Fractional CFO, Consultancy & Projects

Here's a flavour of some of my work — all anonymised to protect client confidentiality:

Corporate & Commercial

✦  interim FD and Finance Integration lead for a £25M family-run building materials and logistics business acquired into a FTSE 100 group — delivered the best financial results in the business unit's history, exceeding the acquisition business case by £2M revenue and 26% profit growth, and reduced month-end reporting close from 12-15 days to 3 days

✦ Developed and implemented a new group reporting standard for a >€200M manufacturing group's UK subsidiary (as UK finance lead), subsequently rolled out across US, Germany, China and Europe - uncovering and correcting a £60k stock discrepancy, implementing R&D tracking for an immediate tax refund, and driving a 30% revenue increase through resource and production planning

✦ Technical and group accounting project lead during the financial integration of a £60M+ defence engineering group through a major corporate acquisition and subsequent private equity sale — managing relationships with PWC and KPMG, leading consolidated accounts, and building financials and business case to secure a new contract tender worth over £30M

✦ Fractional Group CFO for a multi-brand retail group (£10M+ turnover) following an acquisition that brought legacy debt and refinancing needs — stabilising cashflow, leading creditor negotiations, and supporting the business during turnaround

✦ Financial planning and commercial strategy consultant CFO for a rapidly growing professional services firms during a period of company ownership restructure and growth, transitioning into ongoing fractional CFO relationship

‍✦ Due diligence and financial assessment for international venture capital investors outfit - considering potential investments, appraisals and business cases

✦ Supporting multiple founders and startups through investment raises — financial modelling, cashflow management, and investor readiness and post funding - reporting, finance/ops function and oversight

✦ Finance engagement with a multi-million turnover children's books, toys and craft publisher — stock system review, implementation, and financial reporting for a fast-growing product-based business with international dynamics and import operations

✦ Mentoring heads of finance/CFOS and C-suite execs through significant change — including a £10M fashion retail brand navigating a tight period of cashflow and funding raise, and a health services group managing rapid growth, new product development, and technology rollout

✦ Uncovered a hole in invoicing for services delivered (tens of thousands) through a full finance function audit — rectified and implemented process controls to prevent recurrence

✦ Advised a £5M revenue educational business on smarter overseas expansion through licensing arrangements — immediately saving £0.5M in misallocated resource

Public Sector & Not-for-Profit

✦ Set up the finance function, reporting cycle, and budget implementation from scratch for a newly established £1B publicly-funded authority, including novated staff — working with central government, Treasury, KPMG, the Mayor's office and senior stakeholders. Project appraisal for new business cases for projects and grant spend.

✦ Finance Trustee for a prestigious regional disability sport charity — developing financial reporting, supporting grant applications and audit, and leading the establishment of a separate trading arm including setting up the finance function, budgets, and financial infrastructure for two charity shops

✦ Financial transformation and strategy consultancy and CFO engagements across a range of not-for-profit and charitable organisations — from newly formed CIC's to CICs converting to charitable status through to governance reviews, staffing restructures, funding strategies, financial system improvement, and three-year budgeting and planning

To explore your specific project or engagement needs, book a call — let's talk it over.

I'm a certified Trauma of Money™ Practitioner — a body of work developed by Chantel Chapman that brings together neuroscience, somatic practice, attachment theory, and systemic awareness as it applies to money.

Why this matters:

Money is treated, almost everywhere, as something logical — a head thing, a maths thing, something you should just figure out. But it isn't. Money lives in your body, your nervous system, your relationships, your inheritances, your sense of safety. It makes you feel something. When that gets acknowledged honestly — not bypassed, not minimised — everything starts to shift.

I also don't follow the unspoken rules of how this kind of work is "supposed" to look — back-to-back meetings, pushing through, ignoring how your body feels, performing productivity, putting capitalism's norms ahead of what's right for you. We work how you work best. That's the whole point.

What it looks like in practice:

• Recognising the nervous system in the room — if you go quiet, get overwhelmed, dissociate, freeze, or get activated, we slow down. The pace of the work matches what your system can hold.
• Autonomy and choice at every step — you're in the driver's seat. You decide what we look at, what we don't, the pace, and when to pause or change direction.
• Set up however lets you show up — under a blanket, walking around, fidgeting, doing something with your hands, camera off, lying on the floor — whatever lets you be present and regulated. Pause whenever you need to. There's no one right way to be in a session.
• Exercises designed with this in mind — any reflection prompts, journaling, or work between sessions is set up to support you, not perform you. Engage with what helps, skip what doesn't, adapt as you need.
• Using language carefully — avoiding shame, blame, or pressure. Naming things honestly, but without making you feel small for what you're carrying.
• Holding the systemic alongside the personal — money issues sit inside systems (capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, classism, family inheritance, gender, race). I won't pretend they don't.
• Not pushing past the feelings — emotions get held, not bypassed. We don't pretend you're fine, and we don't try to push past discomfort to get to the spreadsheet.

What this isn't:

I'm not a therapist or counsellor. Trauma-informed is not the same as trauma treatment. I'm not training or qualified to treat trauma directly, and this isn't a clinical or therapeutic setting. If significant trauma comes up that needs more space than this work can hold, you'll need someone trained in that work — and it's worth thinking about what other support you have around you (therapist, somatic practitioner, etc.) before or alongside.

What I do bring is finance work that doesn't ignore the nervous system, the feelings, or the systems money sits inside.

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Me, directly. Below The Line Finance isn't a sprawling organisation, network, or marketplace where you get matched with whoever's allocated — I'm Harriet Formby, and you'll be working with me.

I'm a senior finance leader, advisor, and experienced CFO with tenure across both ends of the spectrum: from start-ups and grassroots organisations through to FTSE 100, PE-backed, M&A, and complex corporate environments. I have operated my own ICAEW-regulated Chartered Accountancy practice since 2020. I'm an ACA ICAEW Chartered Accountant, with a First Class Business degree and an MSc in Strategic Business Management (Distinction, with published research). I'm also a certified Level 7 Executive Coach and Trauma of Money™ practitioner.

Within the firm, I lead on all BTLF engagements personally (we do also have another experienced ICAEW accountant within the practice)— a limited number of senior engagements at any one time and a niche practice focusing on a small number of clients so the work stays bespoke, considered, and properly held.

This is measured, considered, thoughtful work — engagements are always scoped properly before they begin. Typically that means a number of weeks from initial call to working alongside you, tied to specific milestones in the proposal.

That said, I do understand there are times when speed is of the essence — distressed situations, or time-sensitive decisions to make. In those cases we can move faster, subject to getting the formal stuff in place (contracts, AML, etc.) — and there might be an initial, agile phase of the project to tackle the most urgent deliverables or decisions.

The best thing to do is book a call so we can chat through your requirements, and I can let you know what's possible.

Sectors I've operated across at CFO level include agencies, professional services firms, healthcare, tech, retail and e-commerce, creative sectors, media and entertainment, manufacturing and engineering, and not for profit and public sector.

Having spent years in corporate, FTSE 100, and PE-backed environments, these days I choose to put my energy into mission-led businesses and founders building something with intention that I can really get behind — over 'faceless' corporations.

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Fractional is really just a way to say 'part-time', portfolio or outsourced — the kind of senior finance support big companies have in-house full-time and pay >6 figures for, but scaled to what you actually need.

That might be a few days a month, a regular monthly or quarterly rhythm, or more intensive support during a specific phase or period of change.

For businesses that aren't ready for (or don't need) a full-time CFO — but absolutely need senior finance leadership — fractional is how you get the calibre without the full-time overhead.

Can you work alongside my existing accountant or in-house finance team?

Yes — and often that's exactly the right setup. I work alongside in-house finance teams and external accountants regularly, complementing what's already in place rather than replacing it.

Where there's an in-house finance function — a Financial Controller, Head of Finance, or a finance team — I bring senior strategic input, mentoring, and an extra brain and perspective for the bigger calls. Sometimes that means peer-to-peer support for an existing CFO. Sometimes it means stepping in where the in-house team needs senior backup for specific work — a funding round, a board paper, a restructure, a transformation.

Where there's an external accountant handling routine compliance and filings, I focus on the strategic finance side — modelling, forecasting, decision-making frameworks, board input — without disrupting that relationship. However, if you'd rather consolidate the routine accountancy alongside the strategic work into a single, joined-up finance function, Mini CFO® Accountancy Services is the option for that.

Pricing Guide

Fees depend on the scope and specifics of the engagement. Most engagements are scoped and priced based on outputs and project value rather than time. As a guide:

Projects typically start from £5,000 + VAT. That covers something like a focused forecast, business case, or scoped piece of consultancy. Larger or multi-year engagements — full financial restructures, funding strategies, finance transformations — will be more, and we'll scope that together.

Fractional CFO retainers are priced per engagement based on time, scope, and complexity and if accountancy services are to be included as well.

Indicative time-based rates (where useful for scoping) are £200 + VAT per hour,  £1,200 + VAT per full day.

Small not-for-profits get 25% discount vs for profit organisations. Book a call and we'll work out exactly what fits.

The work is remote-first. I work with clients across the UK and beyond, using video calls for meetings and async tools (email, Slack, WhatsApp, voice notes, Loom recordings etc) in between.

Worth baring in mind, that for accountancy services through Mini CFO® — clients need to be UK-based, as this involve UK statutory filings, HMRC, and Companies House compliance. Everything else — fractional CFO leadership, consultancy, projects, financial strategy, modelling, coaching, mentoring, and education — has few geographical limits.

Where is BTLF actually based?

‍ Rural Somerset, in the South West of England — about two hours outside of London. My regular office is in a re-wilded off-grid meadow, overlooking ancient woodland.

Simply book a call. We'll talk through your situation — goals, current challenges, and opportunities — and explore what kind of support would make all the difference. If it feels like a fit, I'll draft a proposal that we refine together, so it fits for your reality and preferences.