Northbound

Fractional CFO leadership for UK businesses at the inflection that defines the next decade.

For founder-led businesses between £3m and £12m turnover, navigating a raise, an exit, or the jump from a bookkeeper to a real finance function.

See how we workRead engagements

You hire a person, not a network.

Most fractional CFO firms sell the size of their bench. We think the only thing that matters is who's actually in the room when you need a decision. Northbound is a small practice. These are the people doing the work.

Portrait of Stephen Whitfield, FCA

Stephen Whitfield, FCA

Lead CFO

Previously CFO at Vellum (acquired 2023, £45m exit), Group FD at Brightline Manufacturing. ICAEW Fellow, 22 years post-qualification. Currently embedded with three growth-stage businesses.

Signature engagements

£45m exit, Vellum, 2023

Group company sale to US strategic acquirer. CFO from Series B through to completion.

Group FD restructure, Brightline Manufacturing, 2019 to 2022

£28m turnover manufacturing group. Finance function rebuilt from spreadsheet-led to investor-grade reporting in 18 months.

LinkedIn
Portrait of David Okonkwo, ACA

David Okonkwo, ACA

Senior CFO

Led the finance function through Series A and B at two SaaS businesses. Specialises in revenue operations and SaaS metrics for businesses between £4m and £15m ARR. Big Four trained, 14 years post-qualification.

Signature engagements

Series A and B at Pareto Health, 2021 to 2024

B2B SaaS in clinical workflow. CFO from £1.8m to £9.4m ARR. Series B led by Mosaic Ventures in 2024.

Diligence-led turnaround at Coltrane Systems, 2020

Series A SaaS, runway crisis. New 13-week cashflow, contract restructure, headcount realignment. Business reached profitability in 14 months.

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Portrait of Helena Marsh, FCCA

Helena Marsh, FCCA

Senior CFO

PE-portfolio CFO across three sponsor cycles. Specialises in exit preparation, diligence-readiness, and 100-day plans. ACCA Fellow, 19 years post-qualification.

Signature engagements

£72m PE exit, Oakwell Group, 2024

Founder-led professional services group, secondary sale to a mid-market sponsor. CFO through diligence and SPA negotiation.

100-day plan execution, Reston Group, 2022

Post-PE-acquisition operational stand-up. Reporting, FP&A function, board cadence built from scratch under sponsor timetable.

LinkedIn

A recent engagement

£640,000

of working capital, released in nine months.

Our client is a Series B SaaS business doing £8.2m in ARR with a US enterprise customer base. When we started, payment terms were averaging 92 days from invoice to collection. The cash sitting in receivables was capital that should have been funding product development.

Over nine months, working with the existing finance lead, we restructured the billing cadence, introduced milestone invoicing on annual contracts, tightened the credit control process, and built a rolling 13-week cashflow forecast that gave the CEO line of sight he didn't previously have. Days sales outstanding dropped from 92 to 64. The released capital funded two senior product hires and 18 months of additional runway.

Read the full engagement

How the work actually gets done.

Every engagement runs through four phases. The first 30 days are about understanding what's actually happening in the numbers. The next 60 are about stabilising the things that need stabilising. From month three, we build the finance function the business will need at its next size. By the time we leave, you have a team and a system that doesn't need us.

PHASE 01

Diagnose

First 30 days

  • Management accounts you can take to a board
  • 13-week rolling cashflow forecast
  • A written diagnostic of what’s working and what isn’t
  • One face-to-face with the leadership team

PHASE 02

Stabilise

Days 30 to 90

  • Working capital and cost discipline reviewed
  • Supplier and customer terms re-examined
  • Monthly board pack with the metrics that matter
  • A forecast you can defend to an investor

PHASE 03

Build

Months 3 to 9

  • FP&A function built out properly
  • KPI architecture and reporting cadence
  • Investor-grade reporting if you’re raising
  • A working budgeting and forecasting rhythm

PHASE 04

Scale

Month 9 onward

  • Board-level finance leadership on a sustained basis
  • Or, if preparing for a transaction: diligence pack and exit narrative
  • A documented handover plan
  • A team and a system that no longer needs us

The shape varies by business. The structure doesn't.

Where our CFOs have worked

MERIDIAN
Coltrane Systems
FLINT & CO.
Vellum
Brightline
OAKWELL
Parley Health
Reston Group

Featured in the Financial Times, Real Business, and Accountancy Age. ICAEW and ACCA accredited. Members of the Institute of Directors.

References.

Each of our CFOs is happy to be referenced by people they've worked with directly. The names below are referees who have agreed to take occasional inbound calls from prospective clients. A wider reference list is available on request after a first conversation.

James Carlisle

Chair, Vellum Group / former CEO, Vellum

"Stephen ran our finance function through the Series B and through the exit. He is the only finance person I would unhesitatingly recommend to a founder approaching either of those moments. He is also the only finance person I have worked with who never sent me a board paper I had not first asked for."

Referee for Stephen Whitfield. Engagement: Vellum, 2020 to 2023.

Sophie Mathieson

CEO, Pareto Health

"David was the CFO who turned our reporting from something I dreaded sending to the board into something the board started using to make actual decisions. He thinks like a CFO and writes like an editor. Both matter when you are raising."

Referee for David Okonkwo. Engagement: Pareto Health, 2021 to 2024.

Patrick Hennessey

Managing Partner, Severn Capital

"Helena ran the CFO seat at Oakwell from a year before our exit through to completion. The data room she built shortened our diligence timeline by an estimated six weeks. She is the first call I make when a portfolio company needs an exit-grade CFO."

Referee for Helena Marsh. Engagement: Oakwell Group, 2023 to 2024.

Direct contact details for referees are shared with prospective clients during the first conversation.

What this actually costs.

Our CFOs charge between £800 and £1,200 per day, depending on engagement complexity and seniority.

Most engagements run between two and three days per week, which works out at £6,400 to £14,400 per month on a typical retainer.

Project work, for example exit preparation or a fundraise sprint, is scoped separately and usually falls between £15,000 and £45,000.

We're not the cheapest option in the market, and we don't try to be. If your budget is below £3,000 per month, we're probably not the right fit, and most accountants can point you to a fractional FD at that level. If you're not sure what you need, that's exactly what the first conversation is for.

The questions we get asked most.

A note on integration

Working with your existing finance team.

If you have an existing finance lead, financial controller, or part-qualified accountant, the engagement is designed to work alongside them, not over them. The fractional CFO sits at the board layer; your existing team continues running the operational finance function with better tools and clearer direction. In the first 30 days, we map the existing work explicitly, agree where the lines are, and document the handover plan for when we exit. We've never replaced an existing finance team member as part of an engagement; we've several times helped existing team members grow into bigger roles than they could have grown into without us.

If you've read this far, we're probably worth a conversation.

A first call is 30 minutes. We'll ask about your business, where you are in its trajectory, and what you're trying to work out. You'll leave the call either with a clear sense of whether we're the right fit, or with a few thoughts you can use whether you work with us or not. We typically respond within one working day.

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