Fractional CFO in Burlington
Senior financial leadership for Burlington businesses that have outgrown bookkeeping but aren’t ready for a full-time CFO. Forecasting, margin clarity, and reporting your lenders and board can trust, delivered in person.
A fractional CFO who knows the Burlington market.
Burlington sits at the polished end of the Golden Horseshoe: a dense mix of professional-services firms, technology companies, and a well-established advanced-manufacturing corridor running along the QEW. Owners here tend to be sophisticated, growth-minded, and short on senior finance horsepower.
The local economy leans toward knowledge work, light and advanced manufacturing, and professional services, with a steady flow of founder-led companies that have outgrown bookkeeping but cannot yet justify a full-time CFO. Proximity to both Toronto and Hamilton means Burlington businesses compete for talent and capital against much larger players.
I am a short drive away in Hamilton, and I work across the Burlington manufacturing and services base regularly. The companies here usually need forecasting, margin clarity, and board-ready reporting more than they need another set of hands in the ledger.
The CFO layer your business is missing.
Right-sized senior finance, the forward-looking work a bookkeeper or controller is not positioned to own.
01 Forecasting & cash strategy
Driver-based forecasts and a real cash runway, so you see the next two to four quarters before they arrive instead of reacting to them.
02 Margin & profitability clarity
Where you actually make money, by job, product, client, or line, and where margin is quietly leaking out.
03 Board & lender reporting
Reporting and covenant tracking that hold up with banks, sureties, boards, and investors, no month-end spreadsheet scramble.
04 Finance operations & systems
The operating rhythm and the clean data underneath it, including fixing the software feeding your books when that’s the real problem.
Drivable from Hamilton, present when it counts.
Burlington is an easy in-person engagement from my Hamilton base. I come to you, sit with your leadership team, and build the finance function on site rather than from behind an email thread. I cover Burlington, including Aldershot, Alton, and the QEW corridor, and I deliberately do not chase the Toronto, Mississauga, or Brampton core, staying focused on this region is what lets me actually show up. Burlington packs close to 400 technology companies and a life-sciences sector employing 7,000-plus alongside its advanced-manufacturing base, founder-led firms that have outgrown their bookkeeping faster than their finance function.
Most fractional CFOs can’t fix the software feeding your books. I can.
Here is the edge most fractional CFOs in Burlington can’t offer: if your numbers are unreliable because the field or operational software was never set up to feed your accounting system cleanly, I can fix the source. Steel City CFO also runs a financial-systems practice connecting tools like ServiceTitan, Procore, and Jobber into QuickBooks or Sage.
That second service line, Financial Systems Architecture, is what makes the CFO work stick. When the data is clean at the source, the reporting, forecasting, and lender conversations all get easier, and the monthly close stops being a fire drill.
Fractional CFO for your industry in Burlington.
The playbook changes by sector. Here is how the work looks for each industry, locally.
Construction & Trades
Fractional CFO for construction businesses in Burlington.
BurlingtonManufacturing
Fractional CFO for manufacturing businesses in Burlington.
BurlingtonSoftware & SaaS
Fractional CFO for software & SaaS businesses in Burlington.
BurlingtonProfessional Services
Fractional CFO for professional services businesses in Burlington.
Who you’re actually working with.
Big Four-trained finance leadership, in your corner.
Steel City CFO is led by Kevin Cosgrove. The background behind the work spans high-growth SaaS, a $50M+ construction and industrial group, and prior fractional CFO engagements across Canada, the same range of problems Burlington businesses bring to the table.
- Series B/C SaaS, independent fractional CFO work for venture-backed software companies (US + Canada): 3-statement models, ARR forecasting, ASC 606, board reporting.
- Controller, $50M+ group, heavy-civil construction, asphalt, and real estate: WIP, covenants, multi-entity consolidation.
- Prior fractional CFO, startups and mid-market firms across Canada: forecasting, lender reporting, finance ops built from scratch.
- Sell-side M&A exit, led the finance workstream on a venture-backed company’s acquisition by a strategic buyer.
Big Four (PwC) trained. Hamilton-based, serving clients across the Golden Horseshoe in person.
Serving the wider Golden Horseshoe.
Transparent pricing for Burlington businesses.
A fixed-fee start, then a right-sized retainer.
The Diagnostic Audit. A focused review of your finances and the systems feeding them, with quantified findings and a clear recommendation. No retainer, no open meter, you get the map first.
The audit, step by stepA right-sized monthly retainer once the foundation is clean: forecasting, reporting, lender and board support, and an operating rhythm you can run the business on. Scope and price scale to your size.
Book a CallNeed a fractional CFO in Burlington?
Book a call. We’ll talk through where your finances stand and whether the $750 + HST Diagnostic Audit is the right first step.