Outsourced CFO · Paris and Île-de-France
Right hand to the CFO, part-time (time-share) CFO or full-time support, for assignments of 3 months to 3 years. I read your figures as an expert-comptable (French chartered accountant) and I build your tools myself: cash flow forecast, cash flow statement, Power BI dashboards, reporting.
Situations
A finance team sometimes needs a senior profile for a few months or a few years, without recruiting. Here are the most common situations.
Companies, projects and financing arrangements multiply faster than the finance team. You need reliable management tools before you recruit.
Banks and investors expect a sound forecast, documented assumptions and figures that tie in with each other. I prepare the financial side of the file with you.
A departure, a leave of absence, a recruitment that drags on: I take over financial management during the transition, and I document what I find for the person who takes over.
Year-end close, board reporting, questions from the statutory auditors: senior support for a set period, without recruiting.
Dozens of companies, each with its own cash, financing and accounts. Management needs a view company by company and a view of the group.
Before a sale or the arrival of an investor, the figures must be consistent and easy to read: debt reconciled, cash explained, structures simplified.
Assignments and deliverables
Each assignment has a defined scope and a concrete deliverable. I start from your accounting and bank exports, and I build in Excel or Power BI, depending on what your teams already use.
The cash flow statement shows where cash comes from and where it goes: operating, investing and financing activities. It links the accounting profit to the change in cash over the period.
What I do
Deliverable
A cash flow statement for each company and for the group, updated at each monthly or quarterly close.
The 13-week forecast manages the short term, week by week. The 12-month forecast informs financing and investment decisions. Both start from your actual payment schedules.
What I do
Deliverable
An Excel file or a Power BI report updated every week or every month, with its user guide.
The indicators management actually follows, brought together on a few pages and fed by your accounting and bank exports, with no re-keying.
What I do
Deliverable
A Power BI dashboard refreshed with each data update, and its documentation.
Reporting that management can read in a few minutes: key figures, variances against budget or forecast, points to watch, all with commentary.
What I do
Deliverable
A monthly or quarterly reporting pack, ready for the executive committee or the board.
The accounts, the banks and the contracts must tell the same story. I reconcile outstanding balances line by line. Your accounting teams decide on any corrections.
What I do
Deliverable
A debt reconciliation schedule, variance by variance, and an up-to-date schedule of financing.
Revenue recorded in the accounts is reconciled with revenue declared, and the VAT in the accounts with the VAT in the returns. The variances stand out on their own.
What I do
Deliverable
A reconciliation file that updates with your exports, and a note on the variances found.
Debt-financed groups must check every year how much of their borrowing costs is deductible, and track the amounts carried forward from one financial year to the next.
Key rule: in principle, the net borrowing costs of a company subject to corporate income tax (IS) are deductible up to the higher of two amounts, €3m for a twelve-month financial year or 30% of tax EBITDA (article 212 bis of the French Tax Code, CGI). The law provides adjustments for standalone entities and in cases of thin capitalisation. Tax-consolidated groups apply their own rule (article 223 B bis of the CGI).
What I do
Deliverable
A documented calculation model, reusable at each close, and a summary note.
A company that has fulfilled its purpose is meant to be wound up. The right time depends on the guarantees still owed, any disputes and the current accounts to be settled. The legal documents are still drawn up by your advisers.
What I do
Deliverable
A shared tracking schedule, company by company, from the decision to removal from the register.
I prepare discussions with your financial partners and take part in them alongside you, in liaison with management.
What I do
Deliverable
Files ready to send, and a calendar of deadlines shared with management.
Example
Example: a fictitious group starts with €1.5m in cash and agrees a safety threshold of €250k with its management. The forecast sets expected receipts against known payments: VAT, payroll, loans, suppliers.
Illustrative example, fictitious figures
13-week cash flow forecast, in €k
| Week | Cash in | Cash out | Cash balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| W1 | 360 | 320 | 1,540 |
| W2 | 340 | 330 | 1,550 |
| W3VAT | 320 | 550 | 1,320 |
| W4Payroll and social security | 350 | 640 | 1,030 |
| W5 | 330 | 340 | 1,020 |
| W6Loan repayment | 300 | 620 | 700 |
| W7VAT | 310 | 540 | 470 |
| W8Payroll and social security | 340 | 630 | 180 |
| W9Call for funds | 950 | 340 | 790 |
| W10 | 360 | 330 | 820 |
| W11VAT | 340 | 560 | 600 |
| W12 | 380 | 330 | 650 |
| W13Payroll and social security | 420 | 640 | 430 |
Edwin Marks, qualified as a chartered accountant in 2025. My specialism: property development and property investment companies.
My backgroundWhy me
Usually, a finance person describes the need and a data specialist builds the tool. Coordinating the two costs time and precision. I do both.
How I work
Advisory and outsourced CFO services are provided by EZM CONSULTING. Chartered accountancy work (bookkeeping, review and presentation of your accounts) is entrusted to KOADVISE, a chartered accountancy firm registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables, under a separate engagement letter. You always know who is acting, and on what basis.
A few days a month or a week, on a defined scope: cash, reporting, monitoring of financing. For SMEs and mid-sized companies that do not need a full-time CFO, and for finance teams that want a regular right hand.
Schedule agreed with you, adjustable
Embedded in your finance team for a set period: transition after a departure, year-end close, building tools, streamlining of group structures. For assignments of 3 months to 3 years.
Billed on time spent
A specific issue, handled in a short assignment: VAT reconciliation, interest deduction limitation, building a forecast, closing down a set of companies.
Costed proposal after scoping
Getting started
A typical sequence, adjusted to your situation: the first month is for understanding, delivering a first tool and setting the roadmap.
Before the start
A 30-minute call, then a written proposal: scope, deliverables, time on site, duration. Confidentiality written into the contract, read-only access wherever possible.
Written proposal
Week 1
Interviews with management, the accounting teams and treasury. Review of the accounts, the financing agreements and the existing files. I identify what works and what is missing.
Inventory of tools and first findings
Weeks 2 and 3
A first 13-week forecast, built from bank positions and payment schedules. A first reconciliation, of debt or VAT, that brings out the variances.
13-week forecast in use
Week 4
A diagnostic note and a prioritised roadmap, reviewed with management. The time on site and the deliverables for the following months are confirmed.
Diagnostic and roadmap
Specialism
Since 2025, I have been working within the finance department of a major property developer. Property development has its own rules, and they are what shape cash flow.
Each development is carried by a dedicated company, often an SCCV (société civile de construction-vente, a French build-to-sell property company). I track the cash of each one, reconciled with its project budget, and that of the group.
A group can have dozens of companies. Current accounts, intercompany flows, partners’ shares: the consolidated view is built company by company.
For a residential building sold off-plan (VEFA, vente en l’état futur d’achèvement), the buyer’s payments are staggered during construction, with cumulative caps of 35% of the price when the foundations are completed, 70% when the building is weathertight and 95% when the building is completed. I project receipts in line with construction progress and sales.
In an off-plan sale, the financial completion guarantee (GFA) is issued, for example, by a bank or an insurance company. It ends on completion of the building, once completion has been formally recorded. I track the guarantees in force until they expire.
Drawdowns and repayments of project loans, guarantees, partners’ contributions: what each development ties up, and when it is released.
Once developments are delivered and sold, I manage the dissolution and liquidation of the companies that no longer have a purpose, working with your advisers.
Frequently asked questions
A chartered accountant keeps or reviews your books and prepares your annual accounts and tax returns. An outsourced CFO manages: future cash, financing, reporting, decision support. The two complement each other. I am a chartered accountant (expert-comptable), which lets me read your accounts without an intermediary. For outsourced CFO work, I act through EZM CONSULTING, alongside your accounting department and your chartered accountant, without taking their place.
It depends on the scope. Regular monitoring of cash and reporting works on a part-time (time-share) basis, a few days a month. Building tools, a year-end close or a transition after a departure call for more time on site, up to full-time. The schedule is set in the proposal and can change as the assignment progresses.
Both. I work in Paris and the Île-de-France region. Being on site is useful at the start and at key moments, such as closes and committee meetings. The rest of the work can be done remotely, with secure access to your tools.
I commit to it in writing in the assignment proposal, and I can sign your group’s non-disclosure agreement if you have one. I ask for read-only access wherever possible. I never name a client without their consent: the case studies on this site are anonymised.
You do. The tools are built in your environment, from your data, and stay with you at the end of the assignment with their documentation: sources, formulas, checks and user guide. Your teams can keep them running without me.
With a 30-minute call, with no commitment, to understand your needs. I then send you a written proposal: scope, deliverables, time on site and duration. Once the contract is signed, the assignment begins with a week of immersion with your teams.
Yes. I start from exports from your ERP or accounting software, and I build in Excel or Power BI, depending on what your teams already use. I work with your accounting department, your chartered accountant and your statutory auditors, without disrupting your organisation.
Yes, on a separate basis. Bookkeeping, review and preparation of the accounts are handled by KOADVISE, a chartered accountancy firm registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables, under a separate engagement letter. Outsourced CFO and advisory services remain with EZM CONSULTING. In both cases, I am the one doing the work.
Further reading
Tell me about your scope and your tools: you will receive a written proposal, with no commitment.
