Stand up a finance and back-office function without hiring a CFO

The founder has been doing the books. Or maybe nobody has. Invoices go out late. Expense reports pile up. The monthly close takes two weeks because nobody owns it. When the board asks for financial reports, it's a scramble. You're past the stage where one person can handle finance as a side task, but not at the scale where a $150,000 a year CFO makes sense.

You need the function, not the title.

The painful path

You've tried a part-time bookkeeper. They handle the basics, but they're not available when you need a quick financial analysis or when the auditor sends follow-up questions. You've tried an accounting firm, but they're focused on tax and compliance, not operational finance. They close the books quarterly, not monthly, and they don't manage your daily AP/AR.

You've thought about hiring a finance manager locally, but a good one costs $5,000 to $7,000 a month, and they'll still need support staff for data entry, reconciliation, and reporting. Building a real finance function locally costs $10,000 to $15,000 a month before you've accounted for benefits and overhead.

So the numbers stay messy. Board prep is stressful. Financial decisions are made without clean data. And the founder keeps spending Sunday afternoons in QuickBooks.

What changes with SoTalented

You build a dedicated finance and back-office team working from a premium SoTalented Satellite Office in India. Start with the roles that address the most immediate pain, then add capacity as the function matures.

Here's a typical starting setup:

• Dedicated bookkeeper (monthly close, reconciliations, expense management): around $1,800 a month, all in

• AP/AR specialist (invoicing, collections, vendor payments): around $1,500 a month, all in

• Financial analyst (reporting, budgets, board prep): around $2,200 a month, all in

A two-person team runs roughly $3,300 a month. A three-person team, roughly $5,500. Less than one local finance hire.

Everyone works in your tools (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Google Sheets). One invoice per person. No long-term contracts. 30-day cancellation on each role. Start with one person and add as the need proves itself.

What your team looks like now

Your finance team handles:

• Monthly close completed on time with clean, accurate financials

• Invoice generation, sending, and collections follow-up

• Expense categorization and receipt tracking

• Bank and credit card reconciliations

• Board-ready financial reports and dashboards

• Budget tracking and variance analysis

The founder stops doing the books. Board meetings have real numbers. Monthly close happens on schedule. And you built the function at a price that doesn't require a CFO-level budget.

Ready to get the numbers under control?

Book a Free Consultation and we'll help you design the right finance team for your current stage.