RN Canada gives Toronto, Ontario founders and owner-managers a part-time CFO — also called a fractional CFO — for board-level financial leadership without a full-time executive salary. You get the cash-flow discipline, forecasting and investor-ready reporting a finance chief brings, scaled to a few days a month and priced for a growing business.
What a part-time CFO delivers for Toronto businesses
Most Toronto companies reach a point where the bookkeeping is handled but nobody owns the numbers that drive decisions. That is the gap we fill. A typical engagement covers 13-week cash-flow and runway planning, a rolling budget and forecast, monthly management accounts you can actually act on, and the board and investor reporting that lenders and shareholders expect. When you are raising debt or equity, we build the model, pressure-test the assumptions and sit in the room for the hard questions. When you are not, we keep margins, pricing and working capital under control so the next decision is made on evidence rather than instinct.
Part-time CFO vs. controller vs. bookkeeper
The three roles get confused because they all touch the numbers, but they answer different questions. A bookkeeper records what already happened: transactions categorised, accounts reconciled, a clean ledger closed each month. A controller owns the accounting process and internal controls that keep that ledger accurate at scale. A part-time CFO looks forward from that ledger: cash-flow runway, pricing, fundraising models and the board conversation. Most Toronto businesses do not need all three as full-time hires at once — a part-time CFO is often the first finance-leadership role that makes sense, working alongside whoever already keeps your books.
When to bring in a part-time CFO
A few signals reliably mean the timing is right: you are about to raise debt or equity and need a lender- or investor-ready model; nobody in the business can say, with confidence, how much cash runway is left; pricing and margin decisions are made on gut feel rather than a current cost picture; or the monthly close happens but nobody reviews it for what it means. A part-time CFO is built for exactly that stage — enough finance leadership to close the gap, without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive hire.
Toronto and the 2026 Ontario tax picture
Ontario runs a single 13% Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) instead of a separate GST and PST, so Toronto businesses register once and remit one combined rate. Growing payroll carries the Employer Health Tax (EHT): the first $1,000,000 of annual Ontario payroll is exempt, the top rate is 1.95%, and the exemption disappears once payroll passes $5,000,000. Ontario corporate income tax is administered by the CRA and filed on the same federal T2 return — unlike Alberta, which files a separate provincial AT1, there is no separate Ontario corporate return. The general combined rate is 26.5% (11.5% Ontario), and the small-business rate of 3.2% drops to 2.2% effective July 1, 2026 under Bill 97, prorated if your fiscal year straddles that date. The Ontario small-business limit stays at $500,000, matching the federal limit — Bill 97 changes the rate, not the threshold. Getting the prorated rate right is exactly the kind of detail that shapes Toronto tax planning.
Local and remote: how we work with Toronto
RN Canada does not keep an office in Toronto. We serve Toronto businesses remotely from our Edmonton head office, delivered over secure file sharing and video calls, with the same Ontario tax expertise you would get from a local firm.
Whether the work is on-site or remote, the engagement is the same: a single partner who stays close to your business, knows your numbers and answers the phone. We deliberately keep engagements small so the person who builds your forecast is the person who explains it to your board. For province-wide coverage details, see our Ontario accounting & advisory page.
How an engagement starts
Every part-time CFO relationship starts with an intro call to understand your business, your current reporting and what decision is driving the need for one. From there we scope the engagement — how many days a month, which deliverables (cash-flow model, board pack, lender pack) and on what cadence — before any work begins, so the commitment is clear on both sides from day one.
Built on clean books
A forecast is only as good as the ledger underneath it. Our part-time CFO work pairs naturally with our finance and advisory resources and, where you need it, full-cycle bookkeeping and payroll. If you already have a bookkeeper, we work alongside them; if you do not, we can own the whole stack.
RN Canada was founded in 2020 by Ozgur Duymaz, a CPA (Canada), ACCA (UK) and CMA (US) with a Ph.D. in accounting and finance, and serves businesses across Alberta and British Columbia. To see whether a part-time CFO fits Toronto, book an intro call with a partner.
Frequently asked questions
No. RN Canada does not keep an office in Toronto. We serve Toronto businesses remotely from our Edmonton office, with the same Ontario tax expertise delivered over secure file sharing and video calls.
Yes. "Part-time CFO" and "fractional CFO" describe the same engagement: a senior finance executive working a few days a month instead of full time. We use both terms because clients search for either one; the scope, cadence and pricing are identical.
A part-time CFO is priced for a few days of senior finance work a month rather than a full-time executive salary, so the cost scales with how much support you need. We scope each engagement after an intro call; there are no fixed published packages because the right level of involvement differs by business.
A bookkeeper records what already happened and keeps the ledger current. A controller owns the accounting process and internal controls behind that ledger. A part-time CFO uses that ledger to look forward: cash-flow runway, pricing, fundraising models and board reporting. Most Toronto businesses bring in a part-time CFO to work alongside their existing bookkeeper rather than replace them.
Ontario applies a single 13% HST instead of GST plus PST, and the Employer Health Tax applies above a $1,000,000 exempt payroll (top rate 1.95%, no exemption above $5 million). Corporate income tax is filed through the federal T2, not a separate provincial return. Planning focuses on EHT exposure as payroll grows and tracking the small-business limit changes.