A law firm can be fully booked and still short of cash. Unbilled time, unpaid invoices and partner drawings set ahead of profit can tie up months of fees. A full-time finance director costs a Sydney median of $218,000 a year before super, according to Robert Half. A fractional CFO gives a firm the same financial oversight from $3,000 per month, as part of an outsourced finance function.
Published: October 2026
A fractional CFO is a senior finance professional who works with your firm part-time, usually a set number of days or hours each month. They do the work a full-time CFO or finance director would: forecasting, reporting to partners, pricing, cash planning and bank relationships. They do not run the firm's legal practice management system or act as its external examiner.
For a full overview of the role, read what a fractional CFO actually does.
Law firms run on time, and time takes a long route to cash. Work is recorded, sits as work in progress, gets billed, then waits to be paid. Each step can stall.
Law firms also hold client money that is not theirs. Trust money sits under strict rules, and it can never fund the firm's own bills. So a firm can show a healthy trust balance while its office account is overdrawn.
On top of this, partners often draw money each month based on what they expect the year to make. If profit falls short, the firm ends up funding drawings with debt.
Lockup is the number of days between doing the work and being paid for it. It adds WIP days (time recorded but not yet billed) to debtor days (bills sent but not yet paid).
Here is why it matters. Take a hypothetical firm billing $4 million a year. That is about $10,959 of fees per day. At 120 days of lockup, roughly $1.3 million is tied up in unbilled and unpaid work. Cut lockup to 90 days and the firm frees about $328,767 in cash.
A fractional CFO tracks lockup monthly by partner and by practice area, finds where bills stall and sets targets. Our debtor days benchmarks by industry give a starting point.
The CFO builds a monthly profit forecast and sets drawings so they match what the firm can afford, with a clear true-up at year end. This stops partners taking cash that the firm needs for payroll or tax.
Fixed fees and capped fees are common, but many firms set them by feel. A fractional CFO compares quoted fees with the time actually spent, by matter type, so the firm knows which work makes money. Our guide to job costing for professional services explains the method.
A 13-week cash forecast for the office account shows when payroll, GST, PAYG and rent fall due against expected receipts. Trust money stays out of it. Try our cash flow forecast calculator to see how the model works.
A one-page monthly pack covers fees billed, collected and written off, lockup, utilisation, profit against budget and cash. Partners see the same numbers each month, which makes decisions faster.
New offices, lateral partner hires, buy-ins, retirements and practice acquisitions all need a financial model. A fractional CFO builds it and talks to the bank.
In NSW, law practices must reconcile their trust records every month, according to the Law Society of NSW. Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law, a practice that held or received general trust money (or certain other types of trust money) must have its trust records externally examined once each trust year, which runs 1 April to 31 March. The external examiner's report must reach the Law Society by 31 May.
A fractional CFO does not replace your trust account controller or external examiner. Their job is to keep office finances and trust money cleanly apart, make sure monthly reconciliations happen on time, and stop trust problems from becoming partner problems. Our guide to law firm bookkeeping and trust accounting covers the day-to-day side.
Scale Suite's fractional CFO packages start from $3,000 per month. Many firms add bookkeeping, payroll and BAS to the CFO work, and the price of that combined package depends on transaction volume, staff numbers, entities and complexity. There is no lock-in.
Compare that with a full-time hire. Robert Half's 2026 Sydney data puts an SME finance director at $196,200 to $261,600, with a median of $218,000. Add 12% super and the median comes to about $244,160 a year.
For a full breakdown, see our guide to fractional CFO costs in Australia. The fractional CFO ROI calculator shows the return for your own numbers.
What does a fractional CFO do for a law firm?
They forecast cash, track lockup, set partner drawings against real profit, review matter pricing and report to partners monthly. They also build the models for growth, mergers and partner changes.
How much does a fractional CFO cost for a law firm?
Scale Suite's fractional CFO packages start from $3,000 per month, with no lock-in. A full-time SME finance director in Sydney has a median base salary of $218,000, according to Robert Half.
What is lockup in a law firm?
Lockup is the total of WIP days and debtor days. It measures how long it takes, on average, to turn recorded time into cash in the bank.
How often must a law firm reconcile its trust account?
In NSW, trust records must be reconciled every month, even when there were no transactions. Check the Law Society in your state for your own obligations.
Can a fractional CFO act as our external examiner?
No. External examiners must meet the qualification rules under the Uniform Law and are independent of the firm. A fractional CFO works alongside them.
Can trust money be used to pay the firm's bills?
No. Trust money belongs to clients. Money can only move to the office account under the rules for paying legal costs, which is why office cash needs its own forecast.
When should a law firm hire a full-time CFO?
Usually when the firm has enough partners, offices and reporting demands to fill a full-time senior role. Before that, a fractional CFO gives the same oversight at a lower cost.
Book a 30-minute call at calendly.com/scalesuite/30min. We will look at your lockup, drawings and cash forecast and tell you what a fractional CFO would change in the first 90 days.
Scale Suite is a Sydney-based provider of outsourced finance teams and fractional CFO services for Australian SMEs. We deliver weekly bookkeeping, payroll, BAS/IAS lodgement, cashflow reporting, management accounts, and strategic fractional CFO oversight, all as a fully embedded team that works inside your business.
CA-qualified, Xero Certified, and registered BAS Agents, we replace fragmented bookkeepers and once-a-year accountants with one responsive finance function at a fraction of the cost of full-time hires. We serve growing businesses across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide, with packages starting from $1,500 per month and no lock-in contracts.
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We review and check this guide periodically. At the time of writing (October 2026), all information was current. Scale Suite is a registered BAS Agent, not a licensed tax advisor or financial advisor. This content is general information only and does not constitute professional tax, financial, or legal advice. Some details may change over time.
All figures as at October 2026. Salary figures are base salary, ex super. Scale Suite fees are ex GST.
Scale Suite is a Sydney-based provider of outsourced finance and HR services for Australian SMEs. We deliver bookkeeping, financial reporting, payroll processing, fractional CFO support, recruitment, employee onboarding, people and culture support, and fractional HR oversight, all as a fully embedded team that works inside your business.
Employment Hero Gold Partner, CA-qualified, and Xero Certified, we replace fragmented finance and HR processes with one responsive, senior-level function at a fraction of the cost of full-time hires. We serve growing businesses across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, with packages starting from $1,500 per month and no lock-in contracts.
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