About & Approach
A CFO who works inside your business, not alongside it
CFOs In Action was founded on a straightforward idea: the finance discipline that large companies take for granted should be available to businesses long before they can justify a full-time CFO salary.
Who we are
Based in Markham. Working across Canada and the U.S.
We are a fractional CFO practice serving owner-led and investor-backed companies. Our work sits at the intersection of strategy and execution: setting the financial direction, then making sure the reporting, forecasting, and controls exist to follow it.
Engagements are deliberately senior and deliberately part-time. You get a finance leader in the room for the decisions that matter, at a fraction of the cost and commitment of a permanent hire — and without the ramp-up of a new executive search.
We work remotely with clients across both countries and meet in person with those in the Greater Toronto Area when the situation calls for it.
How engagements run
Four phases, from first conversation to ongoing cadence
Discovery
We start with a working session covering your goals for the next 12 to 36 months, the constraints you feel today, and how decisions currently get made. No prep required beyond access to recent financials.
Diagnostic
A structured review of cash position and cycle, margin by revenue stream, the quality and timeliness of your reporting, and the controls and systems behind it. You receive written findings ranked by impact.
Build
We build the operating model and management reporting the business needs — a driver-based forecast, a rolling cash view, and a KPI pack the leadership team can read in ten minutes.
Operate
An ongoing rhythm: a monthly financial review with the owner or leadership team, a quarterly re-forecast and priority reset, and support for board, lender, or investor conversations as they arise.
What we believe
Principles we work by
Forward-looking first
History explains. Forecasts decide. Every engagement produces a view of what comes next.
One version of the numbers
The board pack, the lender report, and the internal dashboard should all reconcile.
Plain language
If a finding cannot be explained to a non-financial owner in two sentences, it is not finished.
Owned, not advised
We take accountability for the deliverables, not just recommendations on a slide.
Sized to the stage
The right model for a $3M business is not a scaled-down enterprise process.
Build capability
The goal is a finance function that keeps working — including after our scope changes.
Client perspective
What businesses say about working with us
"We were growing fast but our finance function hadn't kept pace — reporting was reactive and we weren't board-ready. CFOs In Action came in as a fractional CFO, built out proper monthly reporting and a forecasting model, and got us to a place where we could confidently talk to investors about growth capital. It felt like finally having a real finance partner instead of just a bookkeeper."
"We were stuck deciding between two ERP systems and nobody internally had run that kind of evaluation before. Muhammad built out the cost/benefit case, ran the vendor conversations with us, and made sure the finance requirements — inventory costing, multi-entity consolidation, reporting — were actually addressed before we signed anything. It saved us from a decision we'd have regretted."
"We had steady revenue but chronic cash crunches between draws. CFOs In Action put in a 13-week cash flow forecast tied to our project schedules and retainage, and restructured how we billed and collected. Within two quarters we went from constantly juggling payables to having a predictable cash position, which took a huge amount of stress off our ownership group."
Let's talk about what your numbers should be telling you.
A 30-minute introductory call, no cost and no obligation. We'll discuss where you are, where you're headed, and whether fractional CFO support is the right fit.