What a fractional CFO actually costs in Saudi Arabia
Nobody publishes a straight answer, so here is the arithmetic: what drives a fractional fee, what a full-time CFO really costs once GOSI and end of service are in, and how to compare them honestly.
Every fractional CFO page in this market has the same FAQ: "How much does a fractional CFO cost?" Almost none of them answer it. I checked the competitors before writing this. One of them puts that exact question in its structured data, then answers it without a single number.
I am not going to publish a price list either, because a fee that is not attached to a scope is a made-up number. But I will do something more useful, which is show you the arithmetic on both sides so you can work out what the right number looks like for your company, and recognise a bad quote when you see one.
Why nobody gives you a figure
Two honest reasons and one dishonest one.
The honest ones: a fractional engagement can mean two days a month of board-level oversight or eight days a month of running the whole function, and those are different jobs at different prices. And the work varies enormously by state: a group with clean books and a good finance manager needs a fraction of the effort of one where the last three years need rebuilding first.
The dishonest one: if you do not know the price, you have to book the call.
So here is the structure instead.
What actually drives a fractional fee
Three things, in order of weight.
1. Days per month. This is most of it. Fractional pricing is fundamentally a day rate wrapped in a monthly retainer, so the fee moves close to linearly with days. Two days a month and four days a month should be roughly a 2x difference, not a 1.2x one. If a proposal does not state the number of days, it is not a proposal.
2. Seniority and what is being carried. A qualified accountant producing management accounts is not the same purchase as someone who will sit in front of your bank, sign off the valuation in your raise, or be the name your investors call. Ex-Big 4, chartered, and SOCPA-registered costs more, and the reason it costs more is that the risk sits with a person who can carry it.
3. Ongoing versus project. Steady oversight prices differently from a defined piece of work with an end date. A raise, an ERP build or an audit clean-up should be a fixed quote after scoping, not a monthly fee that runs indefinitely.
What should not drive it: your revenue. Percentage-of-revenue pricing is a tax on your growth for work that does not change with it.
The full-time comparison, done honestly
Most comparisons put the fractional fee against a CFO's salary. That is not the real number. Here is what the full-time seat actually costs in Saudi Arabia.
Take a package and substitute your own figure. Say the total monthly package is SAR 40,000, made up of basic salary plus housing and transport allowances.
Social insurance (GOSI). For a Saudi national hired under the new scheme, the employer contribution reaches 12.75 percent of the contributable wage from July 2026, up from 11.75 percent under the older system, and contributions are capped at a SAR 45,000 monthly wage ceiling. For a non-Saudi employee the employer pays 2 percent for occupational hazards only, with no pension or unemployment element. That difference is large and it depends entirely on who you hire.
End of service. Under Article 84 of the Labour Law, an employee with two or more years of service is owed half a month's wage for each of the first five years, then a full month for each year after that, calculated on the last basic wage plus fixed allowances. It is not optional, and if you are not accruing for it monthly you are carrying an undisclosed liability rather than avoiding a cost. Half a month per year is roughly another 4 percent on the annual wage bill in the early years, and about 8 percent once someone passes five years.
Everything else. Annual leave and the flight entitlement, medical insurance for the employee and dependants, visa and iqama costs if the person is not already in the Kingdom, recruitment fees at the senior end, and the payroll and admin overhead of one more senior seat.
The time cost. A CFO search in this market runs three to six months, then a notice period, then three months before the person is genuinely useful. Budget for a seat that is empty or unproductive for two to three quarters.
Add it up and the honest planning number for a full-time hire is meaningfully above the salary line, before you count the months where the seat produces nothing.
The comparison that actually matters
Now put the two side by side properly.
| Fractional | Full-time | |
|---|---|---|
| Direct cost | Monthly fee for agreed days | Salary and allowances |
| Statutory add-ons | None. It is a service fee | GOSI, end of service accrual, leave, medical |
| Onboarding cost | Days | 3 to 6 months to hire, then months to land |
| Exit cost | Notice period in the agreement | End of service, notice, and a repeat search |
| Scales down | Yes, reduce days | No |
| Scales up | To a point, then you should hire | Yes |
| Carries daily management | No | Yes |
The real question is not which is cheaper per hour. Full-time is usually cheaper per hour, and that is the wrong metric. The question is how many hours of genuinely senior judgment your company needs each month. If the answer is comfortably less than full-time, you are buying idle capacity and paying statutory costs on it.
How to read a quote
Whoever you speak to, including me, ask for these five things in writing before you agree to anything:
- The number of days per month, and what happens when a month runs over.
- What is included and what is billed separately. A raise, an audit, or a systems build usually sits outside a standard fractional scope.
- Who actually does the work. With a firm you are often buying a senior name and getting a junior team. With an independent you are buying one person, and you should confirm that is who turns up.
- The notice period on both sides. Anything longer than a month or two on an ongoing engagement is a lock-in, not a partnership.
- What the first 90 days delivers. If nobody can tell you what changes by day 90, the engagement has no shape.
If a proposal cannot answer those, the price is not the problem with it.
What I do
I price fractional work as a fixed monthly fee against an agreed number of days, so it is budgetable and you know exactly what you are getting. Interim is a day rate for a fixed term. Builds and raises are a fixed quote after a scoping call, never open-ended.
You see the number and what it covers before you commit to anything, and the first call, where we work out which of those you actually need, is free.
Tell me the situation and I will give you a straight number for it.
Figures on GOSI and end of service reflect the position as of July 2026 and are given as planning guidance, not tax or legal advice. Check your own case with your advisers.