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Because clear numbers bring calm, even before you hire a CFO.
Before your startup can afford a CFO, or even a full-time bookkeeper, someone needs to take ownership of the numbers. This article explores who should do what, when to bring in help, and how to prevent the silent risk of "finance by committee."
Founder vs. Freelancer: Who Should Own What? 👤
The question hits every founding team eventually: who's going to watch the money? It seems simple until you realize that "watching the money" means tracking burn rate, preparing investor updates, handling payroll, and making strategic decisions about spending priorities. Without clear ownership, financial tasks fall through the cracks or get handled inconsistently across the team.
Ownership doesn't mean doing everything yourself. You can (and probably should) delegate tasks like categorizing expenses or uploading receipts. But there needs to be one person, ideally a founder, who knows what's happening with your money and why.
If you're a solo founder, that's you by default. In co-founder teams, it usually goes to the one most comfortable with numbers or operations. But this isn't about credentials. It's about attention. Who will consistently track burn, check runway, and catch red flags before they grow?
Founders sometimes avoid owning finance because it feels technical or overwhelming. But at the early stage, it's mostly survival math: What are we spending, and how long can we keep going? You don't need a CPA. You just need someone who won't let the numbers get stale.
The most successful approach involves the founder maintaining strategic oversight while delegating execution.
When to Bring in External Help 🧾
There's a moment when doing it yourself stops being efficient. It usually happens around the third time you skip a bank reconciliation, or when prepping for your first investor meeting. That's when bringing in external help becomes less of a luxury and more of a lever.
Our rule of thumb: when financial admin takes more than 5–8 hours a month, it's time to outsource. A bookkeeper can handle reconciliations, categorization, and monthly closes, keeping your records clean while you stay focused on product and growth.
If you haven't already, set up a cloud accounting solutions platform like QuickBooks Online early. It links with your bank, helps automate reporting, and makes you look more organized to investors, grant reviewers, and partners. And even if you're just paying yourself, it's worth getting payroll right from the start. For a comprehensive guide on setting up these foundational systems, see our detailed approach in Building a Minimum Viable Financial System for Pre-Revenue Startups.
The transition usually happens in stages. First, you will outsource monthly bookkeeping to ensure your records stay current and accurate. This typically costs $300-800 per month, depending on transaction volume, but it frees up founder time for higher-value activities. Next, you might add payroll solutions to handle compensation.
Professional help becomes particularly valuable during specific milestones: preparing financial statements for investors, applying for government grants that require detailed records, or setting up systems before your first employee joins. The cost of professional support often gets absorbed quickly through better financial organization and reduced stress during critical moments.
Outsourcing doesn't mean stepping out of finance. It means delegating the tasks while staying close to the insights. You're still the one making calls about hiring, pricing, or runway extension.
The Danger of "Finance by Committee" ⚠️
Financial ownership gets blurry in co-founder teams. One founder handles payroll, another pays bills, and a third applies for grants. Everyone's contributing, but no one has the complete picture when important questions arise.
Without a designated financial owner, teams often discover gaps during critical moments. Expense tracking becomes inconsistent, reports take longer to prepare, and conversations about spending decisions require multiple people to piece together the full story.
Many co-founder teams experience similar coordination challenges during their first investor preparation. When different founders track expenses using inconsistent systems and categories, compiling accurate burn rates becomes more time-consuming than expected. This common scenario shows why having one person coordinate financial oversight, while still allowing each founder to manage their domain expenses, creates smoother operations overall.
The solution isn't complex: designate one person as the financial owner. This founder doesn't need to approve every expense, but they should know where money goes and why. They become the single source of truth for financial questions, whether from co-founders, investors, or advisors.
Financial clarity isn't about having a CFO. It's about building a rhythm. Someone should review expenses monthly, check burn rate, update your projections, and keep your records investor-ready. Many startups benefit from professional bookkeeping services to maintain this consistency without overwhelming the designated founder.
You don't need perfection. But you do need consistency. A single source of truth. And someone committed to reviewing it regularly, not scrambling the night before a pitch deck goes out.
How to Avoid Making Your Accountant Your Strategist 🧠
Founders often expect their accountant to play a dual role: record-keeper and strategic advisor. But most accountants aren't equipped to answer forward-looking questions like "When should we raise?" or "Can we afford to expand?"
Traditional accountants excel at historical reporting and compliance. They can tell you what happened last month and ensure your tax filings are accurate. But they typically don't have context about your market, competitive landscape, or growth strategy. Asking them to guide major business decisions often leads to conservative advice that doesn't match startup realities.
That's where awareness, or eventually, fractional CFO support, comes in. Until then, you're the one making judgment calls. Your accountant can help you categorize ad spend. But only you can decide if it's working.
The distinction matters more than you might think. An accountant might flag that your customer acquisition costs are rising. But they probably can't advise whether that trend signals a pricing problem, a marketing channel issue, or a natural result of targeting harder-to-reach customers. These strategic interpretations require a business context that goes beyond financial data.
The sooner you get comfortable reading your own financial reports, the sooner you'll make stronger decisions. No need for Excel wizardry, just know where the money's going and what assumptions drive your model. Understanding basic metrics like burn rate, runway, and unit economics empowers you to have strategic conversations rather than just compliance discussions.
If you're relying on your accountant to guide your business decisions, you're probably not getting strategic insight. You're just getting organized output. Strategy needs context. And at this stage, only the founders have it.
Owning your numbers doesn't mean doing it all yourself. It means seeing clearly enough to drive forward, with confidence.
Natasha Galitsyna
Co-founder & Creator of Possibilities
Serving the startup community since 2018
