In pipeline construction, integrity and gathering/processing, the margin hides in the same places every time — project WIP and progress billing, integrity and coating spend, demob, and the systems that never fully merged after an acquisition. A part-time, senior CFO goes into your project and cost data, looks for where it may be leaking, and proves what it finds on your own numbers before you change anything.
A fractional (or outsourced) CFO gives you a seasoned chief financial officer a few days a month. The person in your data is a 35-year CFO who came up through capital-intensive energy and infrastructure businesses.
See which projects, spreads and crews actually make money — and which quietly run over — instead of one blended number that hides both.
Progress billing, unbilled work, integrity and coating costs, demob and the cash trapped between the field and the office — found and put in dollars.
Clean, defensible numbers for a covenant, a surety and bonding line, a raise, or a sale — so the lender or buyer doesn’t find what you can’t explain.
Every one of these is the same story: a capital-intensive operation that couldn’t see itself until it saw the whole picture at once.
A fractional CFO is worth most for a pipeline or midstream firm when a few of these are true:
One low-risk first step, then proof, then a relationship — we don’t hand over a report and leave.
A focused call about where the pressure is. If there’s a fit, we scope a short, defined piece of work on your own project and cost data under NDA — and agree a fixed fee before you commit. If there’s likely nothing there, we’ll tell you that too. No obligation.
If there’s something worth chasing, that scoped work is built and tested on your own data — so what we recommend is grounded in your numbers, not a pitch.
The part that matters most. We take the fractional CFO seat — board and lender reporting, cash, WIP and margin, the risks that matter — until the improvement is real and your team can hold it.
How does a fractional CFO help a pipeline or midstream company?
A fractional CFO gives a pipeline or midstream firm a senior finance hand a few days a month to see true project, spread, and crew margin, control WIP and integrity spend, and produce numbers a lender, surety, or buyer will trust — without a full-time hire.
How do you find margin in project WIP?
We put a real number on where cost commits in the field versus where it’s seen at the office — the gap is where overruns hide. We make that gap measurable on your own data — the same discipline applies to project WIP and progress billing.
How much does a fractional CFO cost?
AJM Solutions’ fractional CFO engagements are far less than a full-time CFO, scoped to what you need. Most start with a short call, so you see the value before you commit.
Can you help through a post-acquisition integration?
Yes. Two systems and a border after an acquisition is exactly where margin leaks in the first year. We do the cost true-up, unify the reporting, and present the numbers clearly, so you protect (or defend) the value you paid for.
A 20-minute call about your situation. If it’s a fit, we scope a short, defined piece of work on your own data — and if you’re already tight, we’ll tell you that too.
Book a call →If there’s nothing there, we’ll say so — that’s the point.
AJM Solutions is a Calgary-based fractional CFO firm working with owner-led pipeline, midstream, oil & gas services, mining-services, trucking, and distribution businesses across Alberta and Saskatchewan. See our fractional CFO services →