One seat.
One principal.
Answer the question.
DirectCFO is run by Chris Gilbertson. He takes the call, reads the books, writes the memo, and shows up on Tuesday. If you hire the firm, you hire him.
First business at fourteen. He has been running the numbers ever since.
Chris served in the Marine Corps, then spent six years at New York Life — agent, registered representative, partner. He earned full FINRA credentials. The firm taught him how capital structure, regulation, and risk actually fit together.
His favorite clients were never the ones with the most money. They were the ones running businesses. The questions were harder. The stakes were more direct. The answers changed what happened next.
He founded Gilbertson Bookkeeping in 2021. Inside a year, the work had outgrown the name — owners were asking about cash flow, structure, deal terms, tax posture, how much the business could afford to pay them. Questions a bookkeeper is not supposed to answer. He answered them anyway.
DirectCFO is what that became. One principal. A small client list. Every engagement run directly — no associates, no handoffs, no account manager between you and the work.
Four rules of the practice.
These are not aspirations. They are the boundary conditions the firm runs inside — the things that do not change when a client pushes.
Decisions before analysis.
The memo leads with what to do. The exhibits sit behind it. Not the reverse.
Plain English, always.
If a line item cannot be explained to the whole leadership team, it is not yet ready to present.
Fixed fee, no meter.
Hourly billing punishes the clients with the messiest numbers. We price the engagement, not the clock.
Named seat, every time.
You hire Chris. He does the work. There is no delegation, no "let me loop in my associate."
The sequence, in order.
First business
Ran the numbers himself. Nothing has changed.
United States Marine Corps
Service. The posture stayed.
New York Life — agent
Entered the firm as an agent. Learned the book.
Registered representative
FINRA Series 6, 7, 24, 63, 66. Life & Health licensed.
Partner
Six years in. Worked best with the business owners on the list.
Gilbertson Bookkeeping founded
The practice that would become DirectCFO.
DirectCFO launched
Dedicated fractional CFO practice. Small list. Named seat.
He is building an airplane in the garage.
Chris is a licensed private pilot, instrument rated, currently building a Van's RV-8 from a kit. He does not find this unusual. It is the same discipline as a close: one step at a time, every step documented, nothing skipped.
Most CFO work is closer to kit-building than to spreadsheet wizardry. That is the posture the firm brings.
- FINRA
- Series 6 · 7 · 24 · 63 · 66
- Insurance
- Life & Health licensed
- Service
- USMC veteran
- Aviation
- Private pilot · instrument rated
- Firm founded
- 2021 · Gilbertson Bookkeeping
- DirectCFO
- Launched 2024
- Active seats
- Kept deliberately small
- Subcontracting
- None. Ever.