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Hey there,
Ever wonder what happens when a finance team moves beyond spreadsheet panic mode and gets real-time clarity? This 2026 playbook focuses on cutting close-to-days, automating routine tasks, and using dashboards and continuous modeling so teams can make faster pricing and investment calls.
Take a moment to see how a few operational shifts can turn finance from a back-office function into a strategy engine.
Quick Win For Your Finance Team
15-Minute Daily “Strategic Projects Pulse.”
In 15 minutes every day, keep a tight grip on your biggest initiatives so high-burn projects do not drift quietly off track while everyone is “too busy” to notice.
Keep a simple one-tab “Strategic Projects” sheet with your top 10–15 initiatives only: Project Name, Owner, Budget, Start/End Dates, Key Milestone This Quarter, and Expected Outcome (one line).
Each morning, pull any new spend from your ERP or card platform tagged to those projects (vendors, contractors, tools, travel) and update Cumulative Spend and % of Budget Used.
Next to that, ask each Owner for a single weekly input: % of Milestone Complete and Status (Green, Yellow, Red). On non-check-in days, update only if something material changed.
Have the sheet auto-flag anything that is both High Spend (for example, >50% of the budget) and Low Progress (for example, <50% of the milestone complete) or that is already marked Yellow/Red.
At the top, maintain a tiny “Today’s Focus” box with 3 lines: one project to Support (help unblock), one to Slow (pause or narrow scope), and one to Validate (confirm still worth the spend), each with a single next step.
Share a screenshot of the top section with your CEO/COO a few times a week so strategic project conversations start from the same, current view instead of stale slideware.
Immediate payoff:
You will catch overspend and under-delivery early, steer capital toward projects that are actually progressing, and build a daily habit where finance quietly keeps strategy and budget tied together in real time.
📊 Slash Close To 3 Days: The CFO Playbook for 2026
CFOs are ditching spreadsheet firefights for speed and foresight. This playbook shows how leaders shrink close cycles, surface live performance, and turn finance into a strategy engine. The key is targeted automation, real-time dashboards, flexible resourcing, and year-round modeling that keeps decisions moving. See full article.
Why this matters (fast take):
🤖 Automate The Busywork: Use platforms to handle reconciliations, invoices, and routine reporting, then redeploy talent to analysis and advisory work.
📈 Real-Time Visibility: Stand up cloud dashboards for leaders and teams, replacing retro recaps with forward choices on pricing and investments.
🏭 From Floor to Office: A $75M CFO’s Next Automation Initiative
Sentry Equipment crossed $75 million in revenue in 2025, and CFO David Ring says the next wave of automation targets office work, not just the shop floor. The driver is employee ownership that helps hiring and culture, paired with smarter tools for routine tasks. That frees teams to focus on higher-value analysis and supports better, faster decisions. See full article.
Fast move:
🛠️ Shift To Office Work: Automation moves from line tasks to invoicing, reconciliations, and reporting, aiming for more rewarding roles and faster turns.
👥 ESOP Hiring Edge: Employee ownership differentiates Sentry in tight labor markets, strengthening retention and recruiting versus nearby manufacturers.
💼 Rent The CFO: 20% Cost, 15% Margin Lift In 90 Days
Mid-market boards in the US and UK are swapping full-time hires for fractional leaders as CFO turnover hits 22% and interim demand jumps 103%. Monthly retainers replace six-figure salaries, giving firms senior firepower without fixed overhead. The key is three trigger events that let part-time specialists clear bottlenecks and drive faster, cleaner outcomes. See full article.
Fast move:
💸 Cost Math, Not Myth: US CFO comp runs $375k–$450k. Fractional retainers land $3k–$10k a month, slashing fixed spend.
🚦 Three Clear Triggers: Scaling crunch, M&A readiness, and transatlantic expansion are the moments to rent seasoned finance leadership.
Automation Play Of The Week
Tax & Compliance Deadline Guardrail in Your Inbox
Automate a one-page daily view of all upcoming tax, payroll, and compliance deadlines so you stop asking “What’s due this week?” and instead start the day knowing exactly what must be filed, paid, or approved. This guardrail uses your existing ERP, payroll, and compliance calendar and can be owned entirely by finance.
List your obligations and owners: Create a simple master table of every recurring obligation (payroll tax, VAT/GST, sales/use tax, corporate income tax estimates, 1099/W-2-style filings, annual returns, license renewals) with due date logic, frequency, entity, jurisdiction, and a named owner.
Set up daily exports or a single source: Store that table in your ERP, compliance tool, or a shared sheet, and, if possible, have your payroll and tax tools drop CSVs with “next due date” and status into a shared folder using consistent names and columns.
Build a single “Deadline Guardrail” tab: Use Excel or Google Sheets with data connections/Power Query to pull in the table/files and show just three buckets on one tab: due in next 7 days, due in 8–30 days, and overdue, each with entity, jurisdiction, owner, and amount if applicable.
Automate refresh and email: Use Power Automate, Zapier, or a scheduled macro/script to refresh the file early each morning and email the summary as a PDF or link to you, the controller, and the relevant owners so everyone sees what is coming due.
Benefits:
Reduces the risk of missed filings, penalties, and late-payment interest by turning deadlines into a simple daily checklist.
Gives you a clear view across entities and jurisdictions without hunting through calendars, portals, and email reminders.
Control Check:
Once a month, have the controller or tax lead compare the Deadline Guardrail to your firm’s tax/compliance calendar and a recent notice history to confirm that all obligations are captured and that dates remain accurate, and update the master table as rules or jurisdictions change.
📊 Take This Edition’s Poll:
Would you rather flex resourcing with managed services or fractional leadership first?
Why It Matters
When close cycles get shorter, leaders stop making decisions based on stale numbers and start steering with what is actually happening right now. Automation and flexible resourcing, including fractional CFO support when the timing is right, can free talent to focus on analysis, hiring, and the moves that protect margins.
The goal is not just speed. It is a calmer rhythm where finance helps the business see around corners.
Until the next financial insight,
Corrine Maxwell
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights
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