Bridges Advisory Group

CFO Services and Accounting for Fintech Companies

Strategic finance, accounting, and advisory support for companies in payments, lending, insurance, and financial services. Our team of CFOs and controllers runs financial modeling and analysis, owns monthly accounting, and assists with board meetings, fundraising, and exit.

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Fintech finance operations illustration

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Kabbage logoKeep Financial logoCollectly logoSilkRiver

Fintech business model is too nuanced for generalist CFOs.

An accountant who doesn't understand interchange will misclassify your revenue. A CFO who hasn't raised a credit facility will model the wrong covenants. Fintech companies need finance operators who know the business — not generalists who learn on your dime.

Generalist CFO

Fintech CFO

Book gross revenue. Benchmark against it.

Strip out interchange, platform fees, and passthrough costs. Make capital allocation decisions off of net revenue.

Calculate annual growth rate. Extrapolate.

Model cohorts, ramp curves, retention. Adjust for seasonality. Run scenario analysis every quarter to keep the business on target.

Keep credit losses flat, as percent of revenue.

Build a credit loss narrative. Stress test against empirical evidence and cycle analysis.

Bridges has worked with companies in payments, lending, insurance, and financial services.

Payments

GPV and net revenue diverge fast — and most books show the wrong number.

Platform fees, interchange, and passthrough costs sit between your top line and what you actually keep. Investors pricing your business at a revenue multiple want to see net, not gross — and they will ask.

  • Stripe, Adyen, or Finix — every transaction mapped to your chart of accounts.
  • Interchange, platform fees, and passthrough costs broken out so your margin reflects what you earn.
  • GPV, take rate, interchange economics — modeled for each cohort.
Lending

Platform vs. direct lending — most accountants get it wrong.

Revenue recognition, loss reserve methodology, and vintage performance aren't standard. Getting them wrong delays your raise and undermines lender confidence.

  • LoanPro, Canopy, or custom stack — loans reconciled monthly, cohorts tracked by vintage.
  • Origination volume, interest income, and loss provisions booked correctly under GAAP from day one.
  • Advance rate, concentration limits, and trigger thresholds modeled and monitored monthly.
Insurance

MGAs vs. carriers vs. brokers — each with a unique balance sheet.

Written vs. earned premium, ceding commissions, and loss reserve accounting create a P&L that looks nothing like SaaS — and gets misread by finance teams without insurance experience.

  • Applied Epic, Socotra, or Guidewire — premiums mapped and reconciled each month.
  • Loss reserves accounted for, combined ratio tracked, no GAAP surprises at audit.
  • Losses and economics broken out by product line.

The Financial Decisions That Define a Fintech Company

Raising a Credit Facility

  • Covenant model built before you sign — advance rate, concentration limits, and trigger scenarios stress-tested
  • Lender diligence package prepared: loan tape, vintage performance, and portfolio stratification
  • Borrowing base certificate and monthly lender reporting owned by Bridges

Building a Team After Series A

  • Every hire modeled against runway impact, payback period, and net revenue margin before the offer goes out
  • Capital deployment plan: each dollar of the raise mapped to a milestone and burn rate
  • KPI dashboard updated monthly so the board tracks the same numbers the team does

Building a Repeatable Growth Engine

  • Multi-product P&L separated by revenue stream — payments, lending, or fee income tracked independently
  • GTM spend tracked against pipeline, conversion, and payback so growth investment is defensible
  • Next raise modeled 12–18 months out — runway, milestones, and timing decided before the board asks

Case study

How Collectly Built Finance Operations in 90 Days That Unlocked 100%+ Revenue Growth

Collectly closed a $25M Series A with no finance infrastructure. Bridges rebuilt the books to accrual standards, built billing workflows, and delivered real-time KPI reporting in 90 days — the foundation Collectly used to grow 3× over two years.

Read the case study

100%+

Revenue growth following engagement

10 hrs

Saved weekly on finance operations

$200K

Saved annually in G&A

Collectly logo
“Tim brought financial clarity that let us scale profitably, grow the team, invest in sales & marketing, and move fast without worrying about cash or risk.”
Levon BrutyanLevon BrutyanCo-Founder & CEO · Collectly

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Common Questions from Fintech Founders

What does a fractional CFO for a B2B fintech company actually do?
A fintech CFO owns the financial model, KPI framework, board reporting, and fundraising process — and ensures your books reflect how your business actually makes money. For payments companies that means GPV and take rate; for lenders, vintage performance and covenant compliance; for insurtech, loss ratio and earned premium; for wealth platforms, revenue per AUM and cost-to-serve.
How is fintech bookkeeping different from standard startup accounting?
Fintech companies move large gross volumes but keep only a fraction after interchange, platform fees, and passthrough costs. Standard bookkeepers often record the gross number and stop. Correct fintech accounting separates gross revenue, cost of revenue, and net revenue — which changes your margin, your unit economics, and your fundraise narrative.
When should a B2B fintech company hire a fractional CFO?
At $3M+ in revenue, or 6–12 months before a raise. The clearest triggers: multiple revenue streams with different margin profiles, a credit facility on the horizon, or investors asking questions your current books can't answer.
How do you build a financial model for a payments or lending company?
Payments: build from GPV and take rate to gross revenue, subtract interchange and platform fees to get net revenue. Lending: start with originations, apply yield and expected loss to get net interest income, layer in origination fees and servicing costs. Both require driver-based models tied to real business inputs — not top-down growth percentages.
What financial metrics do fintech investors look for at Series A?
Payments: GPV, take rate, and net revenue margin. Lending: vintage performance, net interest margin, and loss rates by cohort. Insurtech: loss ratio, combined ratio, and earned premium growth. Wealthtech: AUM growth, revenue per AUM, and margin by client tier. In all cases: burn multiple, runway, and a deployment plan that converts the raise into milestones.
Can Bridges help with credit facility diligence and ongoing lender reporting?
Yes. We build the covenant model before you sign, prepare the lender diligence package, own the monthly borrowing base certificate, and track advance rate and concentration limits ongoing. Lenders and credit facility providers require financial rigor most early-stage finance teams aren't yet built for — that's the gap we fill.

Make your next financial decision with confidence

Whether you're 6 months from a raise, negotiating a credit facility, or trying to understand why growth isn't converting to margin — a 15-minute call is enough to know if we're the right fit.