A few years ago, I had a client who seemed great.

• High paying

• Right industry

• Right revenue range

• Super fun guy to work with

Everything was dandy until the day he showed up to our monthly CFO call from his golf cart on an iPhone.

He was literally driving his golf cart, wind whipping through the microphone, beer in a koozie, and yelling at someone in the background while I tried to walk him through his Q3 projections.

"No big deal. It's just a one-off. I'll deal with it this time. Worst case scenario, it'll be a funny story for the office."
(Plus, it brought a whole new meaning to the term "critical four"!)

But after a few months of him calling in from his truck, the course, or some noisy restaurant, I realized something: this isn't funny; in fact, it's driving me up the freaking wall.

He was always distracted.

He was unprepared.

And he sucked at golf so I wasn't even picking up any tips for my swing.

I was moaning and groaning about it to a business buddy of mine one afternoon. I asked if he thought we should just fire the guy.

But then my buddy asked:

Have you told him to knock it off?
Did you ever tell him where and how to show up for calls?

No. I had not.

Not only had I failed to MANAGE expectations, I hadn't even properly SET expectations!

This was on me.

The Root of Nearly Every Client Frustration

If you've ever found yourself annoyed, frustrated, irate, or otherwise livid at a client's behavior, it almost always goes back to either:

• An incomplete or unclear scope of work (setting expectations) and/or

• You not sticking to the scope of work (managing expectations).

The Fix: A Better Scope of Work

Most Fractional CFOs know their scope of work should outline deliverables. But the best scopes do more than that. They set boundaries—on how and when work gets done and how communications should flow.

A strong scope should answer these questions:

✅ Who should the client contact for questions?
(You? Your assistant? A dedicated Fractional CFO on your team?)

✅ How should they communicate with you?
(Slack, email, Zoom, but not text or WhatsApp.)

✅ What's the response time?
(My firm replies by the next business day—no after-hours emergencies.)

✅ What's not included?
(My firm doesn't do bookkeeping. We don't do taxes. We don't do attestation work. We're happy to refer you to someone if you need help in those areas.)

✅ What do you expect from the client?
(We have them review the CFO report ahead of time. We ask that they be in a quiet office, on video. We ask that they have specific questions answered and prepared to discuss.)

When I finally reworked my scope of work to include these expectations, the change was instant.

There have been a few times when clients inadvertently pushed the envelope.

When that happens, I've found it best to gently (but directly!) remind them what they agreed to in the scope and why it's important for the relationship.

Since implementing those changes, those issues have all but disappeared.

And no one has called in from a golf cart again.

Not one time.