A finance department, led from the CFO chair.
Coastview gives owners what most small businesses never get: one team accountable for the record and for the decisions that come out of it — the close, the payables, the payroll, and the CFO judgment on top. Founded and led by Andrew Varney, CPA.
13+ years, from Big 4 audit to CFO.
Andrew's path runs from Big 4 audit through public-company accounting, corporate controllership, and CFO leadership inside growing operating businesses, 13+ years learning finance from every seat before bringing it directly to owners as a fractional partner.
Andrew is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (California) with a Master's in Accountancy from the University of San Diego, one of the top-ranked accounting programs in the country.
Andrew started his career in Big 4 audit, planning and leading engagements across public and private companies, where the standard for accuracy and rigor gets set early and never leaves.
Several years managing month-end close and compliance inside public and pre-public companies, the kind of environment where the numbers have to hold up to outside scrutiny, not just an internal review.
Years as a Corporate Controller and then a Chief Financial Officer, sitting inside growing operating businesses, building the reporting, systems, and forecasting that let owners actually run the company, not just get run by it.
Now Andrew brings that same discipline to founders and owners directly, as a fractional CFO and strategic finance partner across manufacturing, consumer products, franchises, nonprofits, and startups.
Built to a standard, not around one person.
Andrew founded Coastview and sets how the work gets done: what a monthly close has to look like, what gets reviewed before it reaches a client, what a forecast has to be able to answer. That standard is the actual product, and it does not move depending on who is doing the work.
Engagements are senior-led and staffed to the work in front of them. The recurring accounting runs on a documented calendar; the judgment calls sit with senior people. Either way, it is reviewed before you see it.
The record and the decision belong to the same team.
Coastview did not start as a bookkeeping shop that grew into advisory. It started from the CFO chair — inside operating businesses, where the question was never "are the books closed?" but "can we afford this, and what happens if we're wrong?" Everything we run is built backwards from that question.
That order matters more than it sounds. When a bookkeeping firm adds advisory, the advice is shaped by what the existing books happen to report. When a CFO designs the accounting function, the chart of accounts, the close calendar and the reporting all get built to answer the decisions you actually face. Same work, opposite direction, very different output.
It is also why we took on the whole back office rather than sitting on top of someone else's. A forecast is only as good as the record feeding it. If we are accountable for the cash projection, we should be accountable for the payables and the payroll that drive it — not reconciling someone else's guesswork every month and calling it insight.
Where that shows up most is complexity nobody else wanted to untangle: multiple entities, intercompany balances that have never tied, allocations carried forward because no one remembered why. That work is unglamorous and it is where most of the real distortion hides.
Why I started Coastview.
In Andrew’s own words.
At Ernst & Young, I loved being able to step into a company's operations and understand the business model at work: the risks, the strengths, all of it. But as an auditor, I never got to stick around long enough to act on what I found. As soon as I understood a business, it was time to move on to the next one.
So I moved into industry. Over the years that followed, I brought solid financial structure and scalability to every role I held, first controller, then CFO, building the systems that let a business actually run on good numbers instead of guesswork.
With that experience in hand, the natural next step was to branch out and bring that same impact to multiple businesses at once, as a finance partner and strategist. I didn't set out to run my own firm. It became clear over time that this was the work my whole career had been building toward: helping clients understand their numbers, feel optimistic about what's ahead, and use financial reporting and strategy to reach the goals they actually care about, in business and in life.
Confidence, not anxiety, in your numbers.
Most owners who come to us are in the same spot: the business is growing, but the financial picture never quite catches up. Decisions get made on partial information, gut feel, or whatever the bank balance happens to be that day. What we want is simple — for you to know your numbers well enough that financial decisions stop being a source of anxiety and start being a source of confidence.
You trust your financials. When you look at a report, you know it's accurate, current, and actually reflects what's happening in the business.
You can see what's moving the needle. A handful of KPIs tell you, at a glance, whether the business is on track, not a 40-page deck you have to decode.
Cash flow isn't a surprise. You have a forecast you can plan around, and you know what's coming in and going out before it happens.
You're making decisions with clarity, not guesswork. Whether it's pricing, hiring, investing in growth, or taking a distribution, you have the numbers to back it up.
You're back to doing what you do best. The finance function is working the way it should, supporting you, not consuming you.
"I measure success not by the reports I produce, but by what you're able to do next because of them."— Andrew Varney, Fractional CFO & Strategic Advisor
Beyond the spreadsheets.
Outside the firm, most of what matters to me happens within about a ten-minute drive of home. My wife and I have four kids, ages two to ten, so the calendar fills up fast — mostly with baseball. I've coached my oldest son and daughter's Little League teams for years, and when we're not on a field we're usually watching the Padres, with varying degrees of optimism depending on the month.
My faith shapes how I approach work and family alike, and I serve on the board of a local Christian school — which keeps me close to the kind of mission-driven organization I also enjoy serving professionally.
What it's like to work together.
"Andrew worked with us to really understand our pain — this made his impact 100x more impactful. He understands the unique challenges that small businesses face... what we needed to know was what was moving the needle."
"Andrew operates across the entire business, not just the finance function. From executive-caliber strategy to the tactical work that actually moves things forward, he sees what needs doing and gets it done."
Start with a discovery call.
A free 30-minute conversation. No slide deck, no obligation, no pressure. Just a clear answer on whether we can help.
Book a discovery call