Staffing the finance work at a nonprofit
Updated 16 October 2026
Every nonprofit has finance work, and three roles divide it. The bookkeeper records what happened. The controller makes sure the records are accurate and finished on time. The CFO explains what the figures mean and what to do next. The way those roles are filled changes as the organization grows and its funding gets more complex. This page describes each role, the ways to staff it, the signs that the current setup no longer fits, and what the finance work should produce. The worked examples use round figures as an illustration.
Three roles, three kinds of work
- The bookkeeper handles transactions. That covers bills to pay, money owed by funders and clients, deposits, payroll support, basic reconciliations and simple reports. Every organization needs this work.
- The controller handles structure. The controller runs the monthly close, produces accurate monthly statements, tracks grant compliance, prepares for the audit and reviews the bookkeeper's work.
- The CFO handles direction. The CFO builds forecasts and scenarios, plans for capital, works with the board, measures program economics and studies partnerships or mergers.
A fractional CFO does the CFO's work for part of each month, at part of the cost of a full-time hire. A full-time CFO takes part in daily decisions and multi-year planning alongside the board.
A mid-sized nonprofit's finance work takes 88 hours a month. Bookkeeping takes 60 hours, controller work takes 20 hours and CFO work takes 8 hours. A full-time schedule of 40 hours a week comes to about 173 hours a month. The 20 controller hours are about 12% of that schedule, and the 8 CFO hours are about 5%. Neither role fills a full-time position yet. The figures are an illustration.
Signs the current setup no longer fits
- Statements arrive late, get restated, or leave the executive director unsure whether to trust them.
- Cash surprises keep happening, such as a tax bill, a late grant payment or a tight payroll week.
- The executive director does finance work that belongs to someone else.
- The board asks questions the finance staff cannot answer.
- Grant compliance happens after a deadline is missed, and the calendar no longer runs ahead of it.
An executive director spends 10 hours a week on reconciliations and grant spreadsheets. Over a year that is 520 hours, or 25% of a 2,080-hour work year. Moving those hours to a bookkeeper and a controller returns a quarter of the director's year to programs, funders and staff. The figures are an illustration.
In-house, outsourced or a mix
Three staffing models cover most organizations.
- A full in-house team of a bookkeeper, a controller and sometimes a CFO suits a large organization with steady operations.
- An outsourced finance function has an outside firm provide the bookkeeping, the controller work and sometimes the CFO work. It suits an organization whose finance work does not fill a full-time hire.
- A hybrid keeps an in-house bookkeeper and adds an outsourced or fractional controller and CFO.
Outsourcing often fits periods of change, such as fast growth, the weeks after a controller leaves, or the time spent building internal staff. Hiring fits when the work is steady and fills a full-time schedule.
An organization employs a full-time bookkeeper on site. It adds an outsourced controller for 20 hours a month to run the close and a fractional CFO for 8 hours a month to run the forecast and attend board meetings. The organization pays for 28 hours a month of senior finance work in place of two full-time salaries. The figures are an illustration.
What the finance work should produce
- A monthly close finished by the 10th of the next month, every month.
- A board packet that the treasurer reviews and approves before it goes out.
- Grant reports filed by each deadline.
- An audit with few adjusting entries. An adjusting entry is a correction the auditor proposes to the books.
- A cash forecast the executive director uses to make decisions.
- An annual budget built from the bottom up, approved on time and updated each quarter.
When these outputs fail again and again, the finance function needs more resources. Waiting does not fix it.
In one year, the auditor proposes 25 adjusting entries to an organization's books. After a controller takes over the monthly close, the next audit has 3. The 22 fewer entries mean the monthly statements the board read during the year were close to the audited figures. The figures are an illustration.
The audit firm's role
The audit firm audits the statements. The organization's own finance staff, in-house or outsourced, keep the books and run the close. Small nonprofits sometimes lean on the auditor to fix the books at year end, and that mix of roles creates compliance risk and leaves the staff without monthly support. A CPA and audit firm each keep their own role, and the finance team supplies them with closed, reconciled books.
An organization's audit firm spent 40 hours each year correcting grant coding before it could start the audit. A controller now reviews grant coding at each monthly close, 12 times a year. The audit firm receives books that are already reconciled, and its hours go to the audit itself. The figures are an illustration.
What this means for a nonprofit
The bookkeeper records transactions, the controller closes the books and keeps them accurate, and the CFO plans. Each role can be in-house, outsourced or fractional. The setup has stopped fitting when statements run late, cash surprises repeat, or the executive director does the bookkeeping. The finance work should deliver a close by the 10th, a treasurer-approved board packet, grant reports on time and an audit with few adjusting entries.
Finance roles from Averan
Averan Advisors provides each of the three roles to nonprofits. See bookkeeping, controller services and fractional CFO work.
Where to next
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What happens next
Reading about it and having it done are different things. Here is exactly what happens if you want the second one.
- The call takes thirty minutesYou describe the business and where the numbers are letting you down. We give you an expert view of your situation, and what we would start with. There is no pitch deck.
- We look at the fileYou give us read access to the books as they are. We come back with what is wrong, what it will take to fix, and whether the answer is bookkeeping, controller work, or something else.
- We send a written scope and a priceIt lists what we do each month, what you get, the date it lands and the fee. We agree it before anything starts, and it does not change unless you agree.
- We take over the books and close the first monthWe set up access and systems and enter the opening balances. The first close lands on the date in the scope, and every one after it does too.