Forging My Own Path to Become a Fractional CFO

Fatima Salhab is a fractional CFO at Ascendant, a firm that provides finance and CFO support to growing businesses, where she predominantly works with e-commerce companies.

Her path to becoming a CFO is inspiring and required her to be single-minded in achieving her goals.

Finding A New Path

Nick Levine: From our previous chats, I know that growing up, you were pushed down a route that didn’t align with your goals.

Fatima Salhab: During that period, my future career aspirations were seen as irrelevant. I knew inside that this was not me.

Nick Levine: But that shifted?

Fatima Salhab: My mum, with her “keep calm and carry on” approach to life, asked me, “What are you going to do about it?” That was a pivotal moment for me, which led me to rethink my options.

After an initial rejection by college to study for AAT qualification, my mum refused to take no for an answer and liaised with them to give me an opportunity. This was truly inspirational, and I feel the reason I’m as resilient as I am today.

Gaining Finance Experience from The Ground Up

Nick Levine: You must have shown great resilience in making this decision.

Fatima Salhab: Yes. Once I completed my AAT qualification, I went straight into ACCA studies, and I studied for a total of six years.

Nick Levine: Were you working at the same time, too?

Fatima Salhab: During my studies, I worked in the finance department of a property business. I worked my way up, starting with filing work and progressing to core accounting tasks, including bank reconciliations, posting transactions, and credit control. By the time I was qualified, I was doing cash flows and preparing accounts.

Being Headhunted by Deloitte

Nick Levine: You then went down a more corporate route. How did that come about?

Fatima Salhab: I was headhunted by Deloitte, whose internal division, Propel, an accounting service for startups, had opened an office in Cardiff. They found me on LinkedIn.

Nick Levine: What was that experience like?

Fatima Salhab: I was thrown into the deep end and had to learn how to use cloud accounting software quickly. From what I was used to, the automation was incredible, and I saved so much time not having to use paper and pens or ticking off tasks as I went along.

Nick Levine: How did you continue to build out your experience at Deloitte?

Fatima Salhab: By the time I left, I’d had experience being the interim lead for Cardiff and had a strong portfolio of clients, and built a specialism in e-commerce. This included supporting one client pre-revenue through to £20 million in turnover.

Becoming a Fractional CFO

Nick Levine: When did you take the step up to become a fractional CFO?

Fatima Salhab: After a few years at Deloitte, I decided I wanted to do more advisory and strategic work and move away from technical and transactional work. I met the founders of flinder (now Ascendant), and I knew this was exactly where I wanted to go. Compared to Deloitte, the lack of red tape was appealing, and I knew this opportunity would allow me to grow further.

Nick Levine: What is your client portfolio like, and can you tell me what your typical engagements look like?

Fatima Salhab: As a fractional CFO, alongside one other colleague, we look after the firm’s 40 or so e-commerce clients. I sit on the board of some of these businesses and provide them with strategic support. Typically, this includes scenario planning with the founders, interpreting numbers in the accounts, and assessing unit economics.

Using Automation to Streamline E-Commerce Workflows

Nick Levine: You’ve been on an interesting journey, starting out with fully manual processes and moving across to fully automated ones. What has been one of the biggest productivity gains from doing this?

Fatima Salhab: For e-commerce businesses, automated inventory systems have been a real game-changer. They integrate directly with core ledgers and give real-time visibility on stock. This is an accountant’s dream as the data flows.

Nick Levine: How does this empower you to perform your role as a fractional CFO?

Fatima Salhab: Having real-time data from automated inventory management enables me to provide advisory services to my clients. I can slice and dice data to generate meaningful insights and make suggestions to improve business performance. If you don’t have real-time data, you can’t help a business do anything.

Fatima’s inspiring journey to become a fractional CFO is one of the many stories we are showcasing in the Next Gen Finance Leader series. Read our other profiles below.