Full-Time CFO, Fractional CFO or Accounting Firm: How a $10M+ Ecommerce Brand Should Choose
By Sam Hill, Founder & CEO, Ecom CFO · Updated October 2026
When a founder calls me about finance help, they’re usually weighing the same four options: hire a full-time CFO, retain a solo fractional CFO, hand it to a generalist accounting firm, or bring in an ecommerce-specialist team. One of those is us, so read this knowing that.
The short version: hire full-time when you’re heading past $100M or finance has to run several departments every day. Below that, the real questions are what you’re buying in hours, who’s behind the person on your account, and what happens to your books the week they leave.
The four options, in plain terms
Full-time CFO hire. One executive on payroll. You get all of their attention and their network. You also carry the search, the ramp, the equity and the risk that they move on in two years.
Solo fractional CFO. One experienced finance person selling you a slice of their week, usually 15 to 40 hours a month. Cheap to start. Entirely dependent on that one person’s calendar and the last few clients they learned on.
Generalist accounting firm. A CPA or outsourced accounting shop that serves a lot of industries. Good at compliance and the close. Marketplace settlements, landed cost and contribution margin by channel are usually not the day job.
Ecommerce-specialist finance team. A fractional CFO and analyst over a controller and bookkeeper, all of them working only with ecommerce brands. That’s what Ecom CFO is. It’s the column I have the most to say about, so judge it against the other three with that in mind.
The honest comparison
You have other ways to solve this. Here’s how they stack up.
| Full-time CFO hire | Solo fractional CFO | Generalist firm | Ecom CFO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | $200K–$300K in cash; $250K–$400K+ with bonus and equity | $60K–$150K, one person’s hours | $60K–$120K, often plus hourly extras | $60K–$200K fixed, all four roles |
| Ecommerce depth | Depends on the hire | One person’s past clients | Rarely channel-fluent | 100% of our clients are ecommerce brands |
| Coverage and redundancy | One person; vacations and exits hurt | None; illness or churn stops work | Pooled staff, revolving faces | Team of four, plus a bench behind them |
| Speed to value | 3–6 month search plus ramp | 2–6 weeks | 4–8 weeks | Kickoff in 30 days; CFO-only in about 2 weeks |
| If the person leaves | Restart the search | Start over from zero | You get whoever is free | We re-staff from the bench; no re-search |
Costs are 2026 ranges for brands between $10M and $50M. The full-time cash figure matches the cost page. The solo fractional and generalist ranges are what prospects tell me they’re paying before they call.
Annual cost: the number that lies is the full-time one
The full-time hire is the only option where the headline understates the cost. Salary is $200,000 to $300,000 for a brand this size. Bonus and equity take the package to $250,000 to $400,000 or more, and you still need a controller and accountants under them.
A solo fractional CFO at $60,000 to $150,000 buys hours, not a finance function. Do the math on a $4,500-a-month “all-in” quote: at $300 an hour that’s 15 hours a month for bookkeeping, close, forecast, AP and AR. Something came out.
Generalist firms look cheapest on the proposal and bill extras by the hour for anything outside the standard close. The specialist team is one fixed fee for all four roles. I walked through how I build that fee on the cost page.
Ecommerce depth: does this person know what a settlement is?
Ecommerce finance has its own problems. Marketplace deposits that arrive net of fees. Landed cost that moves with tariffs and freight. Contribution margin that only means something by channel. Inventory that eats cash months before it turns into revenue.
A full-time hire has whatever depth that one person brings. A solo fractional has the depth of their last few clients. A generalist firm handles dentists and SaaS companies in the same week and is rarely fluent in channel economics.
A specialist team sees dozens of ecommerce P&Ls every month. That’s also what makes our cohort benchmarks possible.
Coverage: who closes the books when your person is on vacation?
Finance is a deadline business. Flash numbers by the 10th, the close, the cash forecast and the lender report don’t move because someone is out.
One person, employee or solo fractional, has no backup. A generalist firm has staff, but the faces rotate and context leaves with them. A team of four with a bench behind it keeps the same people on your account and still covers a vacation, an illness or a new baby.
Speed to value: months versus weeks
A full-time CFO search takes three to six months before the ramp even starts. A solo fractional can begin in two to six weeks. A generalist firm in four to eight.
At Ecom CFO, kickoff is within 30 days of signing and a CFO-only engagement starts in about two weeks. The first 13-week cash flow forecast and the first close land in month one. The whole sequence is on the cost page.
If the person leaves: the row everyone skips
This is the one founders don’t ask about and then regret. When a full-time CFO resigns, you restart a six-month search while the books drift. When a solo fractional moves on, you start from zero with someone new.
When a generalist firm loses your account manager, you get whoever is free that week. A team with a bench re-staffs the seat from people who already work in the same systems. No re-search.
Which one I’d tell you to pick
I’ll say it plainly, including the cases where it isn’t us.
| Choose this | When |
|---|---|
| Full-time CFO hire | Revenue is heading past $100M, finance has to coordinate several departments daily, or you are preparing for a transaction that needs a named executive in the room. Many brands at this stage keep the specialist team for accounting under the new CFO. |
| Solo fractional CFO | You already have a strong controller and clean accrual books, you need strategic hours rather than a function, and you can live with the key-person risk. |
| Generalist firm | The business is simple, mostly one channel and one entity, and compliance and a clean close are the whole need for now. |
| Ecommerce-specialist finance team | You are between roughly $5M and $100M, sell through more than one channel, carry inventory, and want CFO decisions and the accounting that feeds them from one team that will still be there next year. |
Book 30 minutes. We’ll walk through your channels, entities, inventory and lender situation, and I’ll tell you honestly whether a full-time hire, a solo fractional or a team is the right next step. Sometimes the answer is “not yet.”
Frequently asked questions
Should an ecommerce brand hire a full-time CFO or a fractional CFO?
Hire full-time when revenue is approaching $100M or finance needs daily cross-department leadership. Below that, a fractional arrangement gets you the same decisions at a quarter to a half of the cost, and a team-based one removes the key-person risk a solo fractional carries.
What is the difference between a fractional CFO and an outsourced accounting firm?
A fractional CFO makes forward-looking decisions: forecasts, budgets, models, lender and investor work. An outsourced accounting firm records the past: transactions, reconciliations, the close and the statements. You need both, which is why some firms, ours included, put them on one team.
How much does each option cost for a $10M to $50M ecommerce brand?
Full-time CFO: $200,000 to $300,000 in cash, $250,000 to $400,000 or more with bonus and equity, before the controller and accountants under them. Solo fractional CFO: $60,000 to $150,000 a year. Generalist firm: $60,000 to $120,000 plus hourly extras. Ecommerce-specialist team with CFO, analyst, controller and bookkeeper: $60,000 to $200,000 fixed.
What happens if my fractional CFO leaves?
With a solo fractional you start over with someone new. With a team-based firm the seat gets re-staffed from people already working in your systems, so the close, the forecast and the lender reporting keep going without a search.
When should a DTC brand move from a bookkeeper to a CFO-led finance team?
When inventory, multiple channels and cash cycles start driving decisions the bookkeeper can’t inform: a six-figure purchase order, a credit line, a second entity, or an investor asking for a forecast. For most brands that’s somewhere between $5M and $10M in revenue.
