Case Study: A Fractional CFO Who Upgrades Every Client’s Tech Stack

Philip Kean is founder and CEO of Lane Gate Advisory, a fractional CFO practice focusing on SaaS and Fintech companies of under 500 employees. Before forming Lane Gate, Philip was VP of Finance for UiPath.

‍

The Overlooked Upside of a Fractional CFO

A strong fractional CFO uses the latest modern tools (e.g. AI agents, new software, etc.) to upgrade your entire finance function. They upskill your team, so the improvements stick and the systems keep delivering long after they leave.

‍

Most startups run finance in an ad hoc way: spreadsheets shared over email and disconnected tools for billing, collections, and reporting. Early on they adopt QuickBooks or hire an outsourced accountant, but as the business grows these Band-Aid solutions start letting real opportunities slip through the cracks.

‍

What sets a great fractional CFO apart is a productized operating model and a modern toolchain. They are always up to date with the latest technology and today that means AI. They introduce software that compresses time to close, and they evaluate where AI agentic workflows can remove repetitive work in AR, revenue recognition, and forecasting. That combination gives operators cleaner data, faster decisions, and tighter control over spend and runway.

‍

Most importantly, these efficiencies extend well beyond their own role (their colleagues get more effective) and well beyond their tenure (these systems continue delivering efficiency and cost gains after they leave).

‍

What it Looks Like

Philip Kean is currently serving as a fractional CFO for 6 companies ranging from early-stage VC backed start-ups to publicly traded orgs. Here are some of the most common tech upgrades he brings to companies of all sizes:

‍

1) Rillet (next gen ERP) to reduce time to close and consolidate tech stack

Previous methods

Philip typically sees companies start with QuickBooks at first, then as they grow they eventually start a 6-12 month, very arduous migration to NetSuite with a patchwork of add-ons for BI, AP, cash application, close management, and revenue recognition. Outsourced bookkeeping is also common, often resulting in the average time to close being on day 15-20 of the month.

‍

New Tech

Philip has onboarded 3 companies to Rillet, a next-gen ERP that uses autotagging, embedded revenue recognition, agent style queries, and built in close project management. The system flags anomalies, assigns tasks, and centralizes workflows that previously lived in separate tools. Philip also upskills his teammates on how to make the most out of these new features.

‍

Impact

• Time savings: Reduced financial close from day 15-20 of the month (typical with outsourced providers) to Day 1, enabling immediate access to monthly financials.
• Cost efficiency: For smaller clients, this eliminates about ~15 hours of outsourced accounting work each month, saving them $3K / month.
• Scalability: Positioned companies to avoid a disruptive migration to NetSuite in ~5 years, removing one of the most painful scaling hurdles.
• Strategic decision-making: Delivered budget vs. actuals within the first week of each month, giving leadership the ability to adjust spending (particularly in highly variable areas like marketing) before budgets are spent.
• ROI visibility: Enabled companies to track what money was spent, what results were achieved, and ROI (e.g., from lead gen spend or headcount) by business day 5, instead of waiting until mid-month.

‍

2) Tabs for Accounts Receivable, billing, and revenue recognition

Previous methods

Finance teams often rely on a patchwork of tools to manage their AR workflows. Spreadsheets handle contract details, QuickBooks manages accounting entries, and Bill.com processes billing and collections. Revenue recognition schedules are typically built manually, with data dispersed across systems that don’t communicate. This fragmented setup creates extra coordination overhead and requires finance leaders to coordinate between platforms to keep everything aligned.

‍

New Tech

Philip implemented Tabs at 3 companies to ingest customer contracts, project manage billings and collections, post entries back to the ERP (Rillet, QuickBooks, or NetSuite), and generate AR and revenue recognition waterfalls automatically. Tabs also triggers Slack prompts and reminder loops for missing items.

‍

Impact

• Automated contract ingestion: Tabs digests customer contracts, extracts commercial terms, and manages key deliverables automatically.
• Slack-based prompts: Integrates directly with Slack to send timely reminders to avoid missing any  invoices, collections, and customer obligations.
• Revenue recognition waterfalls: Automatically builds accurate ARR and rev rec waterfalls and posts them back into the ERP, eliminating one of the heaviest manual lifts for finance teams.
• Lean finance ops: Automations means a CEO can personally oversee collections and billing without needing a dedicated AR resource.
• Strategic visibility: By surfacing top-line ARR and customer-level performance in real time, Tabs makes finance more engaging and actionable across the org.

‍

3) Maximor agentic overlay for late-stage NetSuite environments

Problem

For larger companies that are already deeply entrenched in tools like NetSuite, complete replacements are often difficult and impractical. However, these teams still have to deal with many disconnected systems and close management that lives across multiple tools and handoffs.

‍

Solution

For one client, a publicly traded company spending ~$50M a year on their finance function, Philip introduced Maximor as an overlay rather than a replacement. By sitting on top of the existing NetSuite and related systems, Maximor unified workflows into a single dashboard, integrated data across AR, BI, and accounting tools, and used agentic automation to coordinate tasks that previously required manual navigation between systems.

‍

Impact

• Accelerated financial close: Using AI-powered checklists, reconciliations, and alerts, month-end closes require less manual accounting efforts and are delivered faster
• Revenue & cash insight: Track all inflows/outflows across AR, AP, and payroll, including complex pricing models (subscriptions, usage-based, outcome-linked), to forecast runway and fuel smarter cash decisions.
• High-frequency visibility: Consolidates reporting across entities, currencies, and systems with AI-generated variance analysis, KPI dashboards, and narrative commentary, enabling operators to act on data in real time.

‍

What this Means for CEOs and Founders

For founders, the real value of a fractional CFO is not only the strategic advice but also the ability to access someone whose full-time job is to track the latest finance technology, figure out how it can be applied, and implement it quickly inside your company. Philip demonstrates how powerful this can be. Instead of inheriting slow, outdated processes, he deploys modern tools that cut close times from weeks to a single day, automate heavy manual lifts like revenue recognition, and centralize workflows that normally require multiple systems and staff.

‍

If you are considering a fractional CFO, think about it as a short-term engagement that creates long-term value. The tools, training, and systems they implement remain in place after they leave. Your team is left with faster cycles, better visibility into cash and ROI, and scalable infrastructure that keeps working as you grow. For companies that want to compete at the pace of today’s markets without committing to a full-time finance hire, the fractional route offers the best of both worlds: immediate expertise, lasting systems, and an ROI that compounds well beyond the engagement.

‍

“If I were hiring a full-time CFO and I ask questions about what tools they plan to bring on to make the company more efficient, and they don't have an answer, that meeting is over.” - Philip Kean

‍

‍

If you want to hire an exceptional Fractional CFO like Philip, or a fractional anything, book a call with our Founder, here. Fractional Jobs manages the largest network of senior Fractional Talent, globally.