A Rennes, a small business signing an external growth contract needs a reliable financing plan within three weeks. The manager is already handling production, sales, and HR. The accountant produces the annual financial statement, but not a cash flow forecast for the next six months. This is exactly the type of situation where the question of financial management arises concretely, well before having the budget for a salaried financial director position.
Structuring the finance function without hiring full-time
It is often observed in SMEs with ten to one hundred employees: accounting is running, tax obligations are met, but no one is managing the financial strategy on a daily basis. The manager alone makes decisions regarding cash flow, investment, or pricing, sometimes based on an Excel spreadsheet that hasn’t been updated in two months.
Engaging a part-time CFO in Rennes allows for the establishment of an operational financial direction without bearing the burden of a full-time executive. This involves a tailored intervention, often a few days per month, adjusted according to activity peaks or ongoing projects.
The part-time CFO intervenes in decisions, not in accounting entry. Their added value lies in analysis, projection, and bank negotiation, where the accountant generally stops.
Financial reporting and cash flow forecasting: concrete deliverables
What distinguishes an external CFO from occasional consulting is the recurrence of deliverables. We are not talking about a one-time audit, but about structured follow-up with shared tools.
The most common missions in the Rennes area include:
- Construction and monthly updating of a rolling cash flow forecast, with optimistic and degraded scenarios to anticipate cash tensions
- Establishment of a monthly financial reporting that is actionable for the manager, not a fifty-page document but a synthetic dashboard with the key indicators (gross margin, working capital requirement, EBITDA)
- Preparation of bank financing or fundraising files, including the business plan and forecasts expected by financial partners
- Direct negotiation with banks and guarantee organizations, acting as the financial director in front of interlocutors
This recurrence creates a management effect that the manager cannot replicate alone. The CFO knows the history, monitors the discrepancies between forecasts and actuals, and alerts before the problem becomes an emergency.
CSRD and non-financial reporting: an expanded role for the external CFO
The European CSRD directive, fully in force for mid-sized enterprises, imposes a more advanced structuring of governance and non-financial reporting. For Rennes-based SMEs subcontracting with mid-sized or large groups, this regulatory pressure has a cascading effect.
Part-time CFOs are increasingly positioning themselves on the structuring of ESG and CSR indicators. This involves setting up impact indicators, sustainability reporting, and compliance support. This is no longer a topic reserved for large companies.
In practical terms, an external CFO can build the framework for collecting non-financial data, define relevant indicators for the sector, and prepare the reporting that will be requested by clients or investors. Feedback on this point varies depending on the company’s maturity, but the trend is clear: ignoring the subject becomes a commercial risk.
Part-time CFO or accountant: two complementary functions
The confusion between the two roles arises consistently. The accountant produces annual accounts, ensures tax and social compliance, and delivers a regulated certificate. The CFO manages the financial strategy and participates in management decisions.
An accountant generally will not:
- Build a financing plan for an acquisition or external growth
- Negotiate banking terms face-to-face with the account manager
- Establish monthly management control with variance analysis
- Support the manager in the management committee on budgetary arbitrations
The two functions complement each other. The part-time CFO works with the data produced by the accounting firm and transforms it into decision-making tools. When the collaboration is well organized, the manager gains visibility without multiplying unnecessary contacts.
Cost and intervention modalities in Rennes
The economic model of part-time work is based on daily billing or a monthly flat fee. A senior financial management skill is mobilized for a fraction of the salary cost of an equivalent position. The workload is variable and adapts to the phases of the company’s life: more intense during a fundraising or restructuring, lighter during cruising phases.
In Rennes, the ecosystem of external CFOs has been structured in recent years, driven by the tech and digital dynamics of the Rennes region. The available profiles are often senior financial executives who have chosen part-time work as their mode of operation, a trend described as “fractional leadership” where a return to a previous income level is generally observed in less than two years.
Criteria for choosing your external CFO
The first filter is sector experience. A CFO who has managed finance for industrial companies will not be immediately operational in a SaaS startup, and vice versa. The second criterion concerns the ability to work with existing tools, whether it be an ERP, cash management software, or simply Excel.
The quality of the relationship with the manager is as important as technical competence. The part-time CFO participates in strategic decisions. If the chemistry is not there, the mission will be unproductive.
Financial management of a Rennes-based SME is not just about producing numbers. It is a work of anticipation, negotiation, and structuring that requires an experienced profile, mobilized at the right time, on the right issues. Part-time work makes this skill accessible without transforming the payroll.
