Ideas for running a healthier agency.
Field notes on finance, systems, people, and the craft of running an agency well — from the team at The Good CFO.
What Is a Fractional CFO? An Agency Guide
What a fractional CFO does, when an agency needs one, what it costs, and how the role differs from a full-time CFO, a controller, and a bookkeeper.
Read → Trust & Security · 3 min readHow The Good CFO Handles Your Data
Your financial data is yours. Data minimization, no AI training or selling, a short named list of providers, encryption and role-based access — in plain English.
Read → Data & Systems · 5 min readThe Agency Data Problem — Four Systems That Don’t Talk
Agencies run on four disconnected systems — accounting, time, PM, and CRM. Why that quietly costs you, why data hygiene matters, and how the Hub brings it all together.
Read → The Good CFO Method · 6 min readQuestions Every Agency Should Be Asking
An agency isn’t one gauge — it’s four systems: Finance, Growth, People & Culture, and Client Service. The questions a healthy agency should be able to answer in each.
Read → Foundations · 5 min readThe PainePR Service Manifesto — and How It Shaped The Good CFO
David Paine’s manifesto argued that quality is a systems problem, not a people problem. What it taught our founder — and how it still shapes The Good CFO.
Read →Ready to run your agency by the numbers?
These are the ideas. If you'd like them applied to your business, let's talk about what senior, agency-specific finance leadership looks like.
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