What are the best fractional CFO firms?
The Best Fractional CFO Firms: What The Shortlist Report Finds
Pilot appeared in 95.3% of 211 AI responses to this question, ahead of everyone else.
Pilot leads
Pilot comes up more than any other firm on this question, by a clear margin.
Pilot201 of 211
Offers technology-enabled bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services to startups and small to midsize companies.
inDinero152 of 211
Provides outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services to startups and growing SMBs.
Burkland Associates137 of 211
Fractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies.
Kruze133 of 211
Paro114 of 211
Operates a marketplace of fractional finance professionals for startups through mid-market companies.
+10 more namedin the table
Based on 211 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 8, 2026–September 18, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 stands alone | |||
| Pilotpilot.comOffers technology-enabled bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services to startups and small to midsize companies. | 201 of 211 | 95.3% | |
| Tier 2 3 firms, 63.0–72.0% | |||
| inDineroindinero.comProvides outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services to startups and growing SMBs. | 152 of 211 | 72.0% | |
| Burkland Associatesburkland.businessFractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies. | 137 of 211 | 64.9% | |
| Kruze | 133 of 211 | 63.0% | |
| Tier 3 2 firms, 50.7–54.0% | |||
| Paroparo.aiOperates a marketplace of fractional finance professionals for startups through mid-market companies. | 114 of 211 | 54.0% | |
| NOW CFOnowcfo.comDelivers flexible fractional CFO and controller support with margin improvement and financial operations guidance across industries. | 107 of 211 | 50.7% | |
| Tier 4 3 firms, 37.0–42.2% | |||
| RSMProvides accounting, FP&A, controllership, and CFO services to growing middle-market businesses and PE-backed companies. | 89 of 211 | 42.2% | |
| BDOProvides bookkeeping, accounting, reporting, FP&A, and finance transformation for mid-market companies. | 82 of 211 | 38.9% | |
| Graphitegraphite.com | 78 of 211 | 37.0% | |
| Tier 5 5 firms, 23.2–28.0% | |||
| Grant Thorntongrantthornton.luProvides outsourced accounting, advisory, tax, and finance transformation services for mid-market and larger companies. | 59 of 211 | 28.0% | |
| Preferred CFOpreferredcfo.comProvides fractional CFO advisory for scaling and mid-market companies on capital raises, financial modeling, and strategic planning. | 59 of 211 | 28.0% | |
| Deloittedeloitte.comOffers full finance-function outsourcing, automation, controllership, and transformation for mid-market and enterprise clients. | 58 of 211 | 27.5% | |
| Acuityacuity.coOffers outsourced controller and CFO support with multi-entity/multi-currency accounting for SaaS, professional services, and growing companies. | 49 of 211 | 23.2% | |
| PwCProvides finance transformation, accounting operations, vendor financial due diligence, and CFO services for mid-market enterprises and private-equity-backed businesses. | 49 of 211 | 23.2% | |
| Tier 6 stands alone | |||
| KPMGkpmg.comProvides full finance managed services, M&A advisory, financial diligence, and transaction support for mid-market and enterprise clients. | 44 of 211 | 20.9% | |
Key findings
- Pilot leads this sample alone, named in 201 of 211 ChatGPT responses (95.3%) to the question “What are the best fractional CFO firms?”, collected August 8, 2026–September 18, 2026.
- 15 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “What are the best fractional CFO firms?” in ChatGPT as of September 18, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Deloitte appears in 6 of the 13 fractional CFO and outsourced accounting firms reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Pilot, named in 201 of 211 ChatGPT responses (95.3%). No other firm in this sample comes close enough to be grouped with it.
Tier 2 holds inDinero, Burkland Associates and Kruze, named in 133 to 152 of 211 responses (63.0–72.0%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 3 holds Paro and NOW CFO, named in 107 to 114 of 211 responses (50.7–54.0%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 4 holds RSM, BDO and Graphite, named in 78 to 89 of 211 responses (37.0–42.2%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 5 holds Grant Thornton, Preferred CFO, Deloitte, Acuity and PwC, named in 49 to 59 of 211 responses (23.2–28.0%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 6 holds KPMG, named in 44 to 44 of 211 responses (20.9–20.9%). The sample does separate this firm from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts it in a tier of its own.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 211 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
Pilot leads on its own, named in 201 of the 211 responses to this question (95.3%).
154 firms were named at least once across the sample. 15 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected August 8, 2026–September 18, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). The Best Fractional CFO Firms: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/best-fractional-cfo-firms
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.