For most CPG founders, the finance hire question shows up earlier than expected. You're juggling inventory accounting, retailer deductions, co-manufacturer invoices, and investor reporting. At some point the spreadsheets and your part-time bookkeeper stop cutting it. The natural instinct is to hire a controller. But that decision deserves more scrutiny than most founders give it.
The real question isn't whether you need financial leadership. You do. The question is whether you need a single full-time person or an entire team working fractionally. The answer depends on your stage, your complexity, and your cash position.
The Real Cost Math
A full-time senior controller with CPG experience commands a salary in the range of $130,000 to $180,000 or more, depending on your market. But salary is just the starting point. Layer on the true fully loaded cost:
- Benefits and payroll taxes: Health insurance, 401(k) match, PTO, and employer-side taxes add 20-30% on top of base salary.
- Equity: Early-stage hires often expect stock options, which carry real dilutive cost.
- Management overhead: Someone has to manage this person, set their priorities, evaluate their performance, and cover for them during vacations and sick days.
- Tools and systems: They'll need accounting software, expense management platforms, and potentially an ERP. All of which they'll need to select, implement, and maintain.
- Support gaps: A single controller still can't do everything. You'll eventually need AP support, audit prep help, or someone to handle sales tax filings. The work piles up.
All in, you're looking at $175,000 to $250,000+ per year for a single person who, no matter how talented, has limited bandwidth and a single perspective.
A fractional accounting team typically costs a fraction of that. Often in the range of $5,000 to $15,000 per month depending on scope. For that fee, you don't get one person. You get a dedicated controller backed by an AP specialist, a senior reviewer, and a broader team with deep institutional knowledge. The math is straightforward: you get more coverage, more expertise, and more resilience for less money.
When a Fractional Team Makes Sense
For CPG brands, the fractional model fits well in the pre-revenue through $50-100M revenue range. This is the stage where:
- Cash is precious. Every dollar saved on overhead is a dollar that can go toward inventory, marketing, or product development.
- Complexity is growing but not constant. You might have intense months around a retail launch or a funding round, then quieter periods. A fractional team scales with you.
- You need CPG-specific knowledge immediately. Inventory costing methods, trade spend accounting, retailer chargeback reconciliation, and COGS analysis are not generic accounting problems. A fractional team that specializes in CPG already knows how to handle these on day one.
- You're still figuring out your systems. The right fractional partner will help you select and implement your tech stack rather than inheriting whatever one person happens to prefer.
The Volume Test
A useful rule of thumb: if your accounting function doesn't require someone working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, you're paying for idle capacity with a full-time hire. Most brands under $50M in revenue don't generate enough transaction volume or reporting complexity to fill a controller's entire week, every week.
When a Full-Time Controller Makes Sense
There is absolutely a point where bringing someone in-house becomes the right call. That point typically arrives when:
- Transaction volume is consistently high. You're processing hundreds of invoices per week, managing dozens of retailer accounts, and running multiple co-manufacturing relationships simultaneously.
- You need someone in the room. As your leadership team grows, having a finance leader who is present for every conversation, every day, becomes valuable for real-time decision-making.
- You've built out a broader finance team. A controller works best when they have direct reports handling AP, AR, and reconciliation. If you can afford a controller plus support staff, the in-house model starts to work.
- Regulatory complexity demands it. If you're preparing for an IPO or managing international operations with transfer pricing considerations, the depth of a full-time hire may be necessary.
For most brands, this inflection point lands somewhere in the $50M to $100M+ revenue range, though it varies based on channel complexity and organizational structure.
What to Look for in a Fractional Team
Not all fractional accounting providers are created equal. If you go this route, evaluate them on these criteria:
Industry Expertise
CPG accounting is its own discipline. Inventory valuation, landed cost calculations, trade promotion accounting, and channel-specific revenue recognition all require specialized knowledge. A generalist firm that also handles SaaS companies and law firms won't give you the depth you need. Look for a team that lives and breathes consumer brands.
Dedicated People, Not a Rotating Cast
The worst version of fractional accounting is a call center model where you interact with a different person every time. You want named, dedicated team members who know your business, your chart of accounts, and your quirks. Continuity matters.
Real-Time Communication
Monthly reports delivered via email are table stakes. The best fractional teams embed themselves in your workflow through Slack channels, shared dashboards, and regular check-ins. You should be able to ask a question on Tuesday and get an answer on Tuesday. Not wait until the next scheduled call.
Fixed-Fee Pricing
Hourly billing creates misaligned incentives. You end up hesitating to ask questions because every email costs money. Look for fixed monthly pricing that covers a clearly defined scope. You should know exactly what you're paying and exactly what you're getting.
The Hidden Advantage: Pattern Recognition
Something that rarely gets discussed in the fractional vs. full-time debate: a strong fractional accounting team has worked with dozens or even hundreds of CPG brands across different stages, channels, and categories. That cumulative experience creates a form of pattern recognition that a single hire simply can't replicate.
Your fractional controller has likely seen:
- What happens to cash flow when a brand launches into a major national retailer
- How inventory accounting breaks down when you shift from one co-manufacturer to three
- Which financial metrics investors actually scrutinize during a Series A due diligence process
- The early warning signs of margin erosion that show up in the data before they show up in your bank account
This isn't theoretical knowledge. It's operational knowledge earned across hundreds of engagements. A full-time hire brings their own experience, certainly. But it's inherently limited to the companies they've personally worked at, which is usually fewer than ten.
Making the Decision
The choice between a fractional team and a full-time controller is ultimately a question of stage, volume, and economics. For the vast majority of CPG brands between pre-revenue and $50-100M, the fractional model delivers better expertise, broader coverage, and significantly lower cost.
The smartest approach is to start fractional, build your financial infrastructure with experienced guidance, and transition to an in-house team when your complexity and volume genuinely demand it. That transition, when it happens, will be smoother precisely because you built on a solid foundation.
Don't let the instinct to "hire a real person" push you into a premature commitment. The right fractional team isn't a stopgap. It's a strategic advantage.