Fractional CFO for Manufacturing in Burlington
Cost accounting, margin-by-product-line clarity, and clean inventory and COGS for Burlington manufacturers — from a Big Four-trained CFO based in Hamilton who serves Burlington in person and can fix the software feeding your books, too.
Why manufacturers need a finance layer above the bookkeeper
Manufacturers live and die on cost accounting and margin discipline. When standard costs drift from actuals, when inventory and COGS are fuzzy, or when you cannot see profitability by product line, you end up pricing in the dark and discovering margin erosion only after it has already happened. Volume hides a lot of sins until it doesn't.
Burlington manufacturers compete on margin, and margin lives in cost accounting most owners cannot fully see. With close to 400 technology companies, a 7,000-plus life-sciences workforce, and an advanced-manufacturing corridor along the QEW, owners here expect investor-grade numbers. I bring real plant- and multi-entity costing experience so your standard-vs-actual, inventory, and product-line margins finally tell the truth.
What I own for Burlington manufacturing businesses.
The finance work that actually moves margin and cash in this industry.
01 Cost accounting that holds
A costing model — standard or actual — that reflects how your shop really runs, so quoting and pricing decisions rest on numbers you can defend.
02 Standard vs. actual variance
Material, labour, and overhead variances analysed so you see where the plan and the floor diverge, and why.
03 Inventory & COGS control
Inventory valuation and cost of goods sold that are accurate enough to trust for pricing, lender reporting, and tax.
04 Margin by product line
Contribution and gross margin cut by product, line, and customer — the view that tells you what to push, fix, or fire.
05 Multi-entity consolidation
Clean consolidation across plants, divisions, or related entities, with intercompany handled properly.
Real operating experience — and a local CFO who shows up.
My manufacturing-adjacent experience is real and operational. As controller of a multi-entity industrial group, I owned the financials for an asphalt-production operation — a true cost-accounting, inventory, and plant-margin environment — alongside consolidations and capital planning across the wider group. I have lived the standard-vs-actual, COGS, and multi-entity work that production businesses run on.
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. For a Burlington manufacturing business, that combination — industry depth plus a CFO who understands cost accounting on a real shop floor — is rare in this market.
Most fractional CFOs can’t fix the software feeding your books. I can.
Most fractional CFOs stop at the spreadsheet. I also fix the systems feeding it. Through Steel City CFO's financial-systems practice I make the data flowing from your operational tools into QuickBooks or Sage actually reliable, so your cost and margin reporting is built on a clean foundation instead of a monthly reconciliation scramble.
That second service line — Financial Systems Architecture — is what makes the CFO work stick in a plant: when the operational data is clean at the source, standard-vs-actual, inventory, and margin-by-line stop being a month-end reconstruction.
Who you’re actually working with.
Big Four-trained, operator-tested, locally present.
Steel City CFO is led by Kevin Cosgrove. The background spans high-growth SaaS, a $50M+ construction and industrial group, and prior fractional CFO work — delivered in person across Burlington.
- 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.
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Transparent pricing.
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.
See how the audit worksA 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 CallLooking for the broader picture? See fractional CFO in Burlington, fractional CFO for manufacturing, or the full services hub.
Need a fractional CFO for manufacturing in Burlington?
Book a call. We’ll talk through where your numbers stand and whether the $750 + HST Diagnostic Audit is the right first step.