Fractional CFO & Controller Services
California Fractional CFO — Senior Financial Leadership, Part-Time
Serving All of California
CPA — California
CFE
Former Corporate Controller
Lobel Accountancy Corporation provides fractional CFO and fractional Controller services to California businesses that need senior financial leadership on a part-time or project basis. Every engagement is led directly by Jeffrey Lobel — a CPA and CFE with public accounting experience at Baker Tilly and corporate controller experience overseeing $600M+ in managed receivables.
That background matters. The fractional CFOs who add the most value aren't just financial strategists — they understand how the audit works, how the close cycle runs, and how to build systems that hold up under scrutiny. LAC brings all of that in one engagement.
When You Need a Fractional CFO
Common triggers for California businesses
Most companies engage a fractional CFO when they hit a stage where the financial function needs to grow before the business is ready to hire it full-time. The triggers are recognizable — and the cost of waiting is usually higher than the cost of engaging.
Preparing for a Capital Raise
Investors will scrutinize your financials. If your books aren't in GAAP order — or if your revenue recognition, equity structure, or reporting isn't clean — it becomes a diligence problem. A fractional CFO gets the financial house in order before that conversation starts.
Navigating a First Audit
A first GAAS audit requires preparation that most management teams haven't done before. A fractional CFO who understands audit methodology manages the process — PBC preparation, technical accounting positions, auditor coordination — so the engagement runs efficiently and closes on schedule.
Building Board-Ready Reporting
Board members and investors expect financial reporting that is consistent, accurate, and easy to interrogate. If your monthly package is manually assembled and hard to reconcile, a fractional CFO restructures it — automated, documented, and delivered on a defined schedule every month.
Month-End Close Taking Too Long
A close cycle that runs three weeks into the following month means decisions are being made on stale data. A fractional CFO diagnoses the bottlenecks, restructures the sequence, automates what can be automated, and gets close time under 10 business days.
Preparing for a Sale or Transaction
Buyers and their advisors will conduct detailed financial due diligence. Gaps in accounting, undocumented positions, or a messy close process become leverage against the seller. A fractional CFO cleans up the financial package before the process starts — protecting deal value.
Outgrown the Bookkeeper
When the business is complex enough that a bookkeeper or staff accountant can't keep up — or when lenders, investors, or auditors need more than they can produce — a fractional CFO bridges the gap without the cost and commitment of a full-time hire.
What's Included
What a fractional CFO engagement at LAC covers
Fractional CFO engagements at LAC are scoped to what you actually need — not a fixed package. Most engagements involve some combination of the following, depending on where the business is and where it needs to go.
Month-End Close Management
End-to-end oversight of the close cycle — task sequencing, preparer coordination, review of journal entries and reconciliations, and a structured close calendar that compresses timelines and distributes workload evenly across the month.
Financial Statement Preparation
GAAP-compliant financial statements with full footnote disclosures — monthly, quarterly, or annual — suitable for board distribution, lender reporting, investor review, or audit support. Technical standards (ASC 606, ASC 842, CECL) handled in-house.
Board & Investor Reporting
Monthly board packages — executive summary, financial results versus plan, key metrics, variance analysis — built from a single source of truth and delivered on a defined schedule. Templates designed for consistency across every reporting cycle.
Lender & Covenant Management
Debt covenant tracking, compliance certificate preparation, and lender relationship management. Reporting structured to meet lender requirements with clean, reconcilable support — and with enough lead time to address covenant issues before they become defaults.
Accounting Infrastructure & Automation
Rebuilding the systems underlying the financial function — consolidation workbooks, close automation, Power Query pipelines, Python scripts for multi-entity reporting. Deliverables that make the business's accounting faster and more reliable, not just this month's output.
Audit Coordination & Support
Managing the audit process end-to-end — PBC package preparation, technical accounting memo drafting, auditor correspondence, and status management through fieldwork and report issuance. Clients who go through this process typically run audits faster year over year.
The LAC Difference
What makes LAC's fractional CFO work different
Background
Both sides of the table
Most fractional CFOs come from either public accounting or industry — rarely both. Jeffrey spent years as a Big-4-equivalent auditor at Baker Tilly before moving to a corporate Controller role. That means he understands audit methodology from the auditor's perspective and close operations from the operator's perspective. Both matter for California companies navigating audits, raising capital, or managing complex reporting obligations.
Involvement
No delegation, no subcontracting
Fractional CFO firms often provide a named CFO who delegates the actual work to junior staff or contract accountants. At LAC, Jeffrey is the engagement. There is no team running work in the background under his name. California clients who have been through that model before — and found it wanting — tend to notice the difference immediately.
Technical Depth
CPA and CFE credentials, actively applied
A fractional CFO who holds a CPA license brings something most don't: the ability to sign audit reports, execute technical accounting analysis, and interact with auditors and lenders at a technical level that goes beyond financial strategy. The CFE credential adds a controls and risk lens that is particularly valuable for California companies in financial services, real estate, and regulated industries.
Systems
Fixing the infrastructure, not just reporting on it
Many fractional CFOs are strong on financial strategy and weak on the operational infrastructure that financial reporting runs on. When a California client's close process, consolidation workbooks, or reporting automation is the limiting factor, LAC fixes it directly — Power Query, Excel automation, Python consolidation scripts — rather than recommending a consultant for the systems work and billing separately for the strategy.
Need a fractional CFO in California?
Start with a direct conversation. We'll scope the engagement honestly — including whether you need a CFO or something more targeted.