Float Alternatives for Fractional CFOs: 5 Picks for 2027

Key Takeaways

• TL;DR: if you run several client books on Xero or QuickBooks Online, shortlist Fathom first, because it publishes prices by company count that you can check before a sales call; LivePlan also publishes prices, but its page does not say how many clients a plan covers.

• Float sets the bar for this shortlist: a rolling cash forecast built from each client's accounting platform, with a view across clients.

• Four of the six products in this guide publish at least one dollar price, while LiveFlow and Agicap publish none on the pages reviewed, so expect a sales conversation with them.

• Fathom's tiers are sized by company count, so count your client books before you compare prices, and confirm the features of any tier you are quoted.

• A stitched Zapier, Make or n8n workflow can work, but you then own the error handling, access rules and maintenance that a vendor would otherwise carry.

• Pick by constraint, in this order: client count, accounting platform, and whether you need to see a price before any call.

Pick the tool by the constraint you cannot change

Float is a cash flow forecasting tool built for fractional CFOs, and it is the reference point for this guide. A cash flow forecast projects bank balances over a set horizon from open invoices, bills and bank activity, so the owner can see a shortfall before it arrives. The alternatives fall into three groups: multi-client forecasting tools priced by company, planning platforms that add scenarios and reporting, and treasury platforms that bundle bank connections with payables and receivables.

The short answer comes first. If your practice runs many client companies on Xero or QuickBooks Online, shortlist Fathom. If you want an FP&A platform with published starting prices, look at Jirav. If you need cash management, payables and receivables in one product, test Agicap, though it publishes no prices. LiveFlow is worth a call if you need multi-entity cash flow and budgeting and can accept quote-based pricing.

Before you compare features, settle one constraint you cannot change: the number of client companies, the accounting platform each client uses, or whether you must see a price before a sales call. That single constraint usually removes two or three options.

Why the category is getting crowded

Demand explains the crowd of vendors. US fractional CFO market: $3.2 billion in 2026 according to International Finance (2026). The same article projects that market to reach $6.4 billion by 2028, according to International Finance (2026), but it also says methodologies vary widely and that much of the sizing comes from platforms and firms that benefit from growth. Treat the number as directional. For a buyer, the practical point is that software vendors are now chasing fractional practices, so a shortlist should rest on published facts rather than sales claims.

How we evaluated these tools

We weighted six criteria for a fractional CFO who runs several client books. The weights are our judgment for this buyer, not a published industry standard. We did not run any of these products. Each price and feature below comes from a vendor page we opened in this review, and the tables record what each vendor states. We could not open the government small-business data or the G2 and Capterra review pages during this review, so this guide cites no government figure and no review rating.

Forecast depth carries the most weight because client conversations usually turn on the next quarter's cash and on what happens under a few scenarios. Multi-client scale comes second because per-company pricing changes cost quickly as the book grows. If your practice serves one large client rather than many small ones, lower the scale weight and raise forecast depth.

What each tool confirms on its own pages

The matrix records only what each vendor's pages confirmed. "Not on pricing page" means the page we read did not say, not that the product lacks the feature. Ask each vendor for a sample forecast built from one of your client files before you decide.

Among the six pages reviewed, Float is the only one that states a 13-week view and a monthly horizon of up to three years, according to Float (2026). Its fractional-CFO page also says Float does not connect directly to your bank, so bank data arrives through the accounting platform. Sage Intacct and iplicit are listed as coming soon. If a client keeps books outside Xero and QuickBooks Online, Float cannot read them yet, and that is the first disqualifier to check.

Published prices and total cost

Pricing checked October 26, 2026. Every figure in this section is a price printed on a vendor's own pricing page that we opened in this review. Where a page printed no price, the table says Quote-based. We did not use third-party price listings, because they disagreed with the vendor pages and with each other.

Growth plan: $265 per month billed monthly according to Float (2026). The same page lists $215 per month billed annually for Growth and $389 per month billed monthly for Scale, which covers multi-entity cash flow, so the Float price depends on how many entities you consolidate.

Multi-client cost is where Fathom's tiers diverge. The Pro plan is $450 per month for 25 companies, and each extra company adds $17, according to Fathom (2026). The page lists three-way cash flow forecasting, budgets and scenarios under Pro and describes the $67 per month Portfolio tier, which covers 100 companies, as a single view of the client base that complements Pro. Portfolio is therefore an overview add-on rather than a cheaper forecasting plan, and it is left out of the table below. The table carries the Pro arithmetic.

The Pro figures are $450 plus $17 for each company above 25. Above 50 companies, Fathom's Enterprise tier is quoted rather than published, so the table stops there.

Vendor profiles: best fit, limits and evidence

Float: the reference point

Best fit: a fractional CFO whose clients all run on Xero or QuickBooks Online and who wants a rolling 13-week view across the book. Limits: only those two accounting integrations are live, Sage Intacct and iplicit are listed as coming soon, and the product does not connect directly to a bank. Implementation: connect each client's platform, let the tool import invoices, bills and bank transactions, then review each forecast with the owner. Evidence: the pricing and fractional-CFO pages cited above. Disqualifiers: a client on another accounting platform, or a requirement for a direct bank feed.

Fathom: sized by company count

Best fit: a practice that serves many client companies and wants pricing set by company rather than by seat. Limits: the pricing page shows no annual prices and does not name a 13-week view, so ask in writing; three-way cash flow forecasting is listed under Pro, not Portfolio. Billing is monthly with no contract, as the page describes, and sales tax is excluded from the listed prices. Implementation: fix your company count first, then confirm which tier covers it. Evidence: Fathom's pricing page lists every tier, and its Enterprise tier is quoted for portfolios of more than 50 companies. Disqualifiers: a requirement for an annual price on the page before any call, or a 13-week view you cannot confirm in writing.

LivePlan: the lowest published monthly price

Standard plan: $15 per month billed annually according to LivePlan (2026). The same page says Standard includes a full profit, balance sheet and cash flow forecast, while up to 10 what-if scenarios and the QuickBooks Online or Xero connection start on Premium at $30 per month billed annually. Limits: the 13-week view does not appear on the pricing page, and Standard lists no accounting sync. Implementation: on Premium, connect QuickBooks Online or Xero, then build the forecast and scenarios inside the platform. Disqualifiers: a 13-week requirement you cannot confirm, or a need for scenarios or accounting sync at the Standard price.

Jirav: published starting prices

The Controller Essentials plan on Jirav starts at $50 per month, and the CFO Enterprise plan starts at $150 per month, according to Jirav (2026). Best fit: a team that wants an FP&A platform with monthly starting prices and a clear step up to a higher tier. Limits: the page gives starting prices only, with no annual pricing, and the page does not mention a 13-week view. Implementation: ask Jirav to confirm your clients' connectors and onboarding in writing, since the pricing page does not describe them. Disqualifiers: a need for a multi-client price on the page before any call, or a 13-week view you cannot confirm.

LiveFlow: quote-based multi-entity cash flow

Best fit: a firm that needs multi-entity consolidation, cash flow forecasting and budgeting, and can accept quote-based pricing. The LiveFlow pricing page says pricing is tailored to need and lists no plan names, seat limits or billing terms. Its data comes through a native Ramp integration, with account information provided through Plaid, and the page does not name QuickBooks or Xero. Implementation: confirm in writing that your clients' platform is supported before the sales conversation goes further. Disqualifiers: a QuickBooks Online or Xero book you cannot confirm, or a need for a published price.

Agicap: treasury platform without published prices

Best fit: a business that wants cash management, accounts payable, accounts receivable and payments in one treasury platform. The Agicap pricing page lists treasury management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payments, and banking and ERP connectivity, with no prices. Limits: the offer is annual with a minimum 12-month subscription, payment is by SEPA direct debit or debit card, and the page does not mention 13-week forecasting. Multi-company offers are tailored on request. Disqualifiers: a need for a monthly fee across a handful of clients, or a fixed-price 13-week forecast for each client.

Who should choose which tool

Match your strongest constraint to a row, then check the red flags before you contact a vendor.

Who this is for: a fractional CFO or accounting firm owner who runs several client books on Xero or QuickBooks Online and wants a cash forecast each client can read.

Red flags: clients whose books sit outside Xero and QuickBooks Online; a need for an annual price before any sales call; a requirement for a direct bank feed with no accounting platform in between.

Decision checklist:

• Count every client company and entity, then price each shortlisted tool at that count.

• Record the accounting platform for each client, including any exceptions.

• Ask for a 13-week view and scenarios in writing, built from one real client file.

• Ask who maintains the connection after go-live, and what happens when it breaks.

Build it yourself or buy: where the workflow fits

The real alternative for many small practices is not another vendor. It is a spreadsheet, or a flow stitched together in Zapier, Make or n8n. Those tools can support run histories, retries and error branches when they are configured, so a stitched build is a fair option. The buyer, though, must design and own idempotency so that a retried run does not double-count an invoice, the escalation path to a named person, access controls, and maintenance whenever the accounting platform changes.

A proposed US Tech Automations configuration for this job would start with a scheduled trigger each Monday. The workflow would read open invoices and bills from Xero through its API, using fields such as Invoice.DueDate and Invoice.AmountDue, and write a draft direct-method forecast to a review sheet. The Xero field definitions come from the vendor's published specification, according to Xero (2026). The prerequisite is an authorized Xero connection with read access and a written list of client-specific payment-date rules. The human review point is the controller approving each expected payment date that differs from the invoice due date before the draft goes to a client. This is a proposed design, not a deployed workflow.

A second proposed step would run after the controller finishes bank reconciliation. The trigger is a manual run by the controller, the action compares actual bank movements with the forecast and lists the variances, and the output is a variance note for each client. The prerequisite is that bank transactions are available through the accounting platform, which is also how Float reads bank data. The review points are the reclassification of unusual items and the controller's sign-off before any note reaches a client.

Illustrative scenario, not a customer result: a fractional CFO serves 30 client companies, and each 13-week forecast takes 2 hours to rebuild by hand, which is 60 hours of rebuild work every week. If a draft built from Invoice.DueDate and Invoice.AmountDue cuts review to 20 minutes per client, the weekly review load falls to 10 hours, which frees 50 hours a week. If the practice instead buys a per-company tool, the Pro rate for 30 companies in the table above is $535 per month. The arithmetic holds only if the drafts are accurate, so the human review step stays in the process.

Common mistakes when switching

• Comparing a per-company price with a flat or per-user price without converting both to your client count.

• Reading a feature missing from a pricing page as a feature missing from the product.

• Ignoring one client on a different accounting platform, which can break a plan built for the rest of the book.

• Treating an automated draft as a signed forecast instead of a starting point for review.

Common questions before you switch

When NOT to use US Tech Automations: a simpler existing tool wins if you serve one or two clients on one accounting platform and a spreadsheet already gives you the 13-week view you need, because a workflow adds setup without changing the answer. It also wins if you already pay for Float and need only its reports from the same data. If your clients' books sit outside Xero and QuickBooks Online, check each tool's connectors before any workflow is designed, because a proposed workflow cannot read a source nobody has connected.

Does Float connect directly to my bank?

No. Float's fractional-CFO page says it does not connect directly to your bank, so bank data comes through Xero or QuickBooks Online.

Which tool has the lowest published monthly price?

The lowest published monthly price in this guide is $15 per month billed annually for the Standard plan on LivePlan, according to LivePlan (2026). The page does not say how many clients a Standard plan covers, so confirm that before comparing it with per-company tiers.

Can a 30-company practice price Fathom?

Yes. At the Pro rate, 30 companies cost $535 per month, as the table above shows. Fathom's Portfolio tier is a single view of the client base that complements Pro rather than a forecasting plan, and the page lists three-way cash flow forecasting under Pro, so Portfolio does not replace Pro for cash forecasts.

Do I need Zapier, Make or n8n for this?

Only if you have the time to own error handling, access controls and maintenance. These tools can support retries and run history when configured, but the design work stays with you.

Which vendor should I call first?

Call the vendor whose published pricing fits your client count first, then ask it to confirm the 13-week view and your accounting connector in writing. For most fractional practices on Xero or QuickBooks Online, that means Fathom, because it publishes prices by company count that you can check before a call. LivePlan also publishes prices, but its page does not say how many clients a plan covers.

Decide on the constraint, then test one client file

Settle the constraint you cannot change, shortlist the tools whose published prices fit your client count, and run one client's 13-week forecast in each shortlisted tool before you sign anything. Compare the output with a bank balance you already trust. For a proposed version of the draft-and-review step described above, see how US Tech Automations configures this.