For business owners For in-house teams → For accounting firms & fractional CFOs →

Your actual options.

A fractional CFO. A consultant's spreadsheet. The QuickBooks reports you already have. Or nothing at all. Here's what each one really costs and really gets you — including the rows where we lose.

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Side by side

What each option really costs. And really gets you.

Most comparison pages are an ad wearing a table. This one has a row we lose on purpose, because you'd find out anyway.

QuickBooks reports
Spreadsheet + consultant
Fractional CFO
FuseGrid
What it costs
Included — and unread
$5,000, stale by spring
$3,000–$10,000/mo
$99–$349/mo
Tells you what changed & why
You interpret it
When you rebuild it
Monthly, on their calendar
Every morning
Sees the cash crunch coming
No
If you maintain it
If you ask in time
Week by week, 13 weeks out
The bank model
Screenshots
That's the $5,000
Extra scope
11 sheets, native formulas
The board pack
Copy-paste
More hours
Billable hours
Eleven minutes
Benchmarks — good compared to what?
Your numbers, no context
A tab from an old engagement
Their gut — which is good
IRS averages, 400+ industry codes
Knows your business by name
It's a report
Knew it — the week it was built
A few hours a month
Reads 5 years of your ledger, every night
Judgment & negotiations
—
—
The human wins
Not what we sell

The human CFO wins on judgment and negotiations. That's not what we sell. We sell the deliverables — so if you ever hire one, they start with everything already built.

If you have one — or you're pricing one

Keep the CFO. Retire the grunt work.

A fractional CFO in 2026 runs $3,000–$10,000 a month. The good ones are worth it — for the judgment, the banking relationships, the person in the room when the lease gets renegotiated. What that retainer shouldn't have to buy: assembling statements, rebuilding the forecast model, formatting the board pack. That's analyst work at executive rates.

If you have a fractional CFO, give them FuseGrid — it's the analyst they don't have.

They walk into your monthly call with the model current as of last night instead of spending the first hour catching up. You pay their rate for the part only they can do. And if you don't have one yet, FuseGrid does the deliverables now — so hiring one later starts from a running product, not a discovery project.

Fractional CFOs and accounting firms run FuseGrid across their whole client list — the partner plan starts at $69/client a month →

beacon-forecast.xlsx · 11 sheets · what the analyst hands your CFO
LowExpectedHigh
CoverDriversIncome StatementBalance SheetCash FlowScenarios13-Week CashAccuracy
DriverLowExpectedHigh
Sales growthpulled backyour trendupside
DSO (days)slower payyour patternfaster pay
Gross margintighteryour trendimproving
◎
Accuracy sheet: predicted vs actual, every recent closed month
Rebuilt every night as QuickBooks syncs — never stale by spring
Sample data — Beacon Mechanical, a fictional company
vs the reports you already have

QuickBooks gives you the reports. This gives you the meeting about the reports.

QuickBooks now bundles AI helpers, and they're fine for quick questions. FuseGrid's difference is the depth you'd otherwise pay a person for: a reconciled three-statement forecast 24 months out, your ratios benchmarked against IRS averages across 400+ industry codes, and a board pack that assembles itself. Not a smarter search box — the work product.

And every number — every headline, every flag, every forecast driver — clicks down to the general-ledger transactions behind it.

See everything it does
Ratios page — 30+ ratios benchmarked against IRS industry averages, with trends and plain-English interpretation — live product, sample data

Live product — sample data (Beacon Mechanical, a fictional company). Open this screen live — no signup →

The default option

Most businesses your size choose nothing.

Nothing costs $0 a month, which is how it wins. Then it's the most expensive option on this page — you just pay later, and by surprise.

The problem started in March. You found out in May. Nothing was watching in between.

The comparison isn't FuseGrid vs a CFO. For most owners it's FuseGrid vs finding out late. That's the one we're built to win.

Fair questions

The ones comparison shoppers actually ask.

Is this a replacement for hiring a CFO eventually?

No. When your business is ready for a human CFO, hire one — the judgment and the negotiations are worth it. What changes is their first day: the forecast, the model, the benchmarks, and the board pack are already built and already current. They start with the deliverables done, not a discovery project.

Can my accountant use it with me?

Yes — every plan has unlimited seats, and your accountant's seat is free. They see exactly what you see, down to the general-ledger transactions behind every number. If they serve many owners like you, point them at the partner plan.

What does it cost?

$99 to $349 a month for a single company. Essentials at $99/mo covers the daily read, annotated statements, and the 13-week cash forecast. Pro at $349/mo adds the 24-month three-statement forecast, scenarios, the Excel model, valuation, and board packs. 14-day free trial, no credit card, 30-day money-back. Full pricing →

Start tonight

This month is going to close either way. Close it with a CFO.

Connect QuickBooks tonight. First sync takes a few hours — we email you the moment your first Brief is ready. Read it with tomorrow's coffee.

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