Introduction
Most owners meet their numbers once a month, in a report about last month. By then the money has already moved.
I came to this work as an operator, not a consultant. As a partner in a 160-unit repositioning, I ran the finance side during a $2.1M rehab — draw reports, lender reporting, the works — with my own money and my own guaranty on the line. That experience rewired how I think about what a finance person should actually do for a property owner.
I started Brick by Brick Financial to do that work for multifamily operators doing $1–10M. Here are the 10 things I believe your fractional CFO should be doing for you — the standard I hold my own work to.
1. Start with your goal, not last year's numbers
A budget that does not start with a goal is just last year, plus 5%.
Are you holding for 10 years, or selling in 3?
Refinancing, or paying down?
Taking distributions, or building reserves?
Each answer builds a different budget, a different forecast, and different day-to-day calls.
The finance work itself changes when the goal changes. A property you plan to exit is run very differently from one you plan to hold — I learned that firsthand when the plan for our own property shifted. So the first job is the goal. Then the numbers get built backward from it.
2. Understand the operations, not just the spreadsheet
A CFO who has never walked a unit turn should not be forecasting your property, because the numbers live in the operations: a turn that takes 9 days instead of 4, a work order that gets fixed twice, a leasing agent who is great at tours and slow at follow-up.
None of that shows up in a P&L until a month later. It shows up on site the same day. A good fractional CFO asks how the property actually runs before touching a spreadsheet — who approves spending, how turns are priced, where the leaks are.
I came up through operations and ownership, not just finance. That order matters. Operations first, models second.
3. Be a second set of eyes
Oversight is not a lack of trust. It is how trust gets built.
The rent roll says one thing. Bank deposits say another. Neither is lying — but somebody has to match them, every month, and ask about the gap. During the rehab, I worked with draw reports across many independent contractors, and the system was simple: work verified, then money moved. Not the other way around.
Your fractional CFO should be that second set of eyes: rent collected vs. rent billed, work done vs. work paid for, budget vs. actual with a reason for every big gap. Good people welcome this. It protects them, too.
4. Make your current software look forward
"Our software already does all of that." I hear this a lot — I said a version of it myself, as an owner.
Here is the plain truth: your property software is good at showing what happened. Last month's rent. Last month's bills. History. It does not tell you what is coming in the next 13 weeks. That is not a software failure; it is just not the job it was built for.
A fractional CFO should not sell you new software to fix a cash problem. He should make the stack you already have produce a forward view — and tell you honestly if one tool really is holding you back. I am software-agnostic on purpose. Your software shows what happened. My job is to tell you what is coming.
5. Question the business model, not just the totals
Ten small properties are not a small version of one big property. They are ten roofs, ten tax bills, ten insurance policies, and often ten loans — adding up to real unit counts and real complexity.
That scattered model can work very well, but it has to be run on purpose. Which properties carry the portfolio, and which ones eat the cash? Does in-house maintenance still pay at your size, or is it a fixed cost you carry in slow months? Is each property priced as its own business, or as an afterthought?
Sometimes the best finance move is not a better spreadsheet. It is fixing the shape of the portfolio. A fractional CFO should question the model, not just total it up.
6. Price the big decisions before you make them
Roof now, or patch it one more year? Refinance, or hold? Sell the weak property, or fix it?
Most owners make these calls on gut, then use the numbers to explain the call afterward. Run it the other way. Before you decide, a good fractional CFO should show you, on one clear page you can argue with: what it does to cash in the next 13 weeks, what it does to cash this year, and what you give up if you wait. Not a 40-tab model.
I have made these calls with my own money and my own guaranty on the line. That changes how careful the math gets.
7. Keep you bank-ready all year
The worst time to meet your lender is the day you need something.
Bank-ready means three habits: a reporting packet your lender can read in five minutes; debt sized off current rent rolls — what the property can actually carry, not what you hope it will; and no surprises, so if a bad quarter is coming, your lender hears it from you first, with a plan.
I use debt service coverage for one job: sizing. How much debt the rent roll supports, with room to spare. It is not a monthly score to admire — cash in dollars is what pays people. Borrowers who report well, before they are asked, get treated differently when it matters.
8. Tell partners and lenders the story, in plain words
Partners, lenders, and investors do not need more data. They need the story the data tells, in plain words.
A fractional CFO should be able to stand in front of your partners and answer, without shuffling paper: Where did the cash go? What changed from the plan? What happens next, and what do you need from them?
I built draw and partner reporting during the rehab, for people whose money it actually was. You learn fast that a clean packet, on time, with the bad news included, builds more trust than a perfect quarter does. Good reporting is not decoration. It is how you keep partners calm and lenders close.
9. Interpret the financials — down to real distributable cash
Your P&L is a history book. It is accurate, and it is late.
"Vacancy was 8%." So what? "Repairs ran over." By how much, why — and is it finished, or is it a pattern? Interpreting financials is the step between the statement and the decision: this property made money on paper and lost cash, and here is why. This cost is a one-time event; this one is your new normal. And after debt, taxes, insurance, and the roof reserve, this is what you can actually take out.
That last number — real distributable cash — is the one most owners never see in writing. It is the core of what I do: not more reports, but clear ones, that end in a call about what to do next.
10. Keep a risk list, with a cash plan for each one
Every property has a short list of things that can hurt it in one hit: an insurance renewal that jumps, a tax bill you estimated wrong, two big units empty in the same month, a rate reset, a roof, a loan coming due.
None of these are surprises, really. They are dates and numbers you can see a year out — if someone is looking. A fractional CFO should keep that risk list in front of you, with a cash plan for each one. I have carried a personal guaranty on a construction loan; I do not treat risk as a theory anymore. It has a name and a due date.
You cannot remove the risks of owning property. You can stop being surprised by them.
The common thread
All 10 come down to one habit: see the cash before it is a crisis. Goals first, a 13-week view, reporting a lender respects, and no surprises — that is the job.
If your current reporting tells you what happened last month but not what is coming, start with a free Cash-Flow X-Ray: a short review of where your cash actually stands, and the crunch most likely to hit next.
— Correy Krickeberg, Founder, Brick by Brick Financial (Yorkville, Illinois)