Guide For New CFOs to be Successful - Tips Directly From Experienced CFOs

In this Finance Fireside Chat, John Baule, FutureView Systems CEO and a seasoned CFO, is joined by Brad Schomber, Spoonflower CFO, to discuss the CFO role and best practices. Watch as Brad and John reveal the things a new CFO must do to set themselves and the business up for success, how accounting and financial planning and analysis (FP&A) work in tandem as well as how to approach forecasting at a growing company.

FutureView Systems provides accounting and FP&A software solutions and services created by Finance professionals, for Finance professionals. Our CFO tools are tailored to your finance team's needs, and are easy to implement and use.

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0:00 - How the CFO drives strategic conversations
3:21 - How to work with the management and finance team in tandem
5:10 - CFO best practices dealing with a board
7:39 - Preparing for an IPO
10:20 - Forecasting, financial planning and analysis
11:18 - Leveraging automations and FP&A software

#CFO #finance #controller #forecasting #financialanalysis

[arthurjohnson]

This was outstanding! I am so far from a CFO that it isn't even funny, but I learned so much watching this!

[John-xvnt]

Thank you for the insights. I’m currently awaiting final feedback for a CFO role interview with a startup company. One of my concerns is their expectation for the CFO to handle everything single-handedly. For example, they tasked me with developing a financial model and an executive summary, which I completed successfully and received positive feedback on.

However, as an experienced Controller, I believe that expecting a CFO to manage every aspect personally can limit their ability to think strategically and focus on the future. The role of a CFO should be about guiding the company towards future growth and better results, rather than being bogged down by routine tasks.

While I am eager to contribute to the startup’s growth in line with the founders’ aspirations, I believe a CFO should be empowered to think, execute, and drive business growth, rather than being confined to routine functions. Automation is a crucial step in achieving this.

Thank you again for the piece, and best wishes to all CFOs out there.

[MsNumarc]

Thank you so much for validating so many notions, in particular 10:52 and 11:26

[MsNumarc]

I wish I could give this conversation 5 stars. The problems and management of solutions are apparently not local to any particular industry or location.

[bdkbdk]

Awesome content! Thank you for sharing!

[alanakemp]

Do you ever think of it as preventive maintenance? Do you feel like you have to foresee problems and even sucesses?

[alanakemp]

So when acquiring a new business how far back into financial reports do you dive and do you just adapt that compant to your company's existing financial structure or do you take that information and create a new structure?

[gabrielhauser]

Automation is the key---I totally agree.
But I think this is quite superficial. What would be that tool where no errors occur? Let's say you have a datamining sql addon for Excel which automizes the process of retrieving data into Excel. What would be the driver to jump into a very expensive piece of software handling the same data the same way?
You need to have a process of reporting and a process of developing the reporting. Never touch a running system. If the key numbers are tested and confirmed, don't change the running system. Any new requirement needs to pass through the whole system -> test, optimize, approve and confirm / deploy and never touch it again.