What are the best fractional CFO firms?
The Best Fractional CFO Firms: What The Shortlist Report Finds
Pilot appeared in 94.2% of 382 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.
Pilot360 of 382
Offers technology-enabled bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services to startups and small to midsize companies.
inDinero281 of 382
Provides outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services to startups and growing SMBs.
Burkland Associates254 of 382
Fractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies.
Kruze252 of 382
Paro191 of 382
Operates a marketplace of fractional finance professionals for startups through mid-market companies.
+10 more namedin the table
Based on 382 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 8, 2026–October 29, 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. | 360 of 382 | 94.2% | |
| Tier 2 stands alone | |||
| inDineroindinero.comProvides outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services to startups and growing SMBs. | 281 of 382 | 73.6% | |
| Tier 3 2 firms, 66.0–66.5% | |||
| Burkland Associatesburkland.businessFractional CFO, FP&A, and fundraising support for venture-backed startups, particularly SaaS and tech companies. | 254 of 382 | 66.5% | |
| Kruze | 252 of 382 | 66.0% | |
| Tier 4 2 firms, 49.0–50.0% | |||
| Paroparo.ioOperates a marketplace of fractional finance professionals for startups through mid-market companies. | 191 of 382 | 50.0% | |
| NOW CFOnowcfo.comDelivers flexible fractional CFO and controller support with margin improvement and financial operations guidance across industries. | 187 of 382 | 49.0% | |
| Tier 5 3 firms, 32.2–36.6% | |||
| Graphitegraphite.com | 140 of 382 | 36.6% | |
| RSMProvides accounting, FP&A, controllership, and CFO services to growing middle-market businesses and PE-backed companies. | 131 of 382 | 34.3% | |
| Preferred CFOpreferredcfo.comProvides fractional CFO advisory for scaling and mid-market companies on capital raises, financial modeling, and strategic planning. | 123 of 382 | 32.2% | |
| Tier 6 2 firms, 24.9–27.5% | |||
| BDOProvides bookkeeping, accounting, reporting, FP&A, and finance transformation for mid-market companies. | 105 of 382 | 27.5% | |
| Bookkeeper360bookkeeper360.comOffers bookkeeping combined with payroll, tax, back-office support, and fractional CFO services for small businesses. | 95 of 382 | 24.9% | |
| Tier 7 4 firms, 18.3–22.3% | |||
| Deloittedeloitte.comOffers full finance-function outsourcing, automation, controllership, and transformation for mid-market and enterprise clients. | 85 of 382 | 22.3% | |
| TechCXOtechcxo.comOffers fractional CFO and executive services to growth-stage companies, SMBs, and PE/VC-backed businesses. | 76 of 382 | 19.9% | |
| Grant Thorntongrantthornton.luProvides outsourced accounting, advisory, tax, and finance transformation services for mid-market and larger companies. | 70 of 382 | 18.3% | |
| PwCProvides finance transformation, accounting operations, vendor financial due diligence, and CFO services for mid-market enterprises and private-equity-backed businesses. | 70 of 382 | 18.3% | |
Key findings
- Pilot leads this sample alone, named in 360 of 382 ChatGPT responses (94.2%) to the question “What are the best fractional CFO firms?”, collected August 8, 2026–October 29, 2026.
- 15 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “What are the best fractional CFO firms?” in ChatGPT as of October 29, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Deloitte appears in 7 of the 15 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 360 of 382 ChatGPT responses (94.2%). No other firm in this sample comes close enough to be grouped with it.
Tier 2 holds inDinero, named in 281 to 281 of 382 responses (73.6–73.6%). 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.
Tier 3 holds Burkland Associates and Kruze, named in 252 to 254 of 382 responses (66.0–66.5%). 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 Paro and NOW CFO, named in 187 to 191 of 382 responses (49.0–50.0%). 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 5 holds Graphite, RSM and Preferred CFO, named in 123 to 140 of 382 responses (32.2–36.6%). 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 BDO and Bookkeeper360, named in 95 to 105 of 382 responses (24.9–27.5%). 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 7 holds Deloitte, TechCXO, Grant Thornton and PwC, named in 70 to 85 of 382 responses (18.3–22.3%). 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.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 382 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 360 of the 382 responses to this question (94.2%).
184 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–October 29, 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.