Why Cromwell
The average small business owner spends more than 240 hours a year on accounting, bookkeeping, and taxes. That is six full work weeks. Cromwell gives them back.
The Problem
According to SCORE, the majority of small business owners spend more than 41 hours on federal tax preparation alone each year.2 Forty percent report spending more than 80 hours on taxes annually — and that is before bookkeeping, payroll, reconciliation, financial reporting, or the dozens of accounting-adjacent decisions that land on a CEO's desk every month.
Add it up across a full year — bookkeeping at 10 to 15 hours per month,5 tax preparation at 41 to 100-plus hours,1 payroll administration, bank reconciliation, financial statement review, and ad hoc CFO-type questions — and the total exceeds 240 hours for most businesses in the $1M–$15M revenue range. That is six full forty-hour work weeks consumed by financial administration instead of growing the company.
"40% of small business owners say bookkeeping and taxes are the worst part of owning a business — not competition, not hiring, not sales. Accounting."
SCORE, The Burden of Small Business Accounting, Taxes and Payroll2
The financial consequences compound the time cost. SCORE found that most small business owners spend at least $1,000 per year on accounting administrative costs. The National Small Business Association found that more than one in four small business owners spends over 100 hours per year on federal taxes alone.1 Accounting errors result in an average of $3,534 in annual tax overpayments.6
The CFO Problem
A full-time CFO costs between $350,000 and $500,000 annually — salary, bonus, benefits, equity, and recruiting fees combined.9 For a $5M or $10M business, that figure represents 5–10% of gross revenue dedicated to a single finance executive.
Most businesses in the $1M–$15M range don't need a full-time CFO. They need what a CFO does: clean books, accurate financial statements every month, strategic advisory on cash position, and someone who actually looks at the numbers before a problem becomes a crisis.
The fractional CFO market grew 103% year-over-year in the United States as demand for this exact solution surged — businesses found they could get CFO-caliber financial oversight at a fraction of the cost by engaging fractional or outsourced providers.10
"Choosing fractional over full-time saves a growing company $415,000 to $634,000 per year — for equivalent expertise applied to the decisions that actually matter."
CFO Advisors, 2025 Fractional CFO Cost Benchmark11
What changed is delivery. AI-assisted bookkeeping, cloud accounting platforms, and workflow automation have made it possible for a fractional CFO and a skilled bookkeeper to serve thirty or more clients with the consistency and quality that used to require a dedicated in-house team. The expertise is the same. The delivery model — and the price — is fundamentally different.
The Numbers
Cromwell's Core CFO Program bundles bookkeeping, four monthly financial statements, a metrics report, and dedicated CFO advisory hours into a single monthly retainer — at 47 to 55% below what you'd pay for the same services purchased separately.3
| Revenue Band | Market Rate | Cromwell | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $500K | $2,000–$4,000 / mo | $1,450 / mo | ~35–55% |
| $500K–$1M | $3,000–$6,000 / mo | $1,850 / mo | ~40–55% |
| $1M–$3M | $3,500–$8,000 / mo | $2,200–$2,650 / mo | ~40–55% |
| $3M–$5M ★ | $5,500–$9,000 / mo | $2,950 / mo | ~47–55% |
| $5M–$7M ★ | $6,500–$10,000 / mo | $3,400 / mo | ~47–55% |
| $7M–$15M ★ | $7,000–$12,500 / mo | $3,950–$4,750 / mo | ~48–56% |
| $15M–$25M | $10,000–$20,000 / mo | $5,800–$7,200 / mo | ~42–55% |
★ Cromwell sweet-spot target segment. Market rates sourced from NerdWallet, K38 Consulting, OpsFi, Ledgerive, TGG Accounting, Graphite Financial, and CEO Finance Academy (2025–2026).3
The Difference
The fractional CFO and bookkeeping market is large, fragmented, and largely undifferentiated. Solo bookkeepers charge $300–$1,500 per month but offer no strategic layer.12 National fractional CFO firms charge $5,000–$15,000 monthly but rarely include bookkeeping.9 Traditional CPA firms deliver both, but at prices calibrated for enterprise clients and with service delivery models built before AI existed.
Cromwell was built in the gap between those alternatives. One program. One fee. One team that handles both the transactional work and the strategic conversation — with delivery technology that lets a pod of two people serve thirty clients at the quality level that used to require six.
"The cost of outsourcing accounting services is typically 40–60% lower than maintaining an in-house department — and businesses with professional accounting support are twice as likely to secure funding or capital investment."
Silver Bell Group, Complete Guide to Accounting Outsourcing 2025;13 AICPA, Small Business Financial Health Survey14
Cromwell uses Claude (Anthropic) to automate transaction classification, anomaly detection, and draft financial narratives — not to replace professional judgment, but to extend it. Every AI action is logged, explained, and available for client review. The result is faster delivery, fewer errors, and a complete audit trail that transparency-conscious clients and their lenders can rely on.
Every deliverable — books closed, statements generated, metrics report distributed — is guaranteed by the 15th of each month. Not aspirationally. As a contractual commitment graded in the client portal. A grades for on-time delivery. B through D for anything less. Clients see the grade. The team sees it too. Accountability, built into the product.
The Cromwell client portal gives business owners a real-time view of their delivery status, a message thread with their CFO and bookkeeper, and the Guided Action Engine — one-click workflows for common business events that assemble every document a business owner needs in minutes instead of hours. A vehicle purchase authorization, a new hire package, an owner draw memo. All of it generated from a three-minute intake, not a three-day back-and-forth.
Start with a 15-minute conversation. We'll confirm your tier, walk through exactly what's included, and tell you what the first month looks like.