CFO Training for Accountants, CPAs, Bookkeepers & Tax Professionals

Why Accountants Are Taking CFO Training

Accountants, CPAs and bookkeepers tell us about the same three challenges again and again.

Challenge 1: Earning more means taking on more. When your fee is tied to the hours put in or the tax returns filed, the only way to grow your income is to add clients or add hours. We call this the accountant's trap, and it's a fast path to burnout.

Challenge 2: Clients see you as interchangeable. Owners have a hard time telling one bookkeeper or tax preparer from the next, which makes it difficult for you to raise your fees.

Challenge 3: Software is taking over the routine work. Bank feeds, AI categorization and automated reconciliations are handling more of the commoditized production work every year. We cover this in depth in Will AI Replace Accountants?

Your clients still need everything you do today, but it is harder to charge more for those services. What they want next is someone who can explain what the numbers mean and help them decide what to do about it. Most accountants haven't been paid to do that, and they haven't been shown a simple and repeatable way to do it.

That's what our CFO training solves. It gives you a system for delivering advice in 2-4 hours per month per client, the training and coaching to feel confident doing it, and a community of people who have already built the service. A CFO Advisory service will set you apart from your competition, adds predictable recurring revenue, and gives you a bigger impact on the businesses you serve.

The economics are simple. Our members' clients pay an average of about $2,000 a month for CFO Advisory, and ten clients at $2,000 a month is $240,000 a year in recurring revenue. To see the numbers with your own client mix, try the earnings calculator.

Three Ways to Train With The CFO Project

You can start for free and go as deep as you want. Here's how the options compare.

If you're new to CFO Advisory, start with a free live training. If you've already decided you want to build the service, the full program is where you get the complete system and the people to help you put it to work.

Free Live CFO Training

Every live training is free, virtual, and teaches something you can use with a real client. Most sessions are eligible for CPE credit.

Free On-Demand CFO Training

If live sessions don't fit your calendar, you can learn on your own schedule.

The training library. Recorded masterclasses on topics like leading your clients, overcoming imposter syndrome and growing a bookkeeping practice into an advisory practice. Browse the training library.

The CFO Project Podcast. Conversations with CFO Advisors, coaches and experts about building, growing and scaling a CFO Advisory practice. Recent episodes cover how to get referrals now that clients ask ChatGPT for recommendations, and why reading the numbers was never the hard part of advisory. Listen to the podcast.

Below the Line, our weekly newsletter. One practical idea each week for accountants and bookkeepers building toward advisory work, plus the upcoming free training schedule. Subscribe to Below the Line.

What You Get in the Full CFO Training Program

The full program is a done-with-you membership to help you stand up your CFO Advisory practice to earn more with fewer clients and in fewer hours per month. You get the systems, the training and the tools the day you join, and then a full year of coaching, community and support while you put them to work in your own practice. Here's everything that's included. See what's included in the full membership.

Six self-paced courses

1. 01

   Foundation Training

   What business owners want, what a CFO Advisor does, how the system fits together, and the mindset it takes to step into the role.

2. 02

   Client Identification

   Who your target clients are and the three lead generation strategies: your existing clients, strategic partners, and the associations where owners already gather.

3. 03

   Advisory Conversion

   The Four-Step Conversion Process, from the first meeting with an owner through the advisory engagement.

4. 04

   Client Onboarding

   How to start every engagement well, from the administrative setup to the kickoff meeting.

5. 05

   Monthly Performance

   The One Clear Path and the twelve cash flow drivers, and what to do before, during and after every monthly client meeting.

6. 06

   Annual Planning

   How to run the annual planning meeting and use a five-year plan to deepen the engagement.

Every course ends with exercises, so you finish each one having done something in your own practice.

Three systems to find, sign and serve clients

• Find them. Three lead generation strategies built on trust that already exists, starting with the clients you serve today.
• Sign them. The Four-Step Conversion Process, a sales process for people who don't like selling. Each step is a real conversation with the owner.
• Serve them. The One Clear Path, the six-step monthly process you run with every client in any industry: set targets, review actuals, create the forecast, score it, build the 30-day action plan, and meet and repeat. It takes two to four hours a month per client.

Tools and resources

• The CFO Workbook for running your own practice and the Client Workbook for every client engagement
• Templates for your service agreement, proposals and promotion
• The pricing and packaging for your new service, so you know what to charge and what to sell
• The Client Center, software built on our methodology where you review each client's numbers and build their action plan, rolling out now to members

Support and community

• A weekly peer roundtable, led by an executive coach and a CFO Mentor who runs a CFO Advisory practice
• Unlimited support from our CFO Mentors and trainers through office hours, the forum and your roundtable
• The member forum, where more than 500 active members answer each other's questions, on desktop and in The CFO Project Hub app
• Live monthly masterclasses with a recorded on-demand library, plus monthly expert-led workshops
• A path to Certified CFO™, earned by completing the training and landing your first client
• A money-back guarantee if you do the work and don't land a paying client within your first year. See the pricing and guarantee for the full terms.

On average, our most committed members land their first CFO Advisory client in four to six months. The biggest difference is whether you start with a book of existing clients you can offer the service to.

Is CFO Training Right for You?

Our members come from every corner of accounting. Most of them start from one of these four places.

CFO Certification and Course Paths

This page is the starting point for everything we teach about becoming a CFO Advisor. If you're researching a specific credential or course, these guides go deeper.

CFO Certification. What a CFO certification is, which credentials exist, and what each one is worth to small business clients. Members can earn Certified CFO™, The CFO Project's own certification and a registered certification mark, by completing the six courses and landing at least one CFO Advisory client.

Fractional CFO Certification. For people who already know they want to work as a fractional CFO and want to compare certification options and what they require.

Fractional CFO Course. What a fractional CFO course should cover, how it's delivered, and how much time and money to plan for.

How to Become a Fractional CFO. A step-by-step roadmap from where you are today to your first paying advisory client.

CPE Credit

Most of our free live trainings are eligible for 1.0 CPE credit each, and members attend monthly CPE webinars as part of their membership. Every session is in the Business Management and Organization field of study and is delivered Group Internet Based. The CFO Project is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, Sponsor ID #148330. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. See free CPE-eligible training for how to earn credit and our full policies.

What Members Say

More than 1,100 CFO Advisors have trained with The CFO Project. Read more member reviews.