If a virtual CFO cannot name what they will deliver, they are selling attendance, not output. This is the reference list: every deliverable a CFO engagement can produce, grouped by the question it answers, with the ones that actually change decisions marked. Use it to test any engagement, including how you scope your own 90-Day Number.

Published: July 2026

Why a named list matters

The single most useful test of a virtual CFO engagement is whether the work resolves to named deliverables or dissolves into activities. “Strategic support” is not a deliverable. “A 13-week cashflow forecast you can run yourself” is. The list below is deliberately concrete so you can point at what you are buying, and so a provider who deals in vague relationship language has nowhere to hide.

The deliverables group into four families by the question they answer: cash, capital, economics, and governance. A handful change decisions; the rest are supporting or occasional. Those that most reliably move a founder’s decision are marked.

Cash deliverables

These answer: will we have enough money, and when?

• The 13-week cashflow forecast (decision-changer). A rolling weekly view of cash in and out, tied to your pipeline and commitments, with the low point and its date visible. For most $2M to $15M founders this is the single most decision-changing artefact a CFO can build, because it turns hiring, spending, and timing decisions from anecdote into a dated cash picture. It is the input to a weekly cash meeting.
• The three-way forecast. An integrated P&L, balance sheet, and cashflow, usually over 12 to 24 months. Needed for bank covenants, facility applications, and longer-horizon planning. A step up in effort from the 13-week, and not always necessary; the trigger is covenant or facility requirements, or growth that ties up working capital fast enough to need the balance sheet view.

Capital deliverables

These answer: can we raise or borrow, and on what terms?

• The fundraise-ready financial model (decision-changer). A driver-based model built to survive investor diligence, with an assumptions sheet, revenue build, headcount plan, integrated statements, and scenario toggles. The centrepiece of any raise; covered in full in the anatomy of a fundraise-ready model.
• The data room. The organised evidence base an investor or acquirer will interrogate: historicals, contracts, cap table, and supporting schedules. More an operating discipline than a one-off build, but a defined deliverable nonetheless.
• Debt-facility support. The forecast and covenant model a lender requires. Often a three-way forecast in a specific lender’s format.

Economics deliverables

These answer: does the business actually make money, and where?

• The unit economics build (decision-changer). Per-order, per-seat, or per-job contribution after all variable costs. The deliverable that exposes whether growth is profitable and which parts of the business subsidise which. Essential when revenue is growing but margin clarity is not.
• SKU or product-line profitability. Contribution ranked by product, exposing the long tail that consumes working capital and returns little.
• Cohort analysis. Retention and payback by customer cohort, the honest test of whether repeat revenue justifies acquisition cost. A decision-changer for subscription and repeat-purchase businesses specifically.
• The multi-site P&L. Site-level contribution and a clean roll-up, so a group can see which locations make money. Covered in designing a multi-site P&L.

Governance deliverables

These answer: are we reporting the right things to the right people?

• The board reporting pack (decision-changer). The reporting cut to the two or three numbers that drive the current quarter’s decision, with detail available but not dominant. A decision-changer when board meetings currently run on forty slides and decide nothing.
• The KPI tree. The decomposition from one north-star number down to the levers each team can pull, without dashboard sprawl.
• Management accounts structure. The design of how monthly numbers are produced and presented, so they arrive fast and mean something. Often foundational rather than decision-changing on its own.

The non-deliverables

Worth naming what does not count, because these are what unscoped engagements offer instead.

A meeting is not a deliverable. “Weekly strategy calls” is cadence, not output. A review is not a deliverable; reviewing your numbers produces an opinion, not an artefact you keep. “Support”, “oversight”, and “advice” are not deliverables; they describe effort with no defined product. An engagement built on these is a retainer, and should be evaluated as one: at the end, could you point to something you did not have before? If not, you bought attendance.

How to use the list

Take any virtual CFO engagement, yours or a provider’s proposal, and map it to this list. If it resolves to one or more named deliverables from the families above, it is a real, testable engagement. If it resolves to meetings, reviews, and support, it is a retainer in project language. The 90-Day Number deliberately makes you choose one named deliverable, precisely so the engagement cannot dissolve into the non-deliverable list.

FAQ

What is the difference between a deliverable and an activity?
A deliverable is an artefact you hold at the end, a forecast, a model, a build, a pack. An activity is effort spent, a meeting, a review, ongoing support. The test: at the end, can you point to something you did not have before? A deliverable passes; an activity does not.

Which CFO deliverables actually change decisions?
For most $2M to $15M founders: the 13-week cashflow forecast (hiring and timing decisions), the fundraise-ready model (whether and how to raise), the unit economics build (whether growth is profitable), and the board reporting pack (what the board actually decides on). Cohort analysis joins them for subscription businesses. The rest are supporting or occasional.

Do I need all of these?
No. Most founders need one at a time, matched to the decision in front of them. That is the logic of a fixed-scope engagement: choose the deliverable that answers your current question, build it properly, and add others later as separate engagements rather than attempting all at once.

Is a monthly report a deliverable?
It can be, if it is a defined pack that drives decisions. But “monthly reporting and analysis” as an open-ended activity is not, because there is no defined artefact and no test of whether it produced anything. The distinction is whether you are buying a designed, repeatable output or simply paying for someone to look at your numbers each month.

How does this list help me evaluate a proposal?
Map the proposal to the four families. A proposal that names deliverables from this list is testable. A proposal built on meetings, reviews, and “strategic support” from the non-deliverable section is a retainer, and you should price it as one by asking what it produces that you could point to.

Can one engagement produce several of these?
It can, but for a fixed-scope 90-day engagement the discipline is one named deliverable, because ninety days is enough to build one properly rather than several superficially. If you need more than one, they are scoped as separate engagements, which keeps each one finished and defensible.

What does the 90-Day Number deliver from this list?
One of four: the 13-week cashflow forecast, the fundraise-ready financial model, the unit economics build, or the board reporting pack, each a decision-changer, chosen to match the question you most need answered. It is fixed at $17,850 plus GST, delivered by day 90, and yours to run afterward.

About Sydney Virtual CFO

Sydney Virtual CFO is a Sydney-based virtual CFO service for founders running $2M to $15M businesses across SaaS, ecommerce, professional services, construction, and other low-volume, high-value industries. We deliver fixed-scope CFO engagements with a named deliverable on day 90: a 13-week cashflow forecast, a fundraise-ready financial model, a unit economics build, or a board reporting pack you can run on your own.

Our front-door product, the 90-Day Number, is fixed scope at $17,850 plus GST. We are one of the few project-based virtual CFOs in Australia, in a market built almost entirely on monthly retainers. No retainers without a deliverable. No 80-page reports. No theatre.

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This content is general information only, written for Australian founders running businesses in the $2M to $15M revenue range. It does not constitute tax, financial product, investment, or legal advice and should not be relied on as such. The work referenced is led by a Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ), but Sydney Virtual CFO is not a licensed tax agent, not a licensed financial adviser, and not authorised to provide personal financial advice. Tax obligations, accounting treatments, fundraise terms, and statutory requirements depend on your individual circumstances. For advice specific to your business, contact the team directly or consult a registered tax agent, licensed financial adviser, or qualified lawyer. Information was current at the time of publication and may change without notice. We review and update guides periodically.