Fractional CFO & Advisory — For Startups
Startup accounting isn't scaled-down SME accounting — pre-revenue and early-stage businesses have different needs: burn-rate tracking, investor-ready records from day one, and a structure that doesn't need to be rebuilt at the next funding round. FMCA works with UAE and KSA startups from formation through Series A, on terms that match early-stage cash constraints.
Reviewed by FMCA's Senior Accounting Advisory Team — CPAs and former Big Four auditors serving 500+ UAE and KSA SMEs.
Four things pre-revenue and early-stage businesses need that generic SME accounting doesn't cover.
Monthly burn calculated and projected against current cash, not discovered after the fact.
Books built to a standard that survives due diligence the first time an investor asks, not retrofitted right before a raise.
A pricing structure that matches pre-revenue cash constraints, scaling up as the business does.
The same team handles bookkeeping now and transitions into IFRS reporting and fractional CFO support as you scale — no switching providers at Series A.
Early-stage founders are busy building the product — books often get treated as a compliance chore instead of a growth asset.
Messy early books get discovered in due diligence right when speed matters most.
Without burn-rate tracking, a cash crunch is often discovered too late to react to properly.
Outgrowing a bookkeeper who can't scale into IFRS or CFO work means starting over with a new provider at the worst possible time.
This is why FMCA builds startup accounting on the same senior-reviewed foundation as our SME practice — so bookkeeping, tax filing and investor readiness are never separate exercises bolted together later.
There's no revenue threshold that makes this decision — the signals are different.
Our Approach
Most accounting firms treat startups as small SMEs. FMCA runs a dedicated startup practice built around the specific moments that matter — first hire, first raise, first audit — with the same Big Four-trained team the whole way through.
How We Work
Illustrative scenarios based on the kind of work we do — not descriptions of specific named clients.
Bookkeeping and record structure set up correctly from day one, so the first investor data room request required no cleanup work at all.
Monthly burn-rate tracking introduced three months ahead of a planned raise, giving founders time to extend runway before investor conversations began.
Board-ready financial reporting and a rolling forecast built from scratch ahead of a scheduled raise, replacing ad-hoc spreadsheets founders were assembling themselves.
Related Insights
FAQ
As soon as there's a bank account, invoicing, or a plan to raise capital within the next 12 months — earlier than most founders assume, since retrofitting clean records before a raise is far more expensive.
Burn-rate and runway tracking, investor-ready record standards from the outset, and pricing scoped to pre-revenue cash constraints — none of which a generic SME accounting package is built around.
Yes — monthly burn and projected runway are standard parts of the startup engagement, not an add-on.
That's the specific standard we build to from the start — records structured to survive investor due diligence whenever the raise happens, not reworked right before it.
No — the same team transitions you from bookkeeping into IFRS reporting and fractional CFO support as the business grows.
Tell us where things stand and a senior consultant will get back to you directly — not a call centre.
