals with root-cause explanations — so leadership understands not just what happened, but why.

📈 Rolling Forecast

Updated monthly as the business moves — so your financial picture always reflects reality, not what you planned in January.

📋 Annual Budget

Full budget built by department and cost center — structured, documented, and ready to be defended to anyone in the room.

⚠️ Financial Risk Assessment

Cash flow, cost exposure, and P&L vulnerabilities tracked monthly — so nothing surprises you at the wrong moment.

Harvard Business School — Financial Accounting, 2021

PMP Certified — Project Management Institute

Master's in Economics — PSTU, Honors (5.0/5.0)

Founder & CFO — Silicon Valley Professionals

About

20+ years owning the full financial cycle — at companies that don't tolerate gaps

I'm a finance manager and internal controls specialist with experience across manufacturing, technology, and logistics. My career has taken me from the factory floor at SKF to building SOX systems across 14 countries at Siemens, to managing a $2B CapEx portfolio at Amazon (tech) in the US.

What I know from working inside Amazon and Siemens is that a finance function only works when one person has the full picture — budget, forecast, variance, risk, and reporting all connected. When those pieces belong to different people, or to no one, the cracks show up at the worst possible time.

I work with mid-sized companies and foreign subsidiaries in Northern California and remotely across the US. My approach is direct: understand the business drivers, give leadership the financial clarity they need to make good decisions, and build the finance processes your team can sustain. Whether you need ongoing finance services for your business or a one-time financial preparation for a venture investment round — the work is the same: rigorous, documented, and built to last.

Amazon

Finance Manager, Worldwide Controllership · Finance Manager US · Technology

2024 – Present

Siemens

Senior Finance Manager (Mobility) · Finance Manager Locomotives · SOX/Risk Lead

2015 – 2024 · 10 years · Manufacturing · California, United States

Siemens / Skolkovo

Finance Manager — Nuclear Cluster (international cross-border project)

2014 – 2015

SKF Group

Country Controller Railway & Off-Highway · Financial Controller Manufacturing

2011 – 2014

Pricing

Three ways to work together

Every engagement is different. Choose the structure that fits your situation — or we'll figure it out on the call.

Hourly

Advisory & Consulting

$300+

per hour
depending on scope

For targeted questions, financial reviews, or strategy sessions where you need senior-level input without a longer commitment.

→One-time or occasional sessions

→Financial model review

→Second opinion for board or investors

→Independent finance assessment

Get in Touch

Clear steps. No surprises.
That's the point.

Every engagement follows this structure — because I know that ambiguity is exactly what you hired me to eliminate.

Discovery Call

30 minutes. You explain the situation, I ask the right questions. We agree on whether and how I can help. No charge, no pressure.

Current State Assessment

I review your existing financial processes, reporting setup, and current gaps. We align on priorities and scope before any work begins.

Engagement & Delivery

Fixed-scope project or ongoing retainer. Weekly check-ins. You always know where we are and what's left. Deliverables in writing, not just slides.

Handoff & Ongoing Support

Your team owns the result. I document everything so you're not dependent on me. Optional ongoing retainer to keep the financial cycle running month to month.

Who I Serve

Companies that find me
have outgrown their finance function.

🚀

Growing Companies $5M–$150M

You have a Controller closing the books but no one owning financial strategy. Leadership makes big decisions without a complete picture. Finance services for business at this stage need to be senior-level — not just bookkeeping.

🏭

Startups & Companies Between Finance Hires

Whether you're a startup that needs finance services from day one, or a company between CFO hires — the financial cycle doesn't stop. I step in immediately and keep everything running.

🌍

US Subsidiaries of International Companies

HQ wants US reporting on their timeline in their format. I set up the full financial process from scratch and run it monthly — with the cross-border experience of someone who's done it at SKF and Siemens.

When Companies Call Me

Recognize your situation?

Most engagements start with one of these. Some turn into all of them.

Preparing for a Funding Round

Investors will ask questions your current finance setup can't answer. I build the financial foundation before you walk into the room.

Financial model & projections Budget vs actuals history KPI framework Cash flow & runway Data room package CFO narrative

Post-Round: Building the Finance Function

You closed the round. Now your new board members expect institutional-grade reporting every month. Time to build the infrastructure.

Financial policies Monthly reporting package Board deck financials Budget cycle setup Expense controls Finance team structure

M&A — Buy Side or Sell Side

Whether you're acquiring or being acquired, the financial picture needs to be clean, documented, and defensible under scrutiny.

Financial due diligence Historical reporting cleanup Integration planning Synergy modeling Consolidated reporting Risk assessment

Financial Process Optimization

Month-end close takes two weeks. Forecasts are stale before they're published. I redesign the process so the numbers arrive faster and people trust them.

Close cycle reduction Forecast automation Oracle / SAP optimization Variance framework Reporting calendar Workflow redesign

Independent Finance Review

Sometimes you need a senior finance professional who isn't on the payroll to look at the numbers honestly. No agenda. No politics. Just a straight read.

Financial health assessment Budget reality check Forecast credibility Risk blind spots Second opinion for board CFO performance review

Insights

Financial clarity starts
with the right questions

Practical perspectives on financial leadership for growing companies in California.

Fractional CFO

5 Signs Your Bay Area Company Needs a Fractional CFO

8 min read Financial Leadership

Your Controller closes the books. Your spreadsheets have spreadsheets. Leadership is making million-dollar decisions with incomplete information. Sound familiar? Here are five signs it's time.

Read article →

Fundraising

How to Prepare Your Finances Before a Series A or B Round

10 min read Fundraising

Investors don't just fund ideas — they fund companies that can demonstrate financial discipline. What your books, forecast, and reporting need to look like before you walk into that first meeting.

Read article →

Finance Operations

Controller vs CFO: What's the Difference and When Do You Need Each?

6 min read Team Building

Most growing companies confuse the two roles — or assume a Controller can do both. They can't. Here's exactly what each role covers, where they overlap, and when to hire which.

Read article →

Get in Touch

Let's talk about what your
finance function actually needs.

Most clients start with a 30-minute call. I ask about your current finance setup, where the gaps are, and what leadership is missing. You'll leave knowing exactly what working together looks like — and what it costs.

📍

Silicon Valley & San Francisco Bay Area · Remote US

✉️

tatiana.simonchik@gmail.com

💼

linkedin.com/in/tatianasimonchik

⚡

Typical response within 24 hours

First Name

Last Name

Company Email

Company & Role

What do you need help with?

Brief description of the situation

Your business needs the expert who owns the full financial picture.

The full financial cycle.

20+ years owning the full financial cycle — at companies that don't tolerate gaps

Three ways to work together

Clear steps. No surprises.That's the point.

Companies that find mehave outgrown their finance function.

Recognize your situation?

Financial clarity startswith the right questions

Let's talk about what yourfinance function actually needs.

Your business needs the expert
who owns the full financial picture.

Clear steps. No surprises.
That's the point.

Companies that find me
have outgrown their finance function.

Financial clarity starts
with the right questions

Let's talk about what your
finance function actually needs.