Outsourced Virtual CFO Support for CPA Firms

Accountably is a staffing and recruiting agency that helps US CPA, EA, and accounting firms hire talent from India across tax, accounting, payroll, and finance. Accountably offers offshore staffing services, placing full-time offshore employees from India who work inside your firm's workflow, on your software and SOPs.

Accountably places CFO support professionals in India across the work behind a fractional CFO engagement, from the monthly board pack and the 13-week cash model to rolling forecasts and the decision cases a board asks for.

If a CFO support role can be performed remotely, Accountably can fill it with A-players from India.

Here are some examples of the roles we can fill:

• Board packs, cash models, and decision cases: virtual CFO support staff, from financial analysts on the recurring cycle to senior FP&A analysts on the models
• Forecasts and variance packs: financial analysts
• Pack review and the reporting calendar: finance managers
• The close underneath: controllers, staff accountants

Accountably's staffing model is fully managed: we handle the employment contract, payroll, tax compliance, benefits administration, and salary disbursement for every hire, so you get the talent without the administrative overhead.

This matters most for firms that don't have an established entity or employer of record (EOR) infrastructure in India.

You direct the day-to-day work; Accountably handles everything on the back-end.

Our staffing model also includes onboarding support, equipment coordination if needed, and ongoing HR support for as long as the engagement runs.

Dedicated hires and build-operate-transfer teams go through the same vetting and shortlisting process; a white-label team is staffed and run by its assigned manager.

The core difference between dedicated offshore talent and a white-label delivery team is who directs the work. With dedicated offshore talent, your analyst works inside your workflow and you direct the work like any member of your team; with a white-label delivery team, Accountably's manager runs the team, with its own reviewers, and you review the finished work.

Recruiting differs between the models. Dedicated hires go through the same recruiting process as build-operate-transfer teams, while a white-label team is staffed and run by its assigned manager.

Dedicated offshore talent is the right fit if your CFO engagements run every month and you want full-time staff inside your workflow.

A white-label delivery team makes more sense for smaller or seasonal firms that would rather review finished work. Firms serious about long-term offshore control can also choose build-operate-transfer.

If you're not sure which fits your situation, mention it on the discovery call, and the team will walk you through all three options.

Accountably quotes every CFO support seat before you commit. Financial analyst seats start from about $11 an hour, which comes to roughly $1,800 to $2,500 a month for a full-time seat. Senior seats, such as a senior FP&A analyst for board packs and models or a finance manager who reviews every pack, are quoted on request.

The rate can vary by role and seniority, so you will get the specific figures on your discovery call, where we will walk you through the total cost for the role you need to fill.

But even with Accountably's fee included, a CFO support hire in India through Accountably still costs your firm less than a comparable US hire.

For firms that don't have an existing international payroll setup or in-country legal infrastructure, the staffing model removes that work entirely. Accountably handles the employment contract, payroll processing, tax compliance, and benefits administration for your hires.

You direct the work. Accountably owns the employment relationship.

Also, with Accountably you pay nothing until you hire. The search, sourcing, shortlisting, and your interview stages all happen before any fee is due. If Accountably does not place someone, you owe nothing. A dedicated hire has a 60-day minimum commitment.

The 45-day replacement guarantee is included. If a placement does not work out within 45 days, Accountably finds a replacement at no additional charge. And if someone rolls off later, we shadow and hand over during their notice period, so your reporting cycle doesn't take a hit.

Outsourced virtual CFO support is the practice of handing the build behind your firm's fractional CFO engagements to a team outside your firm instead of hiring in-house analysts. That team builds the board packs, cash forecasts, and models your CFO presents, while your partners keep the client relationship, the recommendation, and the sign-off.

Fractional, outsourced, and virtual CFO describe the same seat sold in different ways: a fraction of a CFO's time, held by someone outside the client's payroll, delivered remotely. Your firm holds that seat. Accountably staffs the work underneath it.

For a CPA or accounting firm, the work usually covers:

• Monthly board packs in your house format, with commentary drafted for your CFO to edit
• Investor and lender reporting packs
• 13-week cash models reconciled to the bank, with covenant headroom and runway updated as they roll forward
• KPI dashboards defined once and refreshed on schedule
• Budgets, rolling forecasts, and variance analysis, plus scenario models and decision cases for hiring, pricing, capital expenditure, and financing, with the drivers documented

Outsourced means the work is done by a team outside your firm. Offshore means that team is in another country. With Accountably it is both: your analyst sits in India and works inside your systems like any other member of your team.

The main difference is cost. A CFO support hire in India costs your firm less than a comparable US hire, due to the lower cost of living in India compared to the US.

We place support for your CFO. A senior analyst builds the board packs, cash forecasts, and models behind your engagement, and your firm holds the CFO relationship and presents the work. We do not put anyone in front of your client as their CFO, because the relationship is the part of the engagement that cannot be delegated.

Your analyst works inside your firm and your systems and never appears in front of your client unless you decide otherwise. Whether you tell a client that offshore staff support the engagement is your firm's disclosure decision, and we follow whatever your engagement letters and your professional judgment require.

With dedicated offshore talent, your firm manages the day-to-day work. Your analyst reports to your managers, follows your workflows and processes, and works as part of your team, just like any other remote employee.

Accountably doesn't direct their daily work or assign client files. You have complete control over their responsibilities and schedules. Think of Accountably as the hiring and administrative partner, not a management layer.

The sign-off on every board and lender pack, the final judgment on forecasts and scenarios, the recommendation, the board and investor relationship, and every partner-level decision stay with your firm.

If you'd rather review finished work than direct it, a white-label delivery team comes with Accountably's own manager and reviewers.

Yes, analysts in India working with US firms work in the same tools your team already relies on: QuickBooks and Xero for the client ledgers their packs and models read from, and Karbon and TaxDome for workflow and client documents.

During vetting, Accountably screens explicitly for your stack rather than assuming tool familiarity and runs the assessments you already use.

Onboarding then ramps your analyst on your firm's software and SOPs, from your board pack format and model standards to your reporting calendar and the changes your CFO makes before presenting.

If there is a specialized system in your clients' environment, such as a reporting or BI tool, we identify transferable skill paths and flag any ramp time upfront so you can make an informed decision.

Accountably puts every candidate through a rigorous screening process before presentation. Senior roles get longer interviews and deeper checks.

Every candidate goes through Accountably's vetting process, which includes:

• Skills assessment: technical evaluation specific to the role requirements
• Experience validation: Accountably verifies work history
• Software experience: we check every candidate's experience building on the ledgers your clients keep, such as QuickBooks and Xero
• Cultural fit: Accountably screens for alignment with US business practices, work style, and your specific firm culture
• Motivation check: Accountably rules out candidates who are just looking for short-term contracts or salary bumps
• Background checks: we run background checks, and every hire works under an NDA

You only see candidates who meet all these criteria. Experienced hires start with onboarding on your software and SOPs. Newer hires first complete our 6-week US tax and accounting program.

A controller owns the close and makes sure the numbers are right. The CFO layer looks forward: cash planning, forecasts, lender and board reporting, and the decisions a client makes on the numbers. Virtual CFO support staff build that forward-looking work behind your CFO, on top of the close.

CFO work is only as good as the books under it. If a client's close is late or unreconciled, a controller or staff accountant is the right first hire, and we will say so on the discovery call.

Each layer can also be staffed on its own: outsourced controller services for the close, financial reporting for the monthly statements and packages, FP&A for budgets and forecasts, and cash flow management for the 13-week cash forecast.

Your CFO presents the board pack in a room, so it can't contain a number nobody checked. Every file goes through preparer, senior, quality and final review before it reaches you:

• The preparer builds the pack and the model inside your systems, documenting drivers and assumptions as they go.
• A senior reviewer traces the logic, tests the links, and reconciles the opening figures to the ledger.
• A quality reviewer runs the error checks, tests the model against a known scenario, and confirms the format matches your house standard.
• A final review confirms the pack is ready to present, with the assumption log attached.

The sign-off on every pack that leaves your firm stays with your CFO.

Yes, client files are handled under SOC 2-aligned controls by background-verified staff who work under NDAs.

A CFO engagement's files include investor, lender, and board material, so access is role-based and limited to the engagements your analyst is assigned. It runs over a secure VPN, files move by encrypted exchange, audit logs record activity, and nothing is stored on a personal machine.

See data security and compliance for the full set of controls.