Three steps. Step 1: a 30-minute triage call -- same-day for emergency vacancies -- to scope your situation and confirm fit. Step 2: a senior partner is on-site within 7-14 days, full-time, running your finance function. Step 3: clean handoff to your permanent CFO when they're hired or returning. We disappear when the role is filled.

By Matt Putra, Managing Partner · LinkedIn

Last updated: May 19, 2026

An interim CFO is a senior finance executive placed full-time into a defined-period engagement -- typically 3-6 months -- to cover a vacancy, parental leave, M&A process, or fundraise. At Eightx, every interim engagement is led personally by a senior partner, not a staffing-agency contractor. Most engagements run $15,000-$30,000 per month, with a partner on-site within 7-14 days of the triage call.

When your CFO quits, goes on parental leave, gets pulled into M&A, or you need executive-level finance for a defined period, Eightx puts a senior partner in the role. The same partner you meet on the triage call is the one running your weekly leadership meeting on day 14.

Book a CFO Vacancy Triage Call See how it works

Same-day scheduling for emergency vacancies. Most engagements $15-30k/month, 3-6 months. Senior partner-led, hard cap of 3-4 concurrent engagements.

$650M+

Combined revenue managed

35+

Portfolio brands

7-14 days

Senior partner on-site

3-4

Concurrent engagements (capped)

The reality

Your CFO transition is not a hiring problem. It's an operating problem.

The board wants continuity. Vendors want POs paid on time. The bank wants the covenant package. Your Series B lead wants the data room updated by Friday. The two senior people on your finance team are looking at each other wondering who's running the meeting now.

Most operators try to solve this with a staffing agency. They place a contractor in 3-6 weeks. The contractor is competent but generalist -- they've never run an Amazon settlement reconciliation or modeled trade spend accruals for a CPG brand. By day 30 they're still asking which platform you're on.

Eightx solves this differently. A senior partner -- Matt, Sam, Leandro, or Sid -- takes the role personally within 7-14 days. They walk in with the playbooks already built. Day one is cash position audit. Day three is vendor and investor stabilization. Day 30 is a clean board pack with the same depth your permanent CFO would have produced.

Inside an Eightx interim CFO engagement

What you walk away with.

Day 7–14

Senior partner on-site, full-time

Matt, Sam, Leandro, or Sid running the role personally, not a staffing-agency contractor. 3–5 days for emergency stabilization, 7–14 for planned coverage. In your weekly leadership meetings from week one.

Day 30

Cash, vendors, investors stabilized

Cash-position audit and 13-week forecast in week one. Critical vendors and investors stabilized by day 7. Full operating cadence by day 14. Clean board pack delivered by day 30 with the same depth a permanent CFO would produce.

Pricing

$15,000–$30,000/month, 3–6 months

Total engagement typically $60k–$180k, about half of a fully-loaded permanent CFO annualized, with no equity, no severance risk, and a defined exit. Banded by scope: emergency, parental leave, M&A bridge, fundraise cover.

At handoff

Clean transition to permanent CFO

Hiring brief written, search engaged or in-house process activated, first-round interviews. Returning-CFO handover document is the deliverable most teams skip, Eightx ships it. We disappear when the role is filled.

How it works

Three steps. Senior partner on-site in 7-14 days.

Triage call

30-minute call. Same-day scheduling for emergency vacancies. We confirm what happened, what's mid-flight, and which engagement type fits (emergency, parental leave, M&A, fundraise).

Free. No commitment. We'll tell you upfront if Eightx isn't the right firm.

Senior partner on-site

7-14 days from triage. A senior partner -- Matt, Sam, Leandro, or Sid -- starts running your finance function. Day-one productive because the playbooks are pre-built: cash flow audit, vendor stabilization, board pack work, finance team management.

Clean handoff

When your permanent CFO is hired or returning, we hand off cleanly. Written handover document. 1-2 week overlap. We disappear when the role is filled. We do not try to convert you to ongoing fractional unless you actually need it.

Most engagements run 3-6 months total.

Engagement types

Four common scenarios. Different scopes.

Emergency

CFO quit suddenly

You need executive finance leadership starting now. First 72 hours: secure banking access, audit cash position, stabilize vendor and investor relationships. Through day 90: clean books, finalized board pack, hiring brief and interviews for permanent replacement.

90-day engagement.

Planned coverage

Parental leave coverage

Your CFO is going on a 3-12 month leave. You want continuity, not a permanent change. We onboard 2 weeks before leave starts, carry the role through, and brief the returning CFO at handover. We disappear cleanly when they're back.

3-12 months.

Transaction-driven

M&A and due diligence bridge

You're selling, buying, or your CFO got pulled onto the deal team. Matt's $500M PE background means board-grade operator presence -- quality of earnings prep, integration planning, post-close 100-day cadence. Senior partner-led, no junior delegation.

90 days through 6 months.

Funding-driven

Fundraise vacancy cover

Your CFO left during an active raise. We hold investor relationships, finalize the data room, lead the diligence call cadence, and protect the round timeline. We've done this for both PE and venture rounds.

90 days through close.

Decision framework

Interim CFO vs. fractional CFO: which do you need?

The terms get used interchangeably. They shouldn't be. They solve different problems and cost different amounts.

An interim CFO is a full-time, time-bounded replacement during a CFO vacancy or leave. Typically 3-6 months, full-time hours, $15-30K/month. The interim partner runs the role end-to-end and disappears when the permanent CFO is hired or returning. Use this when your CFO seat is empty and the business can't run without someone in it.

A fractional CFO is an ongoing part-time engagement. Typically 10-30 hours/month, $5-15K/month, no defined exit. The fractional CFO handles strategic finance work alongside your existing team (often a controller + bookkeeper). Use this when you don't yet need a full-time CFO but you need senior finance leadership.

Quick decision rule:

If your CFO seat is empty right now -- interim. The business needs full-time coverage and a clean exit when permanent arrives.
If you don't have a CFO and don't yet need one full-time -- fractional. Part-time senior leadership without the full-time cost.
If you're scaling from $5M to $30M and your controller is overwhelmed -- fractional usually, sometimes interim if there's a defined event (fundraise, M&A) requiring full-time intensity.
If you're in active M&A or fundraise and your CFO is too thin -- interim layered on top of your existing CFO, OR fractional if the in-house CFO just needs strategic backup.

Eightx delivers both. See fractional CFO services for the ongoing engagement model. This page is the interim version.

Vertical specialization

Interim CFO for ecommerce, DTC, and CPG brands

The reason most interim CFO engagements fail is the contractor lands on day one and spends two weeks learning your business. We don't have that problem because we don't take engagements outside our specialization.

Ecommerce / DTC operating context the team walks in with:

Shopify Plus financial operations -- payment reconciliation, Shop Pay attribution, subscription app accounting (Recharge, Bold), refund and chargeback workflows.
Amazon Seller Central reconciliation -- referral fees, FBA fee stack, settlement reports, Subscribe & Save mechanics, brand-vs-non-branded ad spend separation.
DTC unit economics -- the CM1/CM2/CM3 ladder, max-allowable CAC, cohort-curve payback. See our contribution margin pillar and customer acquisition cost pillar.
CPG wholesale-and-DTC blended P&Ls -- trade spend accruals, slotting fee amortization, channel-mix margin analysis.
13-week cash forecasting built for ecom seasonality (Q4 inventory, working capital cycle).

Engagement intensity matches the business. A $10M apparel brand at Series A and a $80M food brand in a strategic exit are different jobs. The senior partner assigned to your engagement has worked the same vertical at a similar revenue stage before.

Eightx does not take SaaS, manufacturing, or professional services interim engagements. Hire a vertical-specialist firm if that's your business.

First 72 hours playbook

What we do before the rest of the team has finished saying goodbye to the outgoing CFO.

Hour	Action
Hour 0-4	Triage call with founder and board chair. Scope confirmed. Senior partner assigned.
Hour 4-24	Banking access secured (signing authority, online portals, wires). Outgoing CFO debriefed where possible.
Day 1-2	Vendor list reviewed. AP runway calculated. Critical relationships called personally. Bank covenants confirmed.
Day 2-3	Investor and board update prepared and sent. Internal team briefed. Weekly leadership meeting now run by Eightx partner.
Day 3-7	Open finance hires triaged. Books reviewed for surprises. 13-week cash forecast updated. Risk register built.
Day 7-14	Full onboarding into operating cadence. First clean board pack delivered if timing requires.

Cost detail

Interim CFO cost: what does $15K-$30K per month actually buy?

Most Eightx interim engagements run $15,000 to $30,000 per month, for 3 to 6 months. Total engagement cost: $60,000 to $180,000. Where the number lands inside that range depends on three things: engagement type, intensity, and partner mix.

What's included in the monthly fee:

A senior partner (Matt, Sam, Leandro, or Sid) on-site full-time, in your weekly leadership meetings, accountable for the role.
The Eightx operating bench behind them. Analyst support for the heavy reconciliation work, board-pack production, model-building, ad-hoc analysis.
The first-72-hours stabilization playbook. Cash, vendors, investors, board.
Permanent CFO search support (in parallel, if you want it).
Clean handover documentation when the role transitions.

Cost ranges by engagement type:

Engagement type	Monthly rate	Typical duration	Total range
Emergency CFO replacement	$25K-$30K	3 months	$75K-$90K
Parental leave coverage	$15K-$22K	3-6 months	$45K-$132K
M&A / due diligence bridge	$22K-$30K	3-6 months	$66K-$180K
Fundraise vacancy cover	$20K-$28K	3-4 months	$60K-$112K

How this compares:

Fully-loaded permanent CFO: $350K-$450K/year base + equity + benefits. Interim is roughly half that annualized, with no equity dilution, no severance risk, and a defined exit when the permanent CFO arrives.
Staffing-agency contractor CFO: $20K-$35K/month, often with markup of 30-40% to the agency. Eightx is a firm engagement, not a staffing placement; you're hiring a senior partner under firm accountability, not a contractor matched on a database.
Other fractional CFO firms: $5-15K/month for ongoing part-time engagement. Different product. Use fractional when you don't yet need full-time.

What pushes the price up: emergency timelines (3-5 days vs 7-14 days), active M&A intensity, larger team management (4+ direct reports), multi-channel complexity (DTC + Amazon + wholesale + international). What pushes the price down: planned coverage, single-channel businesses, smaller finance teams, clean books going in.

Honest positioning

Who Eightx is not for in interim mode.

A staffing-agency placement. If you want a contractor placed on your payroll for 12 months, Robert Half or BluWave is built for that. Eightx senior partners are not contractors.
A non-ecommerce business. We specialize in ecommerce, DTC, and CPG at $5M-$150M. SaaS, manufacturing, professional services -- hire a specialist.
An interim under $15k/month. Our engagement intensity and senior-partner-led model means our pricing floor is $15,000/month. If your budget is lower, look at fractional CFO services or category equivalents.
An interim that converts to permanent. Our senior partners run the role; they don't take it permanently. If you want interim-to-permanent placement, that's the staffing-agency model.

Trigger events

When to hire an interim CFO

Five trigger events. If any of these is happening, you need an interim CFO this week, not next month.

Your CFO has resigned or been terminated. The board wants continuity. The bank wants the covenant package. Vendors want POs paid. Your investors want the data room updated. None of those things wait for the search firm to find a permanent replacement in 4-6 months. An interim CFO covers the seat from week 2 through permanent hire.
Your CFO is going on parental or medical leave. 3-12 months of finance leadership without coverage is a real operating risk. Plan the interim engagement to onboard 2 weeks before the leave starts so the handover is clean both ways.
You're entering an M&A process and your current CFO can't lead it. Either they don't have the deal experience, or they're stretched thin running the operating business while the founder wants the deal closed. An interim with PE / banker / quality-of-earnings background runs the deal alongside the operating CFO.
You're raising a round and the CFO seat is empty during the worst possible window. Investors evaluate the finance function as much as the product. Going into a Series B with no CFO costs you valuation. An interim closes the gap through close.
You've outgrown your controller but haven't hired permanent. Revenue is $15M, controller is doing the work of a CFO, no one is doing the work of a CFO at $30M scale. Interim covers the gap until the permanent search closes.

If none of these match, you probably don't need an interim CFO. You may need a fractional CFO (ongoing part-time) or an executive search firm (permanent placement).

Vetting checklist

How to choose an interim CFO (3 questions to ask)

Most interim CFO firms blur together at the marketing-page level. These three questions surface the real differences in 15 minutes.

"Who exactly will be on-site, and what's their tenure at your firm?" Staffing agencies place individual contractors matched from a database. The person you interview is often not the person who ends up in the role. At a firm-led model, you're hiring a named senior partner with a specific track record. If they can't tell you who personally will be in the chair, that's the staffing model in disguise.
"How many concurrent interim engagements does that person currently have?" Senior attention has a hard ceiling. Three or four interim engagements per partner is the practical maximum. If a firm is running 6-8 per partner, the senior attention you're paying for is diluted across too many seats. Ask for the current count. Eightx caps at 3-4 concurrent engagements across the entire firm.
"What does your first 72 hours look like?" A firm with real playbooks can describe the first 72 hours by the hour. (Hour 0-4: triage. Hour 4-24: banking access secured. Day 1-2: vendor list reviewed, AP runway calculated. Day 2-3: investor and board update sent. See ours above.) A firm without real playbooks gives you a vague "we'd get up to speed quickly" answer. The first 72 hours is where engagements succeed or fail.

Three follow-up questions to ask if the first three check out: vertical experience (ecom / DTC / CPG specifically), pricing transparency (a real range, not "we'll scope it"), and exit terms (do they try to convert the engagement to ongoing fractional? Eightx doesn't unless you actually need it).

Common questions

More on how interim CFO engagements work: what an interim CFO costs, how the firms compare, interim vs. fractional CFO, interim CFO for M&A due diligence, covering a CFO parental leave, and the 30-day playbook when a CFO just quit.

Frequently Asked Questions

how does an eightx interim cfo engagement work?

Three steps. Step 1: a 30-minute triage call, same-day for emergency vacancies, to scope your situation and confirm fit. Step 2: a senior partner is on-site within 7–14 days, full-time, running your finance function. Step 3: clean handoff to your permanent CFO when they're hired or returning. We disappear when the role is filled.

how much does an interim cfo cost?

Most engagements run $15,000–$30,000 per month for 3–6 months. Total engagement cost typically lands $60k–$180k, about half of a fully-loaded permanent CFO annualized, with no equity, no severance risk, and a defined exit.

who runs the engagement?

A senior partner. Matt Putra, Sam Dillon, Leandro D'Elia, or Sid Ahuja personally takes the engagement. Eightx does not place contractors via a staffing-agency model. The partner is in your weekly leadership meetings, present in board prep, and accountable for the outcome. We cap concurrent interim engagements at 3–4 across the firm so attention is real.

how fast can a senior partner be on-site?

7–14 days from the triage call for most engagements. For emergency stabilization (sudden CFO departure), we can have a partner on-site within 3–5 days. Compare to staffing-agency placements which typically take 3–6 weeks of search before a contractor starts.

what scenarios does eightx cover?

Four common ones: emergency stabilization (CFO quit suddenly), planned parental leave coverage, M&A and due diligence bridge, and fundraise vacancy cover. All within ecommerce, DTC, and CPG brands at $5M–$150M revenue.

what is the difference between an interim cfo and a fractional cfo?

An interim CFO is a full-time, time-bounded replacement during a vacancy or transition, typically 3-6 months, full-time hours, $15-30K/month. A fractional CFO is an ongoing part-time engagement, typically 10-30 hours/month, $5-15K/month, no defined exit. Use interim when your CFO seat is empty. Use fractional when you don't yet need a full-time CFO.

is an interim cfo the same as a temporary or contract cfo?

The terms overlap but signal different sources. Temporary CFO and contract CFO often imply a staffing-agency placement of an individual contractor. Eightx's interim CFO is a senior partner from a firm, working under firm accountability, with the operating bench of Eightx behind them. The cost is similar; the risk profile and outcome reliability is not.

when should i hire an interim cfo?

Five trigger events: (1) your CFO has resigned or been terminated, (2) your CFO is going on parental or medical leave, (3) you're entering an M&A process and your current CFO can't lead it, (4) you're raising a round and the CFO seat is empty during the worst possible window, (5) you've outgrown your controller but haven't hired permanent and need experienced coverage.

how do i find a good interim cfo?

Three criteria. (1) Verify it's a senior partner taking the engagement personally, not a contractor placement, ask exactly who will be on-site and what their tenure at the firm is. (2) Confirm vertical experience: interim CFOs without ecommerce/DTC/CPG operating context burn cycles learning your business. (3) Check engagement caps: firms running more than 4 concurrent interim engagements per partner can't deliver senior attention. Ask each shortlist firm: who exactly will be on-site, how many concurrent engagements they currently have, and what their first 72 hours playbook looks like.

can eightx help search for a permanent cfo replacement during the interim?

Yes. Eightx can run the permanent CFO search in parallel with the interim engagement. We have a referral relationship with executive search firms specializing in DTC/ecommerce CFO placements, and we participate in candidate evaluation interviews to ensure continuity at handoff. We do not take the permanent role ourselves, our senior partners are interim, not interim-to-permanent.

does eightx do interim cfo work for saas or non-ecommerce companies?

No. We specialize in ecommerce, DTC, and CPG brands at $5M–$150M revenue. We refuse engagements outside that specialization because our playbooks (Shopify cash reconciliation, Amazon Seller Central reporting, DTC unit economics, trade spend accruals) are built for that vertical specifically. For SaaS, manufacturing, or professional services, we refer to specialist firms.

Cities served

Interim CFO services in your city

Eightx senior partners are hybrid: on-site in your city for the heavy first 30 days, monthly on-site cadence after. Engagements run identical scope, pricing, and timeline across metros. Below are the cities we publish dedicated landing pages for. If your metro isn't listed, the engagement model is the same, book a triage call.

New York San Francisco Los Angeles Chicago Austin Miami Boston Seattle Denver Atlanta

When you need it now

Book a CFO Vacancy Triage Call

30 minutes. Same-day scheduling for emergency vacancies. We diagnose your situation, propose the right scope, and tell you upfront if we're not the right fit.

Talk to a CFO

Or email matt@eightx.co directly if it's urgent.