Guide updated October 2026. General guidance for owners and finance teams of companies that operate in more than one country. It is not tax or legal advice, and the cross-border questions it mentions need a local adviser.
Every international group has the same quiet problem somewhere in its structure. The parent wants a reporting package by the fifth working day, in its own format and its own accounting standard. The local accountant keeps the books in the local standard, because local law or local tax filings generally require it. And the local bank wants a third version, with a cash forecast nobody has built. Three versions of the truth, none of them wrong, and nobody whose job is to reconcile them.
That gap appears in two directions. A subsidiary of a foreign group has it from the day it is bought or set up. A company expanding into another country creates it the day it opens. This guide covers both, and what a fractional CFO does about each.
Two situations, one gap
| Subsidiary of a foreign group | Company expanding abroad | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical example | A Swiss or German group with a subsidiary in Spain or the United States | A Spanish or Swiss company opening in the United States, Mexico or Colombia |
| Who asks the questions | The parent's finance team, in its own language | The owner, the board and the bank back home |
| What usually breaks | Late reporting, intercompany balances that do not match, local cash nobody at group level can see | The new entity burns more cash than planned, in a currency the company does not earn in |
| What it needs | One person who speaks both languages and both rulebooks | A cash plan for the new entity before the money goes in, not after |
Case 1: a subsidiary that reports to a parent abroad
Subsidiaries are usually too small to justify a full-time finance director and too important to be left to the local bookkeeper. So the reporting gets done by whoever is available, a week late, with a spreadsheet that translates the accounts from one standard to another and that only one person understands. When that person goes on holiday, the group discovers how much it depended on them.
What goes wrong, roughly in order of frequency:
1. The reporting package arrives late and needs explaining. The parent reads the numbers under its own standard — IFRS, Swiss GAAP FER, the German HGB or US GAAP — while the books are kept under the local one, such as the Spanish PGC. The differences are known and manageable. What hurts is mapping them by hand every month.
2. Intercompany balances do not match. The subsidiary says it owes the parent one figure, the parent says another, and the difference sits in an account called "to be reconciled" until the auditor finds it. It is rarely anything sinister: usually timing or exchange rates. It always costs time.
3. The group cannot see the subsidiary's cash. Group treasury knows the balance at month-end. It does not know that local payroll and a quarterly tax payment fall in the same week — which is the week the subsidiary will call asking for an intercompany transfer, urgently.
4. Nobody owns the relationship with the local banks. Credit lines, guarantees and covenants are negotiated locally, in the local language, often by someone who does not see the group picture.
What a fractional CFO does here is unglamorous and effective: produces the monthly package in the group's format and language, keeps a standing map between the two accounting standards so the translation stops being a monthly project, reconciles intercompany balances before the parent asks, and runs a 13-week cash forecast for the subsidiary that the group treasurer can actually read. The local accountant keeps doing the local books and filings. The parent gets one counterpart instead of three.
Case 2: a company opening in another country
Expansion plans are written in the currency of the company that writes them. The new entity spends in another one. Between the two sits a set of decisions that are usually taken late: how the subsidiary is funded, how much cash it needs before it sells anything, and who reports what back home.
How to fund it. Share capital, an intercompany loan or a mix of both. The choice has tax, legal and transfer-pricing consequences that a local adviser must sign off. The finance question underneath is simpler and comes first: how much, when, and what happens if sales arrive six months late. They usually do. Optimism is the only currency that never needs converting.
How much cash it needs. A weekly forecast for the new entity, built before it opens, shows the month the money runs out under realistic assumptions: hiring before revenue, set-up costs and deposits, and customers who pay on local terms rather than the ones in the business plan.
Currency. If revenue comes in pesos, dollars, euros or Swiss francs and costs or debt sit in another currency, part of the margin depends on the exchange rate. Measuring that exposure is finance work. Deciding whether to hedge it is a decision for the company, and any hedging contract is placed with a bank or other counterparty.
Reporting from day one. The cheapest moment to decide the chart of accounts, the reporting calendar and who sends what is before the first invoice. The most expensive moment is after the first annual close, when the numbers from the two countries refuse to add up.
Who does what
| Task | Who |
|---|---|
| Local bookkeeping, tax returns and statutory filings | Local accountant |
| Corporate structure, contracts, transfer-pricing documentation | Local lawyer and tax adviser |
| Audit opinion | Auditor |
| Reporting package to the parent, intercompany reconciliation, mapping between standards | Fractional CFO |
| 13-week cash forecast, funding plan, currency exposure, bank relationships | Fractional CFO |
The roles add up rather than replace one another, exactly as they do in a single-country company. Anyone offering to cover all five rows for one fee is selling bookkeeping with an international title.
Where we work, and in which languages
We work remotely with companies in the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, in English, Spanish and German. Our own experience was built in Zurich and Frankfurt.
How it starts
With the same fixed-price diagnostic as any other engagement: $490, written findings within 48 hours of receiving the data. For a subsidiary we ask for the last twelve months of local accounts, the last reporting package sent to the parent and the intercompany balances on both sides. For a company about to expand, the business plan for the new entity and the current accounts of the company that will fund it.
In one sentence
An international structure does not need another layer of reports. It needs one person who can read the numbers in both languages and both rulebooks, and who sees the cash of the small entity before the large one has to rescue it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a fractional CFO handle reporting to a foreign parent company?
Yes. Preparing the monthly package in the group's format and language, keeping a standing map between the local and the group accounting standard, and reconciling intercompany balances is recurring, well-defined work. It suits a part-time role, and subsidiaries are often too small to justify a full-time finance director.
Does a fractional CFO replace the subsidiary's local accountant?
No. The local accountant keeps the statutory books and files the local returns, and the local lawyer and tax adviser handle structure and transfer pricing. The fractional CFO sits above them: reporting to the parent, cash forecasting, funding and the relationship with the banks.
In which countries and languages do you work?
We work remotely with companies in the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, in English, Spanish and German.
How much cash does a new foreign subsidiary need?
There is no rule of thumb that survives a real plan. The answer comes from a weekly forecast for the new entity that includes hiring before revenue, set-up costs and deposits, and customers paying on local terms, run under a base case and under a case where sales arrive six months late.