You are weighing a fractional CFO engagement and you want the shape of it before you talk to anyone: what the firm actually does each month, who touches the books, where tax planning sits, and what it takes to start. This page puts their published model next to Steven Palmieri's Entrepreneur's CFO model, cites their own website for every statement about them, and ends with the three questions that decide it.
According to their website, B2B CFO® pioneered this industry in 1987, calls itself the nation's largest entrepreneurial CFO firm, and works with privately held companies. Their about page says each professional in the firm is an equity owner, that partners average 20+ years of experience, and that the firm creates long-term, professional relationships on an affordable, as-needed basis. The six services their navigation lists are improving cash flow, obtaining bank loans, helping companies grow profitably, increasing company value, planning strategically, and preparing a business to sell. Their playbook walks six steps: strategic planning, owner objectives, gap diagnosis, a strategy session, perform and report, and legacy. On money, the playbook says engagements are structured on an as-needed basis with estimated fees agreed upon in advance, and that owners should never encounter surprises regarding fees or scope of work. No rate, retainer or range is published anywhere on the pages we read, so the number comes out of your conversation with a partner.
Their about page says each professional in the firm is an equity owner and that partners average 20+ years of experience. It also says the average tenure with a client is about six years, so this is built as a long relationship with one senior person in your region rather than a team you are handed.
Their playbook says engagements are structured on an as-needed basis with estimated fees agreed upon in advance, and that owners should never encounter surprises regarding fees or scope of work. What it does not say is a number. If you want a price, you have to ask for one in writing.
The gap diagnosis step describes a Gap Diagnostic Analysis, and their words are that there is no cost to the owner for this service, no obligation to move forward, and no requirement to sign an engagement agreement in order to receive it. That is how you find out what an engagement with them would look like.
Steven Palmieri runs a remote practice out of Dallas serving owners nationwide, and the shape is deliberately different. The month closes on a schedule instead of at year end, so the books become the thing you decide from rather than the thing you reconstruct in March. The bookkeeping sits inside the engagement rather than at a vendor you manage alongside it, which is the only reason a close actually lands on time. Tax planning happens while the year can still be changed, before December, instead of arriving as a filing exercise after the answer is already written. Last year's return gets a second look, because the fastest money in a first engagement is usually sitting in a return that was filed correctly and planned badly. And there is one person who answers, which is the part most owners actually mean when they say they want a CFO.
Books closed on a schedule, accounts reconciled, and a founder-ready view of cash and margin that is current enough to make a hiring or pricing call from.
Planning inside the engagement while the year can still be changed. Business and personal returns are prepared and filed here too, so the planning and the filing are not two conversations with two firms.
Last year's return reviewed for what planning would have caught. If there is nothing there, you learn that in the first month instead of wondering about it for another year.
If you are a business owner under ten million dollars in revenue and I cannot help you save 5 to 10 hours per week within the next 30 days through improved financial clarity and systems, I will continue working with you for free until it happens.
Their site describes long-term, professional relationships on an affordable, as-needed basis, carried by an equity partner in your region. Steven's engagement is a fixed monthly rhythm run remotely, where the close lands every month whether or not anything is on fire. If your need is episodic and strategic, a bank loan, a valuation, an exit, as-needed is the better fit. If your need is that the numbers are never current, the monthly cadence is the thing that fixes it.
The six services their navigation lists are cash flow, bank loans, profitable growth, company value, strategic planning and preparing a business to sell. We did not find bookkeeping or tax return preparation among them, which suggests you keep your own bookkeeper and preparer and the partner works on top of their output. With Steven the bookkeeping and the returns are inside the same engagement. That removes a handoff, and it also means one firm is accountable when the numbers are wrong.
Their gap diagnosis is offered with no cost to the owner, no obligation to move forward, and no requirement to sign an engagement agreement. Steven starts with a 20-minute call and a free assessment that ends in a written roadmap you keep either way. Both first steps are free, so that is not the deciding factor. What differs is what you walk out holding: a diagnosis of the gaps in one case, a prioritized plan with a fixed fee attached in the other.
Tell us what you are weighing and what the books look like right now. You get a reply within one business day, and if the honest answer is that another firm fits your situation better, you get that answer too.
Ask both firms to name the person and the date. A CFO working on top of books that close in March is reading history. If the firm does not close the books itself, ask who does, and ask what happens when that person runs late, because that answer is the one you live with every month.
Ask whether planning happens before December and whether the same firm prepares the return. Their site lists six services and tax return preparation is not among them, so with them the work likely sits outside. With Steven it sits inside. Neither is wrong. It changes how many people you are coordinating in the fourth quarter.
Free first steps are easy to compare, and the engagement behind them is not. Their playbook says fees are estimated and agreed upon in advance, and publishes no rates. Steven quotes a fixed fee after the free assessment and does not publish rates either. So ask both for scope and fee in writing before you sign anything, and make sure you are comparing the same scope.
No. B2B CFO® is a registered trademark of its owner. This site is an independent comparison by Steven Palmieri (Palmieri Enterprises) and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by B2B CFO. Every statement about their model on this page comes from their own public web pages, which are listed at the bottom of this page.