Straight answers, no fine print.
Where do we start?
With a conversation — what is piling up, and what keeps getting missed. If fractional business operations is the right shape, the first thirty days run in order from there: access and a clear look, the books brought current, one deadline calendar, the monthly rhythm stood up.
What if my books are behind?
Then the first month is for exactly that — the books are brought current inside it. A catch-up beyond that shape is quoted in advance, at $125 an hour with written approval first. Never a surprise on an invoice.
Do you work in our systems, or yours?
Yours. Access is by invitation inside the systems the business already runs, and everything lives there — the status, the records, the deadlines. Nothing is copied out to run the engagement, and access stays yours to revoke at any time. And if the business does not have a system worth the name yet, the structure is set up as part of the build — named, filed, and in order.
Do you work with businesses outside Calgary?
Yes. Calgary-based and remote-first, and the operation travels — a business anywhere can be run from inside its own systems.
What if the work needs you on site?
When the work calls for someone in the room, on-site time can be arranged — within Calgary. The operation is remote-first by design; on-site is the exception, arranged when a piece of work genuinely needs a person present.
Is this like hiring a virtual or executive assistant?
No — the distinction is structural. This is a business operations manager running the operation whole: the financials, the systems, the deadlines, the cadence — on documented processes, inside your own systems. An assistant supports a person instead — tasks as they are handed over, at your direction. Inbox, personal calendar, travel, errands: that is assistant work, and a different desk entirely. The longer version:
Part-time, contract, or fractional?
Do you handle marketing or social media?
Social media is not our specialty — day-to-day marketing stays with you or your marketer. Production is different: a website, a presentation, a print piece, or a report can be built as a separate project, quoted in advance at $125/hr with written approval. It never sits inside the retainer.
Why not just hire someone full-time?
Most businesses this size run on one of two arrangements, and both leak. The first is the patchwork: a bookkeeper here, a payroll service there, the rest of it in the owner’s head — done at midnight, by the most expensive person in the business. Pieces are not the problem; nobody running the whole is. The second is the full-time hire — run the full cost first: salary, employer contributions, benefits, paid vacation, and managing the person, for a week that is largely presence the operation does not need. A fractional business operations manager is the third arrangement: the operation run whole, by someone senior — the financials, the systems, the deadlines, the cadence — only the hours it requires, no employment overhead. If you need someone in the chair all day, hire them. Most businesses this size need the work done, not the chair filled.
Is this bookkeeping, or accounting?
Financial administration. Bookkeeping kept current and reconciled in your own systems, bill pay and receivables on a rhythm, payroll run through your own provider or accounting system, monthly reporting that gets read. Tax filings and accounting advice stay with your accountant — the back office works alongside them, and hands over clean books.
Is there a minimum term?
Three months to start, then month to month, with thirty days’ written notice either side. Long enough to stand the system up properly; never a lock-in.
Is there an onboarding fee?
$500, one time — it covers the build: The Register configured, the deadline calendar built, access and systems set up. The books are brought current inside your first month.
Where do my files live?
In your systems — they are already yours. The work lives there from day one, so there is nothing to extract, and the documented systems and processes are handed over complete.
What happens at the end of an engagement?
Your records stay with the business — they lived in your systems from day one, and the documented processes are handed over complete. The Register is the back office’s own system: it stays with The Back Office Co., and access closes when the engagement ends.
