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Hey there,
Have you ever wondered why CFO positions are changing hands so quickly, even at major companies? A surge in new hires indicates that boards are looking for builder-operators capable of modernizing the finance system, reassuring investors with a stable story, and fixing issues when succession plans are lacking.
Take a moment to see how this shift is changing what a “good CFO” looks like in 2026.
Quick Win For Your Finance Team
10-Minute Daily “Net Cash Move” Snapshot
Every day, spend 10 minutes getting a clear answer to “What happened to cash yesterday?” so you and your CEO never have to guess why the balance went up or down.
Sum the ending cash from all bank accounts for yesterday and the prior day, and drop them into a small “Net Cash Move” tab with Date, Starting Cash, Ending Cash, and Net Change.
From your bank or ERP, scan yesterday’s largest cash movements and tag each into 4–5 simple buckets: Operations (customers/vendors), Payroll, Financing (debt/equity), Capex/Investments, and Other/FX/Transfers.
Roll those into a tiny bridge for the day: Starting Cash + Operations + Payroll + Financing + Capex/Investments + Other = Ending Cash, and add one short note per bucket (for example, “heavy collections,” “biweekly payroll,” “loan draw,” “prepaid annual contract”).
At the top of the tab, keep a 14-day row of Net Change and a simple label for each day (Normal, Strong Inflow, Strong Outflow) so patterns and outliers are obvious at a glance.
Share a screenshot of the bridge with your CEO/COO and controller a few times a week with one sentence: “Yesterday’s cash moved by $X, mainly because of Y and Z.”
Immediate payoff:
You will always know exactly why cash went up or down, catch unusual swings within a day rather than at month-end, and your finance team will build a daily habit of linking the P&L and forecast to the actual movement of money in the bank.
📊 Record CFO Churn: 316 Hires Show Boards Want Builders
Global companies swapped finance chiefs at a rapid pace. The 2025 tally reached 316 incoming CFOs, a seven-year high, while exits remained elevated. The S&P 500 drove the surge, with 106 hires. Boards want operators who can steer transformation and tell the story to investors. CEO turnover and activism add fuel, exposing thin succession plans that will sting next. See full article.
Why this matters (fast take):
📈 S&P 500 Spike: 106 CFO hires in 2025, up 19% from 2024, surpassing the seven-year average of 86.
🧭Role Scope Expands: Duties now span cost programs, shared services, operating model redesign, and front-line investor messaging.
🧲 CFOs Grow LinkedIn Cred Without Cringe: 2–4 Posts Win
Finance leaders explain how to build a genuine following on LinkedIn without the eye-rolls. The playbook: lead with perspective, comment where the action is, and post with intent. Two to four useful posts a month beat daily filler. Credibility from real work drives recruiter interest, peer trust, and brand lift for you and the company. See full article.
Fast move:
📌 Post Less, Win More: Two to four specific posts each month outperform daily fluff when grounded in lived decisions and results.
💬 Comments Drive Reach: Thoughtful comments on others’ posts build visibility and credibility faster than posting into the void.
🔧 Beat The Implementation Tax: 60/40 Budgeting Turns ROE Slide Around
Finance chiefs faced an implementation tax as early automation pushes across 800 US and UK institutions reduced Return on Equity by up to 400 basis points. The unlock is clean, unified data, not more licenses, which is why a 60/40 budget toward data work beats stalls and turns margin loss into gains. See full article.
Fast move:
📉 ROE Drag Quantified: Study of 800 US and UK finance shops shows adoption dip knocked ROE by up to 400 basis points.
🧼 Clean Data First: UK retailer stalled after buying licenses before fixing silos, as clashing formats broke intercompany ties and cleanup bills piled up.
Automation Play Of The Week
Critical Alerts & Notices Sweep in Your Inbox
Automate a one-page daily view of bank notices, legal and compliance alerts, customer escalations, and system warnings so you stop scrolling through your inbox asking “Is there anything urgent?” and start the day with a short, prioritized list. This sweep uses your existing email, ticketing, and monitoring tools and can be owned entirely by finance with light help from IT.
Define your “critical alert” rules: Decide what belongs on the list (e.g., bank or lender emails, tax notices, legal letters, large-customer escalations, failed payment runs, security or downtime alerts) and capture them as simple rules: sender domains, subject keywords, or mailbox folders.
Set up email routing and logging: Use Outlook/Gmail rules or your helpdesk to auto-label or forward matching messages into a single folder, and, via Power Automate or Zapier, log key fields (date, sender, subject, category, link) into a simple CSV or Google Sheet each day.
Build a single “Alerts Sweep” tab: Use Excel or Google Sheets with data connections/Power Query to pull in the log and show only the last 24–48 hours of alerts in a single summary tab, with columns for type, owner, severity, and status, so you can quickly see what needs action.
Automate refresh and delivery: Use Power Automate, Zapier, or a scheduled macro/script to refresh early each morning and email the summary as a PDF or link to you (and optionally your EA, controller, or GC) with the 10–20 items that truly matter.
Benefits:
Reduces the risk of missing a critical notice buried in a noisy inbox, whether it’s bank letters or customer escalations.
Saves time every morning by turning “scan everything” into “clear this short list,” and makes it easy to delegate follow-up.
Control Check:
Once a week, quickly scan your inbox for a day and confirm all true “critical” messages appear on the Alerts Sweep, then tighten or expand rules so the list stays accurate and manageable.
📊 Take This Edition’s Poll:
This-or-that: when boards hire CFOs right now, what do you think they prioritize most?
Why It Matters
The CFO is no longer just a scorekeeper; it is a transformational role with a public microphone. The leaders who win pair clean data and disciplined execution with real credibility, including simple visibility habits like a few thoughtful posts and smart commenting.
In a noisy market, the best finance leaders do not just report results; they make those results easier to trust.
Until the next financial insight,
Corrine Maxwell
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights
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