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Hey there,
Ever feel like the CFO role is splitting into two roles at once, operator and deal strategist? With sponsor shifts like GP M&A and retail capital, boards waking up late to thin succession benches, and evidence that strong CAOs can reduce CFO exits, the pressure is moving from theory to day-one execution.
Take a moment to see what today’s finance leaders are prioritizing before the next transition hits.
Quick Win For Your Finance Team
10-Minute Daily “Exec Dashboard Sanity Check.”
Every day, spend 10 minutes making sure the 3–5 numbers your CEO stares at on the dashboard actually reflect reality, so you do not spend the rest of the day explaining “why the chart looks weird.”
Identify the small set of “exec tiles” that drive most conversations (for example: Cash, ARR/Revenue, Pipeline, Headcount, and Burn).
Open your BI/exec dashboard and jot down yesterday’s values for those tiles in a tiny “Dashboard Sanity” sheet with columns: Metric, Dashboard Value, Source-of-Truth Value, Difference, Status.
For each tile, quickly cross-check against the system of record (bank, ERP, CRM, HRIS). If the value falls within a small, pre-agreed tolerance (e.g., <1–2%), mark Status = OK.
If anything is off, add one short note: Driver (timing, mapping, stale data, wrong filter) and tag the Owner (data team, FP&A, RevOps) with a quick ask to fix or explain.
At the top of the sheet, keep a simple daily log: Count of Metrics Checked, Count of Issues, and “Safe to share dashboard? Yes/No.”
If “Yes,” send a one-line note in your exec channel: “Today’s dashboard checks out on cash/ARR/pipeline/headcount.” If “No,” add one sentence explaining what is wrong and when it will be fixed, so nobody runs with bad numbers.
Immediate payoff:
You will cut down on meetings derailed by “which number is right?”, protect your credibility when the CEO shares screenshots with the board, and build a daily habit in which finance quietly certifies the dashboard before it becomes the story of the day.
📈 GP M&A Vs Retail Capital: Future Standard CFO’s Read, Right Now
Future Standard CFO Joe McGeehin outlined how GP M&A and retail capital are shaping sponsor strategy and finance operations. His keynote at the Private Funds CFO New York Forum framed the upside and the friction points CFOs will feel first. Expect context you can act on, not fluff, and a clear sense of where the puck is headed. See full article.
Why this matters (fast take):
🧭 Two Big Fronts: GP M&A and retail capital set the agenda, shaping sponsor playbooks and back-office priorities at the PFCFO New York Forum.
👤 CFO On Stage: Future Standard CFO Joe McGeehin headlined the keynote, addressing structure, scale, and investor expectations in plain language for sponsors.
📉 The CFO Succession Problem: What Boards Keep Missing
Many companies learn too late that their CFO bench looks solid on paper, thin in practice. The result is rushed searches, spooked lenders, and rocky first quarters. The fix starts earlier than most think. Define what “day-one ready” means, test it in stretch roles, and prebuild the first 90-day plan before you ever need it. See full article.
Fast move:
📊 Pipeline Gap: Firms map successors on paper, yet few run rotations or interim mandates that provide a signal before a surprise vacancy.
🧪 Readiness Test: Boards overrate technical mastery. Smooth handoffs favor operators who communicate crisply, hire quickly, and manage change under pressure.
🧩 19% Drop In CFO Exits When CAOs Take The Load
A University of Iowa study finds that CFOs remain in place when companies shift core accounting responsibilities to a chief accounting officer. In 2025, 316 CFOs were replaced, up 10% from the previous year. Delegation frees leaders to drive strategy, reduces burnout, and tightens pipelines. The move also boosts the CFO's odds of landing the top job, which matters to boards planning for stability. See full article.
Fast move:
📉 Exits Fall 19%: Firms with a CAO are 19 percent less likely to lose their CFO, according to Management Science research.
🧯 Burnout Relief: Offloading accounting work lets CFOs focus on strategy, HR, and digital priorities that now compete for their attention.
Automation Play Of The Week
Daily CEO One-Pager From Finance
Automate a one-page daily summary for the CEO so you stop re-answering “How are we doing?” in Slack and start the day with a shared snapshot everyone trusts. This one-pager pulls from your existing bank, ERP, CRM, and HRIS data and can be owned by your finance team, not IT.
Pick the 5–7 sections: Decide what should appear every morning (e.g., cash and runway, revenue/bookings vs plan, pipeline, working capital, cloud/spend hot spots, headcount vs plan, and 2–3 key exceptions or decisions).
Set up daily exports: Configure your bank, ERP/GL, CRM, and HRIS to drop simple CSVs each night into a shared folder, using consistent names and columns that map directly to those sections.
Build a single “CEO One-Pager” tab: Use Excel or Google Sheets with data connections/Power Query to pull in those files, calculate each KPI on a single summary tab, and add 3–5 short narrative lines such as “Cash flat vs yesterday; bookings +$X; cloud spend +Y% vs plan.”
Automate refresh and distribution: Use Power Automate, Zapier, or a scheduled macro/script to refresh the file early each morning and email the one-pager as a PDF or image to you, the CEO, and (optionally) an exec channel.
Benefits:
Turns scattered dashboards and ad hoc pings into one daily narrative the CEO can scan in 30–60 seconds.
Reduces repeated “quick update?” requests and keeps finance at the center of how the business reads its numbers.
Control Check:
Once a week, have FP&A compare the CEO One-Pager with the underlying dashboards and reports to confirm that the math and narrative match reality, then tighten any formulas or wording that create confusion.
📊 Take This Edition’s Poll:
This-or-that: what best predicts a smooth CFO transition when timing is tight?
Why It Matters
When investor expectations and operational complexity rise together, CFO stability becomes a performance issue, not just a hiring issue. Clear readiness tests, real stretch rotations, and delegating core accounting to a CAO can protect the seat and free the CFO to focus on strategy and change.
In 2026, the best finance orgs will feel less surprised because they planned the handoff before it became urgent.
Until the next financial insight,
Corrine Maxwell
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights
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