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Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.
Hey there,
What happens when finance stops drowning in spreadsheets and starts steering the business in real time? This edition follows CFOs who cut manual work by more than half so their teams can spend days on scenario planning, partnership, and forward-looking insight instead of just closing the books.
Take a moment to see how a more orchestrated finance function can turn “back office” into one of your strongest growth levers.
Quick Win For Your Finance Team
25-Minute “Pipeline Reality Check” With Sales
In 25 minutes, tighten the link between forecast and reality so your finance team stops modeling off fantasy numbers and starts planning around what is actually likely to close.
Export the next 90 days of opportunities from your CRM with fields for Owner, Stage, Amount, Close Date, and Forecast Category (e.g., Commit, Best Case, Pipeline).
Add two columns: “Confidence” (High/Med/Low) and “Next Concrete Step” (e.g., pricing review, security review, legal redlines, exec call).
Sort by Close Date (soonest first), then filter to deals above your meaningful threshold (e.g., >$25k MRR or >$100k TCV) and within the next 60–90 days.
Jump on a quick huddle (or async doc) with the CRO/VP Sales and, for the top 15–20 deals, force-rank them 1–5 by actual likelihood to close based on evidence (recent activity, champion strength, legal/security status), not just gut feel.
For any High-$/Low-Confidence deal, agree on one specific action and assign an owner this week (e.g., CFO joins the customer call, legal redlines are prepped early, custom billing terms are reviewed).
Update your forecast model to show three views on one tab: Current Sales Forecast, “Evidence-Based” Forecast (after your review), and a simple downside case that assumes 50% falloff from Low-Confidence deals.
Immediate payoff:
You will cut down last-minute forecast surprises, have more honest conversations with sales about risk, and your finance team will model hiring, cash, and investment decisions on a forecast that actually survives contact with reality.
📊 CFOs Slash Manual Work 50% to Turn Finance Into a Growth Engine
Leading CFOs are rebuilding finance to drive decisions, not just close books. The standouts cut manual work by more than half and shift teams to forward-looking analysis, speeding calls that move the P&L. The unlock is orchestration, aligning people, process, data, and tech so finance partners the business, not lags it. See full article.
Why this matters (fast take):
🔧 Orchestrate, Don’t Bolt On: Tie operating model, systems, and talent into one plan, not siloed upgrades. Results follow.
✂️ Halve Busywork: Top teams reduce manual tasks by 50% and free analysts for decision support, lifting decision speed.
💸 Can’t Answer “Where’s the Money Going?” You’re Already Behind
CFOs still fight fragmented systems and manual AP, leaving cash visibility stuck in the rearview. New data shows 77.9% rank speeding the cash cycle as critical, yet only 7% have fully automated AP while 42% remain mostly manual. The unlock is governance plus automation that turns AP into a forecasting engine and compresses decisions. See full article.
Fast move:
📉 Reconciliation Costs Bite: Operational inefficiencies tied to reconciliation cost institutions about $98.5 million annually, dragged by manual billing and data entry.
🧾 Paper Still Persists: Paper invoices and re-keying create errors and slow approvals, breaking handoffs between procurement, AP, accounting, and FP&A.
📈 CFOs Cut Close Times 40% With Modernised Finance
Strategic CFOs are rebuilding finance to drive enterprise decisions, not just reports. Standouts close 40% faster, cut planning from weeks to hours, and lift forecast accuracy to about 95%. The unlock is sequencing people, process, data, and tech, with hybrid squads that strip manual friction and redirect talent to forward-looking work. See full article.
Fast move:
🧩 Sequence the Change: Leaders process simplification, data upgrades, and talent in one plan, not piecemeal system swaps.
⏱️ 40% Faster Close: Modern teams streamline workflows and standardise data, trimming financial close times by more than 40%.
Automation Play Of The Week
SaaS Spend & Renewal Radar For Tech CFOs
Automate a one-page weekly view of your SaaS stack, upcoming renewals, and owner accountability so you stop asking “What’s renewing and why are we paying for this?” and instead start each week with a clear list and named owners. Finance can run this using your existing AP, card feeds, and vendor lists.
Define your SaaS list and owners. Export your vendor list from AP and cards, tag which ones are SaaS, assign a business owner, and capture contract value, billing frequency, renewal date, and a “Must Have / Nice to Have / Cuttable” flag.
Set up weekly exports. Configure AP, card feeds, or your vendor tool to drop SaaS CSVs with consistent column names (vendor, category, owner, amount, next renewal date) into a shared folder.
Build a single “SaaS Radar” tab. Use Excel or Google Sheets with data connections/Power Query to pull those files into one summary tab showing total SaaS spend by category, tools renewing in the next 30/60/90 days, and the top 20 tools by annual cost with owner and flag.
Automate reminders and a weekly email. Use Power Automate, Zapier, or a scheduled macro/script to remind owners 60 and 30 days before renewal and email you and the CEO a weekly PDF or summary of renewals, potential cuts, and top spend categories.
Benefits:
Prevents surprise renewals and last-minute approvals, while creating a recurring, lightweight way to cut redundant tools and negotiate big contracts with data.
Control Check:
Once a month, have the controller or FP&A compare SaaS Radar totals to the GL and card statements and spot-check a few vendors so you keep trusting the radar as your source of truth.
📊 Take This Edition’s Poll:
This or that: What’s your fastest path to “where’s the money going?” clarity?
Why It Matters
If you cannot see where the money is going until the end of the month, you are already behind your competitors. By aligning people, processes, data, and tech into a single plan, leading CFOs halve busywork and free analysts to support faster, better decisions across the P&L.
It is a reminder that modern finance is not just about accuracy; it is about giving the business the confidence to move sooner.
Until the next financial insight,
Corrine Maxwell
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights
P.S. Interested in sponsoring a future issue? Just reply to this email and I’ll send packages!