What is a fractional controller?
A fractional controller is a senior finance lead you share with a few other businesses: they own your monthly close, reporting and financial controls, but work an agreed number of hours each month instead of full time. Think of it as two layers: bookkeeping captures every transaction, and the controller tests those numbers, tells you what they mean, and fixes the process behind any that were wrong.
The role fits an owner who has outgrown a single set of plain books but has not grown into a finance department. A second clinic, a third restaurant, a HoldCo beside the OpCo: each adds a layer that monthly bookkeeping records but does not interpret.
What does Coquitlam Bookkeeping include in a fractional controller engagement?
- A senior check and sign-off on every monthly close before reports go to you
- A monthly management pack: results by location or entity, margins against budget, and a short written read on what moved and why
- A rolling 13-week cash forecast, refreshed each month
- Financial controls: who approves bills, who can release payments, and how deposits and cash counts are checked
- One point of contact for your CPA, bank and lenders, with year-end preparation handed over by people who already know the file
Which tools does a fractional controller work in?
Your books remain in QuickBooks Online or Xero. For multi-site businesses we set up location tracking (classes in QuickBooks, tracking categories in Xero), so each site gets its own profit and loss from the same file.
Management reports are built in a spreadsheet or a reporting add-on such as Fathom, depending on how you prefer to read them. Bills run through Plooto and payroll through Wagepoint, so every approval leaves a record you can look back on.
Bookkeeper, fractional controller, full-time controller or CFO: which do you need?
The four roles differ in how far ahead they look: a bookkeeper records last month, a controller makes last month reliable and explains it, and a CFO plans the next few years. Most owner-operators need the first two well before the last two.
| Role | Main job | Commitment | Cost in CAD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeper | Records and reconciles transactions, closes the month | Monthly service | $500 to $750 per month CAD on our Steady tier, the entry point |
| Fractional controller | Reviews the close, reports by location, forecasts cash, sets controls | Agreed hours each month, on retainer | $1,250 to $2,000 per month CAD on our Bespoke tier |
| Full-time controller | The same job in-house, often supervising an accounting clerk | Salaried employee | Job Bank median for financial managers in the Lower Mainland–Southwest: $57.69 an hour, before benefits |
| CFO | Strategy, financing, lender and investor relationships, acquisitions | Senior executive | Job Bank median for senior managers (financial, communications and other business services), same region: $105.77 an hour |
The salaried figures are from Job Bank's wage report for the Lower Mainland–Southwest region, reference period 2023–2024, and exclude payroll costs, benefits and recruiting.
What is not included in fractional controller work?
- CFO work: raising capital, investor decks, or due diligence for buying or selling a business. We can point you to advisers who do it.
- Tax returns and tax planning. Those stay with your CPA; we prepare what they ask for.
- Audits or reviews of your statements for a lender. A CPA firm does that.
- The day-to-day bookkeeping, unless it is part of the same engagement through monthly bookkeeping. The two usually run together.
What does a fractional controller cost in Coquitlam?
Fractional controller engagements sit in our Bespoke tier, at $1,250 to $2,000 per month CAD, plus applicable taxes. Your place in that band follows the number of locations and entities, how often you want to meet, and whether the monthly bookkeeping is part of the same engagement.
| Tier | Monthly transactions | Monthly fee (CAD) | Typical shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steady | 0 to 50 | $500 to $750 | Monthly bookkeeping for single-entity businesses with straightforward transaction volume. |
| Considered | 50 to 150 | $800 to $1,200 | Monthly bookkeeping with payroll, AP, and quarterly review calls for businesses with more moving parts. |
| Bespoke | 150 or more | $1,250 to $2,000 | Holding companies, multi-entity structures, and fractional controller engagements. |
The fee is a fixed monthly retainer, agreed upfront. We revisit it when the business changes shape: a new location, a new company, or a lender asking for more reporting.
When does a multi-location clinic or restaurant group need a controller?
Most often at the point where the books stop showing which location earns its keep. Watch for these:
- Two or more sites, say a dental practice near Coquitlam Centre and a second in Burquitlam, still reported as one combined number
- Associates paid on percentage splits, with no one checking the splits against what was actually collected
- Restaurants spread across the Tri-Cities where food and labour costs swing from kitchen to kitchen with no explanation
- Delivery-platform payouts, tip pools and card settlements arriving net and in batches, so matching them per location takes longer than the close
- A lender or landlord who now wants quarterly statements, covenant figures or a forecast
- The owner as the only control: one person approves, pays and reconciles
For clinics in Austin Heights, Burquitlam or around Coquitlam Centre, the controller's attention goes mostly to revenue. Billed fees are matched to what MSP, insurers and patients actually paid, practitioner by practitioner, and associate pay is checked against the right base.
For a restaurant group with kitchens in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, the focus is cost. A weekly view of food and labour as a share of sales at each site means a problem in one kitchen shows up in week two, not in the year-end statements.
Further reading
Start with The Coquitlam owner-operator's guide to bookkeeping, which sets out the monthly close a controller builds on.
- Bookkeeping for Tri-Cities dental and medical clinics: associate payments and MSP and insurer reconciliations.
- Daily sales, tips and delivery apps: restaurant bookkeeping in BC: the daily reconciliation that location reporting depends on.
- How much does bookkeeping cost in Coquitlam in 2026?: where controller work sits among the local price bands.
A good fit if
- You run more than one location or company and want each one's numbers on their own
- Monthly bookkeeping is already in place, or you are willing to set it up first
- You are deciding on hires, leases or a new site and want numbers you trust behind the decision
Probably not the right fit if
- Raising money or selling the business is on the table, and you need a CFO or transaction adviser
- You have one location, simple books, and no questions the monthly statements don't already answer
- You want a finance employee on site every day