Workload by person
See each staff accountant's assignments against capacity, with clear flags for anyone carrying too many closes in the same week.
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Manager Oversight App for Fractional CFO Firms
A manager oversight app for Fractional CFO firms gives the practice manager one live view of client engagements, staff assignments and open deliverables. SIZ Group designs and builds it for iOS and Android, so the people responsible for delivery can check the queue from a client site or an airport without waiting for the Friday status call.
01
Why owners judge a fractional CFO firm on follow-through
A business owner shopping for a fractional CFO usually compares three things: who answers the phone, how quickly a cash flow question gets a reply, and whether the monthly package arrives on the day the proposal promised. Owners often skim the service menu. They remember the gap between the proposal and month four.
Those promises are kept or broken by the practice manager. When the manager can see every client's open requests, due dates and assigned senior in one place, the firm can promise a response time and actually hit it. Right now many firms track that information in a shared spreadsheet that is only accurate on the days someone updates it.
02
What the general manager needs to see before approval
The general manager will want proof that the app cuts missed deadlines and spreads work more fairly, rather than adding another dashboard nobody opens. Before sign off, the firm should agree a short list of checks and test each one on live engagements during a pilot.
Useful checks are simple. Every active client should have a named owner and a backup. Overdue deliverables should appear in the manager's queue the same day. Partner review notes should reach the senior before the client call. Hours logged to each client should match the billing summary, so nobody argues about two versions of the numbers at the monthly meeting.
- Every active client engagement has one named owner and one backup
- Overdue deliverables appear on the manager's queue the same day
- Hours logged against each client match the billing summary
- Partners can see the status of open client requests before a call
03
A practice manager's Monday with the finished app
Consider a practice manager on a Monday morning. The overview shows that a manufacturing client's 13-week cash flow forecast is due Wednesday, but the assigned senior also has two closes due the same day. The manager moves one close to a staff accountant with room in the week, and the change is logged against that engagement with a notice to the client team.
Later, the manager opens a partner's review notes on a board pack and marks two items as escalations. The partner gets a notification with the notes attached and the client's open question list. Nothing has to be copied into a separate spreadsheet first.
Before leaving, the manager checks workload by person. A staff accountant who is well above capacity is flagged, and the decision to hold that person back from the next client intake is recorded, so the next reviewer can see why the call was made.
What you get
Key features
A queue ordered by deadline
Deliverables and client requests sort by due date, with escalations pinned to the top for the manager and the partner.
Owners and backups on every engagement
Each client engagement shows its lead, its backup and any review notes waiting for sign off.
Hours matched to billing
Logged time rolls into a per-client summary, so the manager sees overruns and write-offs before the invoice goes out.
An audit trail for every change
Reassignments, approvals and access changes are recorded with the name of the person who made them and the time.
04
Confidentiality and access rules for internal oversight
An oversight tool can see everything: bank data, payroll information, covenant calculations and partner notes. The build should use role-based permissions so staff see only their assigned engagements, managers see their teams, and partners see their own clients. Access changes must be logged, and a departing employee should lose access the same day.
Review engagement letters and data processing terms with counsel before launch, because some clients limit where their financial data may be stored. A firm that wants to show SOC 2 style controls will need its access reviews and audit trail built in from the first release, not added later.
05
Busy seasons and how the queue should behave
Oversight matters most in the first quarter, when year-end closes, tax filings and lender packages compete for the same senior accountants. The queue should reorder by deadline rather than by who escalated most loudly, and it should warn the manager when one person is carrying more than one close due in the same week.
Quiet months are the time for process reviews and training. During those periods the app can switch to a lighter view with fewer alerts, while the budget season calendar for each client stays visible so planning work is not squeezed out.
06
Rolling it out to managers and partners
Start with the team that handles the largest share of monthly closes. Managers need to trust the queue before partners rely on it, so run the app alongside the existing spreadsheet for one full month-end cycle, and explain every difference between the two.
Partners adopt tools that remove work from their week. Replace the Friday status email with a digest from the app, then retire the spreadsheet once the team agrees the numbers match. Post-launch support is available, so the firm can tune alerts after its first busy season.
- A parallel run beside the existing spreadsheet for one month-end
- A partner digest that replaces the Friday status email
- A named champion in each team who answers questions first
- The spreadsheet retired only after the numbers match
Will this replace our practice management software?+
Not necessarily. Many firms keep their existing practice management tool for time and billing and use the oversight app for the cross-engagement view and the escalation flow. We connect the two through their APIs or a scheduled export, once we confirm what your current system allows.
How does the app handle part-time staff and contractors?+
Part-time staff and contractors can be given limited hours in the capacity view, so the queue never assigns more work than their contract allows. Their assignments still appear alongside the rest of the team, and the manager can see who is available in a given week.
What should we measure to know the app is working?+
Track missed deadlines, the time from a partner escalation to a response, and the share of engagements that have a named backup. Those numbers can be compared before and after launch, and they need no outside benchmark to be useful.
What does the project cost?+
Mobile apps start at $4,500, and the final figure depends on integrations and the number of roles. Scope and price are confirmed in writing after the free scoping call, before any build work starts.
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Talk through your oversight app
Book a free scoping call with SIZ Group at +1 254 323 2698 or write to info@sizgroup.com. We will put your scope and price in writing before work begins.