Your finance team was built for a smaller company.
Fractional CFO leadership and finance-led consulting for Indian companies between ₹200 and ₹1,000 crore.
Most companies that cross ₹400 crore are still running the finance function they built at ₹100 crore. The accounts are accurate. Month-end closes. Statutory filings go out on time.
And still nobody in the room can say where the cash actually went last quarter, which customers are worth keeping, or whether next year's growth can be funded without going back to the bank.
That gap — between accounting that is correct and finance that is useful — is the whole of our work.
Where we start
Cash you already own, stuck inside your own business
Most engagements begin here, because it is the fastest thing to prove and it pays for itself.
Working capital release
Receivables, inventory and payables taken apart line by line. Where the money is stuck is rarely where people assume — usually one customer segment and one category of stock.
Fractional CFO
A senior finance head on your leadership team a few days a month. Cash-flow forecasting, capital structure, board reporting, and the judgement calls in between.
Who you would work with
One person does the work, and you meet him first
Dr. Joydeep Mookerjee spent 35 years as a Group CFO before starting this firm — in listed manufacturing, telecom and media businesses turning over ₹2,500 to ₹3,500 crore. India named him one of its ten best manufacturing CFOs in 2022.
Shardip is a principal-led practice. Every engagement is led personally by Dr. Mookerjee. Where specialist capacity is needed, named specialists are engaged for that assignment and introduced to you before they start. You will not be handed to a team you did not meet.
The pattern
The point at which companies call
Somewhere between ₹300 and ₹600 crore, the same thing happens to almost everyone.
Revenue is climbing. The finance team, hired for a smaller company, starts missing dates. Working capital stretches faster than sales. The bank begins asking questions it did not ask last year. And the promoter, who has made every major call on instinct so far and been right, finds that instinct is no longer enough — because the numbers have got too big to feel.
That is usually the month somebody picks up the phone.
Worth a conversation if
- Revenue crossed ₹400 crore and your finance team feels smaller than it did
- You are profitable on paper and short of cash in the bank
- A lender or investor has asked for projections you are not confident defending
- Margins are falling while sales rise, and nobody can tell you why
- You need a CFO's judgement but not yet a CFO's salary
The alternatives
What you are actually choosing between
Three options are usually on the table. It is worth being direct about all three.
| Option | What it costs | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Hire a full-time CFO | ₹1–2 crore a year, plus a six to nine month search | The right answer eventually. But it is a large fixed cost, a long wait, and a hiring risk carried entirely by you. |
| A large consulting firm | Considerably more, on a project basis | A partner sells the work; a senior manager delivers it; associates do it. Here, the person who sells the work is the person who does it. |
| Your existing CA firm | Much less | Compliance, tax and audit, done well and looking backwards by design. You need them. They are not doing forecasting, funding or capital allocation. |
We are not your auditors or your tax advisers. You have those, and you should keep them.
Start with a conversation
Thirty minutes with Dr. Mookerjee, in confidence, about what is actually happening in your business. No sales pitch. No templates. If we are not the right people, we will say so.