Controller / Interim Controller
Interim Controller Services: Keep the Close Moving While You Recruit
Immediate accounting leadership when the controller leaves. The close, reconciliations, reporting, and team keep running, and the permanent hire inherits a documented function.
- Close, reconciliations, and reporting stay on schedule
- Audit, CPA, and lender requests handled without delay
- Accounting team led and coached, not abandoned
- Documented handoff to your permanent controller
Controllers give two weeks' notice and take twenty years of knowledge with them. The close checklist was in their head. The reconciliation for the intercompany account was a spreadsheet on their desktop. The auditors knew to call them directly. The accounts payable clerk asked them everything. On the fifteenth of the month the seat is empty and the close is due on the tenth of the next one.
An interim controller fills the seat before the first missed close. We take over the month-end process, the reconciliations, the reporting, and the supervision of the accounting team, and we do it in your system with your people. The close happens on time. The CPA gets what they asked for. The bank gets its statements. Nobody outside the building notices there was a gap.
Then we do the part the departed controller never had time for: we write it all down. When the permanent hire starts, they inherit a close calendar, reconciliation templates, documented procedures, and a team that knows what is expected. The company stops depending on one person's memory.
Week one: find everything before it is missed
The first week is an inventory. What is due, to whom, and when: financial statements to the bank, sales tax filings, payroll tax deposits, 1099 preparation, insurance audit requests, the CPA's open-items list, the surety's quarterly WIP schedule. What lives only in the former controller's files: reconciliation workbooks, allocation spreadsheets, the fixed-asset register, the loan amortization schedules, the vendor list with wire instructions. What the team knows and what they were never taught.
By the end of the week there is a written list of every obligation for the next 90 days and a plan for each. There is also a candid assessment of the books as we found them. Sometimes the departing controller left everything clean. Sometimes the departure explains why the last three months of reconciliations do not exist. We tell you which.
- Obligation calendar: every filing, report, and request for 90 days
- Recovery of models, schedules, and access the prior controller held
- Reconciliation status for every balance-sheet account
- Assessment of team capability and workload
- Introductions to CPA, bank, auditors, and key vendors
The first close under new leadership
The first close is the test. We run it on the existing calendar if there was one and build one if there was not. Cutoff is enforced. Bank and credit card accounts are reconciled first, then the subledgers, then accruals and prepaids, then the review. Financial statements go out with a short memo listing what was adjusted and what remains open. If the close has been running on the twentieth, it will not hit the tenth in month one, but it will hit the fifteenth, and the tenth by month three.
The team does the work; the interim controller reviews it. That is the model that scales, and it is the model the permanent controller will inherit. Clerks who have been guessing at accruals for two years get a schedule. The person who reconciles the bank gets a reviewer. The office manager who runs payroll gets a second set of eyes on the register before it funds.
A close that lives in one person's head is not a process. It is a hostage situation with a nicer title.
Audits, CPAs, lenders, and everyone who calls the controller
Interim engagements often coincide with year-end, an audit, a bank review, or a bonding renewal. That is not a coincidence; those pressures are why controllers leave. We handle the outside parties directly. Audit requests get a single point of contact and a tracker. The CPA's adjusting entries get posted and explained. The lender's financial statement package goes out with the covenant calculation attached. The surety gets a WIP schedule that ties to the general ledger.
Because our principal has coordinated SOX documentation and SEC-level variance analysis, and has run regional accounting under public-company auditors, the standard of support we bring to a private-company audit tends to shorten it. Auditors like a controller who anticipates the question. So do bankers.
Recruiting and handing off
Interim controller engagements typically run two to six months. We help define the permanent role based on what the interim period revealed: sometimes the company needs a stronger controller than it had, sometimes it needs a controller plus a fractional CFO, and sometimes a senior accountant with our fractional controller oversight is the more economical answer. We participate in interviews and assess candidates on the technical questions owners cannot ask.
The handoff is a package, not a conversation: the close calendar, every reconciliation template with instructions, the accounting procedures manual, the chart of accounts with definitions, the obligation calendar, and the team assessment. The new controller starts on day one with a running process and a clear picture of the team. We remain available for 30 days afterward.
Pricing for interim controllership
Interim controller engagements are monthly retainers sized to the volume of transactions, the number of entities, the condition of the books, and how much of the work the existing team can carry. A two-entity company with a competent accounts payable clerk and a bookkeeper is a different engagement from a five-entity company whose close has not happened since spring. We quote in writing after the first week's assessment, with the deliverables named.
If the books require reconstruction rather than maintenance, we scope that as a separate accounting cleanup project so the interim retainer stays predictable and the cleanup has a defined end.
What you get
Deliverables installed in the first 90 days
Obligation calendar
Every filing, report, and external request for 90 days, with owners and dates, delivered in week one.
On-time close
Month-end close run on a calendar with enforced cutoff, full reconciliations, and reviewed financial statements.
External-party coverage
Audit, CPA, lender, surety, and insurance requests handled directly with a single point of contact.
Team supervision
Workload allocation, review of daily work, training on gaps, and clear expectations for the accounting staff.
Documented procedures
Close checklist, reconciliation templates, procedures manual, and chart-of-accounts definitions.
Recruiting and handoff
Role definition, candidate assessment, and a complete transition package for the permanent controller.
Engagement arc
How the first 90 days unfold
Week 1
Inventory and control
Obligation calendar, access recovery, reconciliation status, team assessment, and stakeholder introductions.
Month 1
First close
Close run on a calendar, cutoff enforced, reconciliations current, and statements delivered with commentary.
Months 2-4
Run and document
Close by the tenth, controls in place, procedures written, external requests handled, team coached.
Handoff
Transition
Permanent controller recruited and onboarded with the full documentation package and 30 days of support.
This is for you if
- Companies whose controller has resigned, retired, been terminated, or gone on leave
- Businesses in the middle of an audit, year-end, or bank review when the controller left
- Companies with a capable accounting team that needs a leader, not a replacement
- Owners who want the controller role documented before the next person fills it
It is not for you if
- Companies that need bookkeeping done rather than an accounting function led
- Businesses looking for a temp to process transactions without responsibility for the statements
FAQ
Questions owners ask on the first call
How quickly can an interim controller start?
Usually within a week of the first conversation. If the departing controller is still in the building, we prefer to overlap for a few days to capture what they know. If they are already gone, we start with the inventory and recover what we can from the files.
What does an interim controller cost?
Interim controller engagements are custom monthly retainers, quoted in writing after the first week's assessment. For reference, our fractional controller service starts at $2,500 a month for a part-time cadence; full interim coverage is priced above that according to volume, entities, and condition.
Will the close be on time in the first month?
It will happen, and it will be accurate. Whether it hits the target date in month one depends on the state of the reconciliations when we arrive. Our commitment is a close that moves earlier every month until it holds at the tenth business day.
Do you supervise our accounting staff?
Yes. That is most of the job. We allocate work, review it, train on the gaps, and set expectations. The staff stay employed by you and report to the interim controller for the duration.
Can you handle our audit or year-end?
Yes. We serve as the single point of contact for auditors and the CPA, run the request tracker, prepare the schedules, and post the adjusting entries. Our experience includes public-company audit support, which is more than a private-company audit demands.
Are you on-site?
As the situation requires. Interim controller work often benefits from on-site time in the first weeks while the team and the files are being sorted out, with remote work afterward. We are based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and serve clients nationwide.
Do you help hire the permanent controller?
Yes, without a placement fee. We define the role based on what we learned, screen candidates for technical competence, join interviews, and give you a straight assessment. Then we hand off with a full documentation package and stay available for 30 days.
What if we would rather keep you part time than hire someone?
Many companies do. The interim engagement steps down to a fractional controller engagement, where we run the close review and the controls on a recurring basis with your team doing the transactions. Continuity is preserved and the cost drops.
Keep reading
Where this work shows up
The industries that lean on this service most, the articles that go deeper, and the calculators that put a number on it.
Industries
- Professional ServicesYour inventory is time, and it expires every Friday. Finance leadership for engineering, architecture, consulting, agency, and other firms that sell expertise by the hour, the project, or the retainer.
- Home ServicesMarketing buys the call, the technician sells the job, and the cash arrives through a financing partner in the wrong month. Finance leadership for home services companies running on lead cost, close rate, and trucks.
Insights
- 10 Signs Your Business Has Outgrown Its BookkeeperThe bookkeeper is not the problem. The business got bigger than the job. Here are the ten signs that the gap has opened, and what to do about each one.
- Fractional CFO vs. Controller: Which Does Your Company Need?One fixes the numbers. The other uses them. Most owners buy the wrong one first, and the symptoms tell you which one you actually need.
- How Much Should a Fractional CFO Cost?The honest answer is a range, and the range depends on what you are buying. Here is how to read a fractional CFO price, what moves it, and what the full-time alternative costs once the offer letter is fully loaded.
Calculators
- Full-Time vs. Fractional CFO Cost CalculatorSalary is the smallest part of what a CFO costs. Put in the real numbers and compare them with a fractional engagement sized to your company.
- Working Capital CalculatorWorking capital is the money the business needs to run between the day you spend and the day you get paid. Here is how much you have, and how much you need.
- Construction WIP CalculatorEnter contract value, estimated cost, cost to date, and billings to date. Get percent complete, earned revenue, and whether the job is overbilled or underbilled.
Financial assessment
Do not miss the next close.
Tell us when the controller leaves and what is due in the next 30 days. We will tell you what an interim controller would do in week one and how fast we can be in the seat.