Bank export upload
Founders upload statements and card exports from their phone, and the app shows which accounts are complete and which are still missing.
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Customer Self-Service App for Fractional CFO Firms
A customer self-service app for fractional CFO firms lets founders and finance leads upload bank exports, approve the monthly board pack, request a scenario and see retainer hours used from a phone. SIZ Group builds these apps for iOS and Android, and each client begins with a free scoping call.
01
What the owner or customer experience lead needs the app to prove before signing off
A fractional CFO firm sells judgment, and its clients buy confidence. Those founders and finance leads want to know the board pack will arrive on the agreed day, that a question about runway gets a clear answer and that the hours they are paying for are being spent on the right things. A self-service app has to make those three things visible, otherwise the firm looks slower than it is.
Before approval, the owner should see the app running on a realistic client account: the upload of a bank export, the approval of a draft board pack and a scenario request with an hour estimate attached. We would agree the measures in advance, such as the share of packs approved on the first review and the number of ad hoc questions that arrive by email instead of the app.
- Board packs approved on the first review, compared with the last year
- Ad hoc questions arriving through the app rather than by email
- Retainer hours used against the agreed monthly allowance
- Client sessions booked through the app and kept on schedule
02
A walk through one founder's month inside the finished app
Picture the chief executive of a software company that has used the firm for a year. In the first week of the month a notice asks them to upload the bank and card exports for the previous period. They drop the files in from their phone, and the app confirms which accounts are complete and which are still missing a statement.
A few days later the draft board pack is ready. The founder reads the summary on the phone, answers two questions the analyst added about a large supplier payment and approves the pack for the board. They then ask for a scenario showing what happens to runway if a major customer delays payment. The app shows the estimated hours and the remaining allowance for the month, and the request is scheduled for the next working session. Nothing had to be explained twice.
03
Fitting in with the software fractional CFO firms already run
Most fractional CFO firms work across several client ledgers at once, using QuickBooks Online or Xero for the books, Excel or Google Sheets for models, a billing tool such as Bill.com or Stripe for invoices, and a cap table service such as Carta where equity is involved. The client app should pull the facts it needs from those systems and send approvals and requests back to the team's own workflow.
We would list the systems client by client during the scoping call. Some clients will have a bookkeeper who uploads everything, others will expect the app to pull from the ledger. The app should support both, and it should never ask a founder to enter a number that already exists in a connected system.
What you get
Key features
Board pack approval
The draft pack is shared for reading and approval, with comments attached to the exact page or figure they concern.
Scenario requests
Clients request a runway or cash flow scenario from a list of standard types, with the estimated hours shown before they confirm.
Retainer hours view
The client sees hours used, hours remaining and any work awaiting a quote, updated each week.
Session booking
Working sessions are booked from the analyst's open slots, with the agenda and the pack attached to the invitation.
Secure document room
Board materials, contracts and statements sit in a folder shared only with the people the client chooses to include.
04
The information, content and access the firm will need to provide
The firm will supply the approval workflow for a board pack, the list of standard requests and the hour estimates behind each one. It should also describe the retainer terms for each client, including the monthly allowance, the rollover rules and the point at which extra work needs a separate quote. Those rules decide what the app must display, so writing them down is the first task.
Clients should see only their own company, their own packs and their own hours. Board members who have read access need a separate, narrower role. Analysts working across several clients need access to the clients they serve and nothing else. We would confirm those roles with the firm before the build, and every view or upload would be logged.
- Approval steps and reviewers for each board pack
- Standard request types with an agreed hour estimate for each
- Retainer allowance, rollover rules and quote trigger for each client
- Access roles for founders, board members and analysts
05
Budget and schedule for a client portal, and how to hold the line
Pricing starts at $4,500 for mobile apps. The final figure follows the number of client types, the approval steps, the connections to accounting and billing systems, and whether the firm wants a native app or a web version alongside it. A portal for one approval flow and one client type is much smaller than a multi-client system with scenario requests and retainer tracking built in.
We would begin with the approvals, the bank upload, the hours view and the session booking, and leave scenario tools and board-member access for a later phase. Each phase carries its own written screen list. Post-launch support is available for adjustments that follow the first board cycle, when the team knows how clients actually use the app.
06
How to measure whether the customer self-service app is working
Measure the app against the work the firm already tracks: the time between month-end and a board pack being approved, the number of follow-up emails about missing statements, and the number of scenario requests that arrive through the app. Set the baseline from the last two quarters so the first comparison is fair.
Watch the client side too. Fewer chasers, faster approvals and more sessions kept on schedule suggest the app is doing its job. If clients still send their questions by email, the request types may be unclear or the app may be too slow to open on a phone during a busy week.
Can a founder approve a board pack without installing anything?+
Yes. The approval works in a phone browser, and a native app is available where it helps. Either route records the approval against the pack with the time and the person who gave it, so the firm has a clear trail.
How does the app show retainer hours without exposing internal notes?+
The client sees the hours used, the hours remaining and any work awaiting a quote. Internal notes about how the time was spent stay inside the firm, and the figures are updated from the time records each week.
What happens when a client asks for work outside the retainer?+
The request shows an estimate and a clear note that it sits outside the allowance. The client approves or declines the quote in the app, and the decision is recorded before any work begins.
Does the app connect to the ledger we already use?+
We confirm each connection during scoping. Many firms start with uploads and add a connection to QuickBooks Online or Xero once the approval flow is stable. The ledger stays the source of the numbers in every case.
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Give every founder a simpler monthly routine
Plan a client portal that handles uploads, approvals and retainer hours, starting with a free scoping call.