A virtual CFO is a qualified finance leader who works for your business part-time, usually on a monthly retainer, and is responsible for cash, controls, reporting and financial decisions. A fractional CFO is the same role with more days in the CFO seat. Regi Tom Antony & Associates, Chartered Accountants in Kochi since 1997, provides virtual and fractional CFO services and an outsourced finance office to businesses in India, the GCC, Africa, the UK, the US and Australia.
By Regi Tom Antony, FCA, MBA (Australia), ACMA (UK), CGMA (USA), CISA (USA) · Updated 23 October 2026
Most growing businesses have a bookkeeper and an accountant, but nobody looking at the business as a whole: the cash in eight weeks, which customers and products make money, and what the numbers say about next year. A virtual CFO does that job part-time, for a fixed monthly retainer, with a finance office behind it that produces the numbers on time.
Books closed on time, reconciliations, GST and TDS, and approvals and controls that stop errors and fraud.
Inside the business: purchasing, stock, pricing, margins by product and customer, supplier terms and the systems that run them.
Budgets, cash planning, banking and funding, board and investor reporting, and the three-year growth plan.
| Compare | Virtual CFO | Fractional CFO | Interim CFO | Full-time CFO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | A set number of hours a month, remote | 2 to 4 days a month, in the CFO seat | Full-time for 3 to 9 months | Full-time, permanent |
| Suits | Founder-run SMEs that need control and visibility | Investor-backed, IPO-bound or multi-entity groups | A gap between CFOs, or a turnaround | Large companies with complex finance |
| Team behind it | Our outsourced finance office | Our team, or yours | Your team | Your team |
| Called | Virtual CFO (India, Australia) | Fractional CFO (US, UK, Gulf); fractional FD (UK) | Interim CFO | CFO |
Before each monthly review, the owner receives a one-page CFO Decision Brief: one number to watch, one assumption that could break the plan, one risk nobody is saying out loud, and one decision to take in the room. The MIS pack is the evidence behind it.
Days of the month.
For founder-run businesses, roughly ₹2 to 25 crore in revenue.
For professionally managed businesses, roughly ₹25 to 150 crore.
For investor-backed, IPO-bound and group companies.
Each engagement is a scope-based monthly retainer, agreed after a short diagnostic of your books, controls and systems.
Each service can be taken on its own or added to a retainer.
Maker-checker approvals, payment batches, TDS and VAT checks, a full audit trail.
Read more →Employee claims, cards and petty cash in one portal, with policy limits and approvals.
Days to pay by customer, ageing, credit limits against exposure, reminders.
Payroll processing and compliance in India, coordinated with your overseas payroll.
Read more →A 13-week cash flow in every currency you trade in, working capital and bank limits.
Read more →One version of the numbers: sales, margin and cash, live from Tally or your ERP.
Read more →Ageing and dead stock, ABC and XYZ classes, stock turns and reorder levels.
Cycle times, bottlenecks, capacity use and cost per unit, order or patient.
Conversion by source, cost per lead and per customer, time to close.
KPIs, scorecards and incentive plans for people, business units and operations.
See below →Budgets only work when people, business units and processes are measured against them every month. We set up the measures over six to eight weeks, then run the monthly review with you, drawing on Regi's years as CFO and COO and his Lean and Six Sigma training.
Your business is in Dubai, Riyadh or Johannesburg; your people, suppliers or subsidiary are in India.
We run one finance office across both: one approval route for every payment, a cash flow in both currencies, dashboards closed on the same calendar, and the Indian subsidiary's FEMA, transfer pricing and tax handled properly.
Regi Tom Antony was Group CFO and COO at OSRAM/Siemens, Westcon and Comstor across the Middle East and Africa before returning to practice, so he has run finance in these markets from the inside.
Local statutory filings and audits are handled with locally licensed firms where the law requires.
We start every engagement knowing which measure usually tells the story in your industry.
AI drafts; a qualified accountant stays responsible for the numbers.
FCA, MBA (Australia), ACMA (UK), CGMA (USA), CISA (USA)
Former Group CFO and COO roles at OSRAM/Siemens, Westcon and Comstor across the Middle East and Africa. Lean and Six Sigma trained. Author of NRI Tax Blueprint.
Regi Tom Antony & Associates, Chartered Accountants, Kochi, since 1997 · ICAI firm registration number 007670S
We review your books, controls and systems, and show you what your own Decision Brief would say. Each month Regi also writes The CFO Desk, a LinkedIn newsletter for owners running businesses in the Gulf, overseas and India.