Strategic financial guidance for Rhode Island business owners who have outgrown DIY decision-making but aren’t ready to hire a full-time CFO.
When You Need a CFO Advisor (Not Just a Bookkeeper)
Most Rhode Island small businesses hire a bookkeeper, get clean monthly statements, and stop there. That works when you’re under $500K in revenue. But once you cross that line, the numbers start hiding bigger questions:
- Why does our P&L look fine while cash is tight?
- Should we hire another tech, or is the margin not there yet?
- Is the truck loan we want to take actually affordable?
- What’s our break-even on a new service line?
- How much can the owner draw without starving the business?
A bookkeeper records what happened. A CFO Advisor helps you decide what to do next — and protects you from the financial mistakes that quietly stall growth.
Tradepoint CFOs provides CFO advisory services to Rhode Island businesses doing roughly $500K–$2M in revenue. We work alongside owners and their bookkeepers (yours or ours) to translate the numbers into decisions.
What’s Included in CFO Advisory
Every engagement is built around your business, but most include:
- Monthly financial review meeting — We sit down (in person or by video) and walk through what the numbers are telling us
- Cash flow forecasting — 13-week rolling cash flow so you know what’s coming, not just what already happened
- KPI dashboard tailored to your industry — Job profitability for contractors, patient revenue mix for healthcare practices, utilization for service firms
- Budgeting and variance analysis — A real plan for the year, then monthly tracking against it
- Pricing and margin guidance — When to raise prices, when to walk away from a job, where margin is leaking
- Hiring and capacity planning — Can you afford the next hire? When do you actually need them?
- Bank and lender preparation — Cleaner package, faster approvals when you need financing
- Owner compensation planning — Salary vs. distribution mix, what the business can actually sustain
- Quarterly strategic planning — Step back from operations, look at the next 12 months
- Year-end tax planning coordinated with your CPA
Who We Work With
We’re a CFO Advisor for Rhode Island small businesses across industries, but we go deepest in three areas:
Contractors & Trades
Electricians, plumbers, HVAC, general contractors, landscapers, roofers. We understand job costing, retention, change orders, and the cash flow whiplash of project-based work.
Healthcare Practices
Dental, chiropractic, physical therapy, mental health. We understand insurance mix, patient revenue cycle, associate compensation models, and equipment financing.
Professional Services
Law firms, design studios, consultancies, marketing agencies. We understand utilization, recurring revenue, partner draws, and the lumpy revenue of project work.
If you’re in another industry doing $500K–$2M, the framework still works. We’ll tell you on the consultation if we’re not the right fit.
How Tradepoint CFOs Is Different
Flat-fee monthly engagements, not hourly. You’ll never get a surprise invoice or hesitate to pick up the phone because the meter is running. Pricing is set in advance and locked in for the engagement.
Locally based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. We understand RI sales tax, the state’s specific filing requirements, and the rhythms of New England business cycles. You’re not getting a virtual CFO from Texas reading off a script.
Direct access to your advisor — not a rotating account team. When you call, you reach the person who knows your business. No tier-one queue.
Five-plus year track record working with Rhode Island small businesses across multiple economic cycles.
QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Xero Advisor certified — fluent in the tools you actually use.
How We Work — A Typical Engagement
Week 1 — Discovery & cleanup. We review your current books, tax history, and recent financials. If there’s cleanup needed before advisory makes sense, we’ll flag it.
Week 2–3 — Onboarding. We build your initial KPI dashboard, set up cash flow forecasting, and define what success looks like for the next 90 days.
Ongoing — Monthly cadence.
- Mid-month: Financial review meeting (60–90 minutes)
- End of month: Updated forecast, KPI dashboard, and a written summary of the three things to watch
- Quarterly: Strategic planning session
- Always-on: Phone, email, or text access for the questions that don’t wait for the monthly meeting
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a CFO Advisor different from a Fractional CFO?
A Fractional CFO is embedded in your business part-time doing the actual CFO work — managing finance staff, signing checks, running the back office. A CFO Advisor sits beside you as a strategic guide. We help you make better financial decisions, but we’re not running your finance function day to day. For most $500K–$2M businesses, advisory is what you actually need (and what you can afford).
Do you also do our bookkeeping?
We can. Many clients use Tradepoint CFOs for both bookkeeping and CFO advisory because it’s tighter and faster than running two vendors. But if you already have a bookkeeper you trust, we work with them — we don’t require you to switch.
What does a CFO advisory engagement cost?
Pricing varies by complexity, transaction volume, and how deep you want us to go. Every engagement is a flat monthly fee — no hourly billing, no surprises. We’ll quote a specific number on the free consultation once we understand your business.
Do you work with businesses outside of Rhode Island?
Our home market is Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts. We occasionally work with businesses in nearby states by referral, but our knowledge is deepest with RI tax law, RI filing requirements, and the New England small business landscape.
Can you help us get ready for a bank loan or SBA financing?
Yes. We package the financials, projections, and narrative your lender will need, and we sit in on the lender meeting if helpful. Cleaner package = faster approval and often better terms.
How long is the typical engagement?
Most engagements run 12 months or longer. The first 60–90 days are heavy lift (cleanup, onboarding, baseline). After that, the value compounds — by month 6 you have a year of trended KPIs and a cash forecast that’s actually accurate.
Other Service Areas
We provide CFO advisory across Rhode Island. Find your city:
We also serve Newport, East Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and surrounding communities.
Ready to See What a CFO Advisor Can Do for Your Business?
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation. We’ll talk through where your business is now, what financial questions are keeping you up at night, and whether a CFO advisor is the right next step.
No sales pitch. No pressure. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you on the call.
Or call (401) 264-8828.
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