Free training this week on becoming a CFO
For CPAs and accountants
Increase your income and smooth out your seasons by becoming a CFO Advisor
Rely less on tax season, and use your expertise to help small business owners succeed.
Your business clients already trust you with their numbers. CFO Advisory is a monthly service that turns that trust into high-margin, recurring revenue. The CFO Project gives you the systems, the training and the support to add it to your practice.
Over 1,100 CFOs follow our system. The average CFO in our program charges $1,978 per client per month.
1,100+
CFOs trained to date
500+
active members building their practices
$1,978
average our members charge per client, per month
1 in 2
proposals converted by members following our sales system
The problem
You're stuck in the Accountant's Trap
Many CPAs and accountants are stuck in what we call The Accountant's Trap. You're working for low fees, dealing with high-demand clients, and burning out on seasonal compliance and transactional work.
To earn an extra dollar, you must take on more clients and more long days because your fee is tied to the hours or returns you put in.
CFO Advisory gives you a way out of the trap. It's a recurring monthly service where you guide business owners toward their goals, and it pays you all year long.
What the trap looks like
01
Low fees, high demands
You're burning out on seasonal compliance and transactional work for clients who expect more every year.
02
Pricing you can't raise
AI, automation and offshoring cap what you can charge for compliance work.
03
Income packed into a few months
Tax season makes it harder. Most of your income arrives in a few intense months, and you spend the rest of the year getting ready for the next round of returns.
CFO Advisory vs. tax advisory
CFO Advisory vs. tax advisory services: two services that work together
If you've looked into adding advisory work to your practice, you may have considered adding tax advisory services. Tax advisory and CFO Advisory are two different services, and many CPAs offer both.
Tax advisory services help a business owner plan around taxes. You advise on things like entity structure, the timing of income and expenses, and the deductions and credits the business can claim. You plan around the tax calendar and usually bill by the project.
CFO Advisory is the service a CFO Advisor provides. A CFO Advisor is a trusted guide who helps a small business owner reach their own definition of success and generate consistent, positive cash flow. You run a monthly process with the owner that begins with setting targets and then reviewing actuals, creating the forecast, scoring it and building the 30-day action plan. The owner pays a monthly fee for that guidance.
The two services make each other stronger.
When you meet with a client every month, you know their business far better by the time tax season arrives, and your tax planning gets sharper because of it. You already have the client's trust, access to their numbers, and context around their business, so CFO Advisory is a natural service to add beside the tax work you do today.
See what a CFO Advisor does day to day →Why CPAs
Why CPAs are already positioned to offer CFO Advisory
You have three major things that any outside advisor won't have. Most business coaches can't explain how the advice they give will affect cash flow, but you can.
You may not be qualified to be Coca-Cola's next CFO, but you're probably qualified to guide a business doing between $500,000 and $5 million in annual revenue. Those owners need someone who understands their numbers and can help them decide what to do next, and very few of them have that person. There are 36 million small businesses in the US, and nearly half of them won't reach their fifth birthday. These owners need your CFO Advisory service.
01
Trust from business clients
Your clients already rely on you with their numbers, and that trust is what any outside advisor has to earn from scratch.
02
Access to their numbers
You can read a client's financials and see what's driving the business, so you can explain how a decision will affect cash flow.
03
Context about their business
Your clients are probably asking you for CFO Advisory already, in the questions they ask. They ask whether they can afford to hire, whether the new equipment makes sense, or why the bank balance dropped in a month that felt good. Those questions are the beginning of a CFO Advisory engagement, which is why the fastest path to your first client is usually a client you already serve.
The economics
What CFO Advisory adds to a tax practice
The average tax client pays about $750 a year. The average CFO Advisory client in our program pays $1,978 a month, or about $23,736 a year.
Eight clients is about $192,000 a year. At the average our members charge, that's around $16,000 a month, before any of your tax work, which you can keep or refer out.
The time fits. Our methodology lets you deliver the service in 2-4 hours per client per month, so eight clients is a manageable addition to a working tax practice.
See what advisory clients could add to your income →Average annual fee per client
What one client is worth in a year, by service
Tax$750
Bookkeeping$4,800
CFO Advisory$23,736
8 clients × $1,978/mo is about $16,000 a month, or $192,000 a year in CFO Advisory revenue.
On your terms
Add CFO Advisory to your tax practice on your terms
You decide how big a part of your practice CFO Advisory becomes.
Start with a few clients
Offer it to a few of your best tax clients who fit the criteria above: owners doing $500,000 to $5 million in annual revenue who are talking about business challenges. Keep your tax work running as it is today.
Shift your best clients
Move your best clients onto a monthly CFO Advisory service, and step back from lower-fee work over time.
Make it your whole practice
Some CPAs, like Joel below, make CFO Advisory their whole practice.
Starting from scratch as an employed accountant? You'll build your client base with our proven lead generation systems. These systems find clients through the associations where owners already gather and through strategic partners like bankers, attorneys and insurance advisors who serve the same owners you want to reach. See the path for employed accountants.
The program
How we help you build your CFO Advisory business
We give you the systems and support for an entire year.
Systems
Three proven systems to find, sign and serve clients, six self-paced courses to put them in place, and the pricing, workbooks and templates you'll use with every client.
Late 2026New members also get the CFO Client Center, our AI-powered software built on the system.
Support
Ours is a done-with-you program. For six months you'll meet weekly with a peer roundtable led by an executive coach and a CFO Mentor, backed by office hours and the forum.
Community
Join 500+ active members in The CFO Project Hub, with weekly live events, NASBA CPE-eligible masterclasses and an on-demand library of hundreds of recordings.
Certification and guarantee
A path to Certified CFO™, backed by a money-back guarantee
Some programs offer a certification for simply taking a course. You earn Certified CFO™ by completing the training, attending your weekly roundtables and landing your first advisory client, which shows prospects you've built and delivered the service.
If you do the work and don't land a paying client within your first year, you get your money back.
Member results
CPAs who made the move to CFO Advisory
Here's what CPAs and accounting practice owners say about adding CFO Advisory, in their own words.
★★★★★
“Since joining The CFO Project, I sold off the bulk of my tax practice and am just focusing on my CFO clients. I am now in line to make the most that I have ever made in my life this year.”
Joel S.Former tax practice owner★★★★★
“The CFO Project has helped me with my accounting practice in a few critical ways: understanding how to help clients achieve what they want, which is, surprise, not just taxes and bookkeeping; providing a framework to support and help clients with their businesses; and confidence in offering a scalable service.”
Google review
★★★★★
“The CFO Project has indeed been the sharpest tool in my toolbox used to create my own CPA Advisory practice. Definitely happy I said ‘Yes’ to this opportunity.”
Google review
★★★★★
“Clients struggle to express what they're really asking for (financial statements aren't it!) and I never did develop mind-reading capabilities. Even with all my years of experience I'm finding The CFO Project is teaching me new skills and better ways of supporting my clients.”
Marc Y.20 years in accounting, 10 running his own firmGoogle review
Your mentors
Meet Lacey Harnar, CPA & Certified CFO
CFO Mentor at The CFO Project
Lacey Harnar is a CPA & Certified CFO with The CFO Project. As a CPA, she has experienced the stress and strain of many tax seasons. As someone who is passionate about intentionally designing her business and life so that each day brings joy and satisfaction, she knew a business built solely on tax work would not allow her to achieve her larger goals. As a CFO, she is not only able to achieve her business and life goals, she is able to help other business owners do the same.
Lacey is one of our CFO Mentors. When you join The CFO Project, you can learn directly from Lacey and our other CFO Mentors, who have built CFO Advisory practices of their own, through office hours, the member forum and the weekly roundtables they help lead.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Still have questions? Book a Right-Fit Call and an Enrollment Advisor will walk you through it.
Is CFO Advisory the same as tax advisory?
No. Tax advisory helps a business owner plan around taxes, and the work follows the tax calendar. CFO Advisory helps the owner reach their own definition of success and generate consistent, positive cash flow, through The One Clear Path, a repeatable monthly system. Many CPAs offer both, and the two work well together.
Can I keep doing tax prep while I build this?
Yes. Many CPAs in our program keep their tax work and start by offering CFO Advisory to a few existing clients. The service takes 2-4 hours per client per month, so it runs alongside your tax practice, and you decide over time how much of your practice you want it to be.
Do I need a new license or credential?
You don't need a new license to offer CFO Advisory. If you also provide audit or review services, check your state board's independence rules before you offer advisory work to those same clients. Members can also earn Certified CFO™ by completing the training, attending their weekly roundtables and landing their first CFO Advisory client.
My clients don't need a CFO.
You're right, but they do need someone they trust to help them make more money. Whether you call yourself a CFO or something else almost doesn't matter.
I'm not qualified to be a CFO.
You may not be qualified to be Coca-Cola's next CFO, but you're probably qualified to guide a business doing between $500,000 and $5 million in annual revenue.
My clients can't afford this.
If someone wants something badly enough, they'll find a way to afford it. Owners pay for guidance that helps them make more money, and a CFO Advisory service is built to do exactly that.
All I know is tax and accounting. I've never run a business before.
You don't need more experience to launch this service. You need a system. Your technical background already lets you read a prospective client's numbers and understand what's driving their business, which most outside advisors can't do. The CFO Project gives you the rest: a repeatable system to find, sign and serve your clients, so you can sit down with any business owner and run the same monthly process every time.
I don't really know how to sell this service.
This is tricky. You can't walk up to a client and pitch your CFO service, because they don't know what a CFO is and won't think their small business needs one. Inside The CFO Project, the Four-Step Conversion Process shows you how to offer it in a way that gets owners to take action.
Two ways to start
Start with free CFO training or a Right-Fit Call
Start with a free training, or, if you've already watched one of our trainings, book a call with one of our Enrollment Advisors.
Free live training
Learn the strategies to become a CFO for small businesses
Discover how to earn $192,000 per year as a CFO for small businesses.
The session is also available as CPE-eligible training.
Secure Your Spot30-minute call
Book a Right-Fit Call
To see if our program is the right fit for you, book a call with one of our Enrollment Advisors.
Book a Right-Fit CallOther paths
Not a CPA? There's a path for you, too
Bookkeepers
Add CFO Advisory revenue to your bookkeeping practice, or start a service from scratch.
Bookkeeper to CFO →
Employed accountants
Start a CFO Advisory service on the side while you keep your job, then grow it when you're ready.
For employed accountants →
Full-time or fractional CFOs
Get a repeatable, scalable system to run inside your CFO Advisory practice.
For fractional CFOs →
Free Live Training this Week
Learn the Strategies to Become a CFO for Small Businesses
Learn the Strategies to Become a CFO for Small Businesses
Discover how to earn $192,000 per year as a CFO for small businesses.
If you're tired of competing on price, working long hours and/or just want to have more of an impact on your clients' lives you need to become a CFO to small businesses.
This training is eligible to receive CPE credit.
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