Read
The business and the people running it. Who owns which number, where decisions stall, what the books really say.
Weeks 1 and 2Fractional CFO & COO for owner‑run businesses
Find your red flags before a lender does.
Six questions, thirty seconds, no credit pull. Then I take the CFO and COO seat and take every flag off.
Question 1 of 60 red · 0 amber · 0 green
01 · Books
Could you send a lender the last 12 months of reconciled books today?
Your file, as a lender sees it
A self-check, not a credit decision.
Fix the client you have before you pay for the next one.
200
clients, no new ones
$1,000,000
a year from them
$5,000
each client is worth
Found 20 to 30% more inside them? Now every new client you pay to bring in is worth more too.
Illustration at +25%. A target we work toward, not a promised result.
The Onward Method.
Five moves, one at a time, always in this order. Read before we fix. Fix before we grow. Borrow before we need to.
Repair
Operations, systems and the revenue leaking out: drifted pricing, unbilled work, slow collections.
From week 2Recover
Another 20 to 30% from the clients you already have, before a dollar goes to finding new ones.
The fastest moneyReinvest
Cut what isn’t paying for itself. Put the money behind what is, aimed at clients like your best ones.
Run lean, then pushReserve
Books tight, file clean, debt reviewed every month. Cash set aside before the rainy day.
Every month afterBorrow when you don’t need it.
Lenders say yes when your numbers are strong, not when you’re in trouble.
So every month I look at where the business stands and what lenders are offering, and we decide whether to put money on the side now. Not every offer. The right one, before you need it.
The Clean File Standard.
15·1.25·680
Books closed in 15 days · debt covered 1.25 times · 680 on all three bureaus
The six things a lender checks first. Your Red Flag Report scores you on all six, and the Seat holds every client file to them, every month.
Books
12 months reconciled, each month closed within 15 days.
Flag: you can’t send a year of books today.
Bank
Three months of statements, read the way an underwriter reads them.
Flag: overdrafts, or deposits that don’t match revenue.
Returns
Tax returns filed, current, and matching the books.
Flag: the books say profit, the return says loss.
Debt
A full schedule, covered 1.25 times or better, the level most lenders look for.
Flag: stacked advances, coverage under 1.0.
Credit
680 or better on all three bureaus, and business credit established.
Flag: unexplained marks, no business file.
Use
The amount and use of funds written down and tied to repayment.
Flag: “as much as I can get.”
$7,500a month · everything included
The Onward Seat: a fractional CFO and COO in one.
- Strategy. A dated 90-day plan, rewritten every quarter, with a weekly check-in.
- Operations (COO). The five to eight numbers that run the business, and one fix shipped every month.
- Finance (CFO). A monthly financial review, pricing, and gross margin by job.
- Bookkeeping. Monthly close and reconciliation, up to 300 transactions a month.
- Fundability. Every Clean File check to green, and kept there.
- Capital placement. Your file placed with SBA, term, line-of-credit and equipment lenders. Any fee disclosed in writing first.
90-day start, then month to month on 30 days’ notice. Tax filing, audit and legal work go to a team of CPAs and attorneys I work with, or to yours.
Straight answers.
Onward is a fractional CFO and COO practice for owner-run businesses doing $1 million to $20 million a year. Joshua Gilmore runs the finance and operations seat part-time for one monthly price, gets the business ready for a lender, and places the loan with third-party lenders. Based in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, working with owners across the United States.
What is a fractional CFO?
A fractional CFO is a senior finance lead who works for your business part-time, for a monthly fee, instead of as a full-time hire. You get the pricing, cash, reporting and lender work a CFO does, sized to a company that doesn’t need one forty hours a week.
How much does a fractional CFO cost?
Most work on a monthly retainer. Onward’s is $7,500 a month, published, and it covers CFO and COO work, bookkeeping up to 300 transactions a month, fundability and capital placement. There are no add-on fees for the work.
Fractional CFO or full-time CFO?
Under about $20 million in revenue, most owner-run businesses need CFO-level decisions but not a full-time salary. A fractional CFO gives you the decisions now and leaves room to hire full-time when the business is big enough to need it.
Do I need a CFO or a bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper records what happened. A CFO decides what happens next: pricing, cash, debt and when to borrow. The Seat includes both, because a decision is only as good as the books under it.
Can a fractional CFO help me get a business loan?
Yes, and that is half of what Onward does. The file gets fixed against the Clean File Standard first, then placed with SBA, term, line-of-credit or equipment lenders. Onward is not a lender; lenders make every approval decision.
What is a fractional COO?
A part-time head of operations: the person who sets the five to eight numbers that run the business, fixes processes, vendors and staffing, and ships one improvement every month. In the Onward Seat, the CFO and COO are the same person.
What is a Red Flag Report?
A free one-page review after a twenty-minute call. It shows the three biggest places revenue is leaking and scores your file on the six checks a lender makes first, green, amber or red, with the order to fix them.
Who do you work with?
Owner-run businesses doing roughly $1 million to $20 million in revenue, nationally. Trades, fleet, home-services and commercial-services companies are most of the book.
Work performed.
Wellness practice · Southwest
Books, funding, then growth
Books rebuilt, file made fundable, then positioning, tax and AI where a hire wasn’t justified yet.
Medical transport · Northeast
Rebuilt around the payers
About $400K a year at the start. The offer pointed at the payers that actually decide volume.
Real estate · Multi-property
A lender-ready file
Lender sourced, application opened the same day, property and lien schedule built.
Ag-biotech · Early stage
The right grant, ranked
Every program checked against its rules. Best fit: NSF SBIR Phase I, up to $305,000.
Anonymised. Work done, not results promised.
Onward.
Gilmore Exposure LLC dba Onward. Fractional CFO and COO services, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Always forward. Never finished.
Onward is not a lender. Onward does not fund, lend, or guarantee capital. Program terms, rates, amounts and approval decisions are made solely by third-party lenders and are subject to their underwriting. Approval is not guaranteed. The self-check on this page is not a credit decision and does not pull credit. Revenue figures are illustrations, not promised results.