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Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.
Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.
Hey there,
Ever wonder how a $100 million company can run finance with just two people and still stay sharp? The secret is data discipline, with finance setting clear metrics, cutting busywork, and getting involved early on the decisions that actually move ROI.
Take a moment to see how upstream clarity can make the numbers feel calmer and more credible.
Quick Win For Your Finance Team
15-Minute Daily “Month-to-Date Drift” Check
In 15 minutes every day, keep a tight handle on how this month is actually tracking vs. forecast so you can steer early instead of writing long post-mortems later.
Pull the month-to-date Revenue and 3–5 key cost buckets (for example, Payroll, COGS, Paid Marketing, Cloud/Hosting, G&A) from your ERP or BI tool, along with this month’s forecast for the same lines.
Drop them into a simple one-tab sheet that calculates $ Variance and % Variance vs. forecast for each line, plus a single “MTD vs. Plan” summary row at the top.
Sort or visually flag the top 3 adverse variances (negative to plan) and add one short note per line: Driver (what changed) and Window (Short-Term / Structural).
For each adverse variance, jot a single concrete action the team can take this week (for example, pause a campaign, adjust hiring start dates, tighten discretionary spend, or update the forecast to reality).
Share a screenshot or PDF of the “Month-to-Date Drift” tab with your CEO or exec channel three times a week, focusing your commentary on what changed since the last check and what you are doing about it.
Immediate payoff:
You will spot forecast misses while they are still fixable, guide sharper conversations about spend and tradeoffs in real time, and build a daily habit where finance is continuously tuning the plan instead of explaining misses after the month is over.
📊 $100M, 2-Person Finance Team: Data Discipline for 2025 CFOs
Mid-market CFOs spent 2025 fixing misaligned numbers, pruning busywork, and hardening capital choices. One standout example: a $100 million company ran finance with two people. The lever was data discipline, with CFOs moving upstream to set metrics, test downside cases, and fund only provable returns. That posture raised credibility in boardrooms and during capital talks. See full article.
Why this matters (fast take):
🤝 Alignment First: Roundtables flagged misaligned metrics as the top drag. “My data says this, your data says that” slowed execution until finance reconciled definitions.
🧭 Decide Upstream: Standout CFOs sat with product and sales before greenlights, defined levers and ROI metrics, and stopped treating history reports as the job.
📉 CFOs Bet on ROI, But Only 14% See Value Today
A new survey of 200 U.S. finance chiefs shows big hopes, thin results. Sixty-six percent expect strong automation ROI within two years, yet only 14 percent report meaningful value now. The drag is weak data, aging systems, and skills gaps. CFOs who tighten foundations and governance will move first on measurable returns and sharper decisions. See full article.
Fast move:
🧪 Expectation Gap: 66 percent expect strong returns in two years, but only 14 percent see real value today, a sharp credibility test.
🧼 Data Trust Lags: Just 10% fully trust enterprise data. Thirty-five percent call data confidence the top barrier to returns.
🛡️ 2026 Risk Playbook: 4 CFO Moves That Build Real Resilience
Marsh McLennan Agency president Matt Stadler tells CFO Dive that risk now converges, not divides, and finance leaders must respond in kind. His counsel: build a 24-month rolling risk view, tie impacts to the P&L, and rehearse decisions before crises hit. Preparation beats prediction, and clarity across teams cuts financial damage next. See full article.
Fast move:
🌐 Treat Risks as One: Economic, cyber, and talent shocks interact. Replace silo fixes with a top-down view tied to budget, P&L, and authority.
📅 Roll Risks Forward: Use a 24-month rolling forecast, pre-commit playbooks and decision paths, and test options against balance-sheet capacity.
Automation Play Of The Week
Daily CFO Meeting Prep Brief
Automate a one-page daily brief tied to your calendar so you stop walking into meetings asking “What are we talking about and where are the numbers?” and instead start the day with the key metrics and decisions for each session. This brief uses your existing calendar, ERP, CRM, and HRIS data and can be owned entirely by finance.
Link your calendar and define meeting types. Sync your calendar (Google/M365) and tag which meeting types need prep (e.g., exec sync, board prep, sales review, product roadmap, hiring). For each type, list 3–5 standard metrics or questions you want every time.
Set up daily exports. Configure your ERP, CRM, and HRIS to drop simple CSVs each morning (revenue, pipeline, expenses, headcount) into a shared folder with consistent names so you can pull them into a single model.
Build a single “Prep Brief” tab. In Excel or Google Sheets, use data connections/Power Query to pull those files in and create a summary table where each row is a meeting for that day with its time, attendees, type, 3–5 key metrics, and one “Decision/Question” line.
Automate refresh and delivery. Use Power Automate, Zapier, or a scheduled macro/script to refresh the brief early each morning and email it to you as a PDF or a link (and optionally your EA), so it is ready when you start the day.
Benefits:
Reduces scramble time before meetings and makes you the best-prepared person in the room with minimal extra work.
Turns recurring conversations (pipeline, spend, hiring) into a consistent, data-driven routine instead of ad hoc questions.
Control Check:
Once a week, spot-check a day’s Prep Brief against the raw dashboards/reports to ensure metrics are accurate and that the right meetings are being tagged, then adjust data mappings or meeting rules as needed.
📊 Take This Edition’s Poll:
Which finance move would you prioritize first to run lean without losing control
Why It Matters
When metrics align across teams, execution speeds up because nobody is arguing about whose dashboard is “right.” CFOs who define levers before greenlights build trust in the boardroom and make capital conversations smoother.
Good data is not just reporting; it is leadership.
Until the next financial insight,
Corrine Maxwell
Editor-in-Chief
CFO Executive Insights
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