What Ballast Consulting Group does

Ballast Consulting Group, LLC is a private finance, accounting, and management consulting firm headquartered at 1837 West Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia. Founded in 2018 by co-founders Kyle Benusa (CEO) and Jack Allen (COO), the firm delivers outsourced finance and accounting services to U.S. small and lower-middle-market operating businesses generating between $3M and $75M in revenue. The service portfolio covers fractional CFO and fractional controller work, managed financial close, FP&A, cash flow management, modified accrual accounting implementation, transaction readiness, and stakeholder reporting. The firm also maintains verticalized offerings for multi-location healthcare practices and high-growth tech/SaaS companies.

Ballast's core technology is built on QuickBooks Online as the primary hub-and-spoke general ledger, with payroll integrations to ADP, Paychex, Paylocity, Gusto, and Dominion Payroll, and Excel-based FP&A models; the firm explicitly does not implement or manage advanced FP&A software and offers no public API. Its delivery model is the central differentiator: every client is staffed with a minimum Engagement Manager plus Relationship Manager, with analysts added for high-volume engagements, and team members are rotated to broaden bench knowledge. The firm has codified a proprietary modified accrual accounting methodology and a defined client engagement structure as its core service IP.

Ballast monetizes through fixed monthly managed service fees, which it argues better align incentives than hourly billing, with quote-based pricing tailored to scope. Go-to-market is direct consultative selling, supported primarily by thought leadership content (the long-form "Ballast Letters" series by Kyle Benusa, Jack Allen, and Timothy Benusa, plus regular blog output), referral relationships, and earned media in industry publications such as Thomson Reuters and CPA.com. The firm operates exclusively through direct engagement, with no resellers, intermediaries, or marketplace channels, and has served 104+ clients with a 58-month average tenure over its seven-year history.

Name

Ballast Consulting Group

Legal name

Ballast Consulting Group, LLC

Website

https://ballastconsultinggroup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Ballast Consulting Group is a Richmond, Virginia-based finance and accounting consulting firm providing team-based fractional CFO, controller, FP&A, and transaction readiness services to U.S. small and lower-middle-market businesses generating $3M–$75M in revenue, on fixed monthly managed service fees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Outsourced Finance and Accounting Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Other Management Consulting Services (541618)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Performance Management & Productivity Consulting (BPAHAGAL)

Keywords

• Outsourced finance services
• Fractional CFO services
• Small business accounting
• Financial planning analysis
• Management consulting services

Headquarters

HQ city

Richmond

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Managed Finance & Accounting Services: Ballast provides a fixed monthly fee managed service covering all finance and accounting functions. This includes bookkeeping, financial close, FP&A, scenario planning, and strategic advisory. The fixed fee model aligns incentives between Ballast and clients, ensuring clients don't shy away from improvements to accounting or finance processes due to budget concerns.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Ballast Consulting Group provides outsourced finance, accounting, and management consulting as a fixed monthly managed service for U.S. small businesses generating $3M to $75M in revenue. Engagements are delivered by a coordinated team (Engagement Manager plus Relationship Manager, plus an Analyst for high-volume clients) covering bookkeeping, monthly close, financial planning and analysis, cash flow management, modified accrual accounting implementation, transaction readiness, and strategic advisory. QuickBooks Online serves as the primary general ledger with Excel used for FP&A modeling, integrated with major payroll systems.

Product overview

Ballast Consulting Group offers a unified managed service model for small business finance and accounting, providing fractional CFO and controller-level services delivered by a team of professionals rather than a single individual. Their core offering combines Client Advisory Services (CAS) with specialized modules including managed financial close, FP&A (using Excel-based models), cash flow management, transaction readiness, modified accrual accounting implementation, and stakeholder reporting. They serve businesses between $3M and $75M in revenue, using QuickBooks Online as the primary accounting hub with payroll integrations to ADP, Paychex, Paylocity, Gusto, and Dominion Payroll. Pricing is structured as fixed monthly fees rather than hourly billing.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Client Advisory Services (CAS) Ballast's flagship managed service for finance, accounting, and management consulting. Delivered as a fixed monthly fee engagement by a coordinated team for U.S. businesses between $3M and $75M in revenue, providing profitability visibility, cash flow forecasting, and transaction readiness.
• Fractional CFO Services CFO-level strategic thinking delivered through a team of professionals rather than a single fractional resource, providing stability and reducing single points of failure.
• Fractional Controller Services Controller-level financial oversight including bookkeeping, close process management, and reliable reporting delivered through Ballast's managed service model.
• Managed Financial Close Services Managed service for monthly accounting close processes, ensuring timely and accurate financial statements for small business clients.
• FP&A Services Financial planning and analysis using Excel-based models for forecasting, scenario planning, and budget management.
• Transaction Readiness Services Preparation services for acquisitions, investments, or business sales, ensuring financials tell a consistent and credible story for due diligence.
• Modified Accrual Accounting Implementation Implementation of modified accrual accounting methods, converting clients from cash basis to accrual basis for historical and go-forward periods to provide timeliness of useful financial information while maintaining accuracy.

Quantifiable outcome

• 70% revenue growth within 18 months for professional services clients
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature3 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Hiline: Hiline is a CAS-focused accounting advisory firm serving small and mid-market businesses with outsourced finance and accounting services. The Ballast source explicitly positions Hiline as a peer CAS expert, and both firms compete for fractional CFO/controller engagements in the SMB market.
• B2B CFO Partners: B2B CFO Partners is one of the largest US fractional CFO firms, providing outsourced CFO services to growth-stage and mid-market operating companies. Ballast competes directly for the same client profile (private operating businesses in the $3M–$75M range) using a comparable team-based delivery model.
• CFO Strategic Partners: CFO Strategic Partners provides fractional CFO, controller, and financial leadership services to small and mid-sized businesses in growth and transition phases. The firm is comparable to Ballast in target market, service mix, and emphasis on transaction-readiness support.
• Anders CPA + Advisors: Anders CPA is a mid-size CPA and advisory firm with a dedicated outsourced CFO/controller practice serving closely-held businesses and their owners. Like Ballast, Anders combines traditional accounting with embedded finance leadership for owner-operated companies.

Emerging players

• Pilot: Pilot is a tech-enabled bookkeeping, tax, and CFO services provider focused on startups, e-commerce, and SMBs. It overlaps with Ballast's bookkeeping, close, and basic FP&A layers and represents a software-driven alternative to the team-based managed-service model.
• Bench: Bench provides outsourced bookkeeping paired with a software platform for small businesses. It targets a similar SMB audience to Ballast and competes for the bookkeeping and monthly close layer of the finance function Ballast sells as part of its managed service.

Broad incumbents

• Cherry Bekaert: Cherry Bekaert is a top-30 US accounting and advisory firm with a CAS practice serving SMBs and middle-market companies. It is comparable to Ballast at the CAS / outsourced finance level but operates as a much broader full-service CPA firm rather than a boutique managed-service specialist.
• Wipfli: Wipfli is a top-20 US accounting and advisory firm with outsourced accounting, CFO, and CAS offerings for mid-market organizations. It competes with Ballast in the outsourced finance-function space, but at meaningfully larger scale and with a fuller advisory portfolio.
• PKF O'Connor Davies: PKF O'Connor Davies is a top-30 US accounting and advisory firm providing outsourced CFO, controllership, and CAS services to closely-held and mid-market businesses. Comparable to Ballast in service offering, but as a regional full-service incumbent rather than a boutique.
• Forvis: Forvis (formed from the merger of BKD and Dixon Hughes Goodman) is a top US accounting and advisory firm with a CAS practice serving private businesses. It overlaps with Ballast's CFO advisory and outsourcing services for owner-operated companies, but with a broader, multi-service delivery model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ballast-consulting-group
• Xx.com/ballastconsult

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ballast Consulting Group