Knowledge Base

Short answers to CFO, PE and finance operating model questions

This knowledge base brings together concise, practical answers to questions that often come up in conversations with CEOs, founders, CFOs, PE partners and boards. It is not a textbook – it is how I think about real situations.

How to use this page

The knowledge base is structured around the topics that most often trigger a conversation: fractional vs interim CFO, PE-backed finance expectations, value creation, finance operating models, data, and integrations.

Each answer is deliberately short and practical. Where a topic deserves more depth, you will find links to longer Insight articles.

If you want the clearest starting point, read What CFO Excellence really means and the decision guide Interim vs Fractional CFO.

Who this is for

  • CEOs and founders preparing for a next phase of growth or investment.
  • PE operating partners and investment teams assessing finance readiness.
  • CFOs and finance leaders shaping their operating model and team.
  • Board members wanting a sharper view on finance and value creation.

CFO capacity & engagement models

When does a fractional CFO make more sense than a full-time hire?

A fractional CFO makes sense when the finance agenda is clearly strategic, but the business is not yet at the scale or stage to justify a full-time CFO – or when the CEO wants to de-risk the CFO decision.

Typical situations:

  • Preparing for PE, a significant funding round or a major strategic shift.
  • Needing better forecasting, cash visibility and performance management.
  • Wanting to design the finance operating model and leadership roles before hiring.
  • Scaling from founder-led finance towards a more professional structure.

For more nuance on this, see: CFO capacity: fractional, interim or full-time?

Related service pages: Fractional CFO · Interim CFO · CFO Advisory

When is an interim CFO the right answer?

An interim CFO is usually the right option when there is a clear gap or transition that cannot be left unattended:

  • Departure, leave or underperformance of the current CFO.
  • Post-merger integration, carve-out or major transformation.
  • Urgent need to stabilise reporting, cash and governance.
  • Preparing for or navigating a transaction process.

An interim CFO is a full-time partner to the CEO, usually with clear entry, stabilisation and handover phases.

Can fractional or interim arrangements evolve into a permanent CFO role?

They can, but they do not have to. In some cases, the right outcome is a permanent CFO appointment – either me or someone I help you hire and onboard. In other cases, the business benefits most from a finite engagement that builds the foundations and clarifies what is needed from a long-term CFO.

PE-backed finance & value creation

What changes for the CFO when PE comes in?

PE changes the context, not just the ownership line. The CFO is expected to be one of the primary owners of whether the investment thesis actually shows up in the P&L, cash flow and balance sheet.

In practice this means:

  • Clear value-creation plan linked to a realistic financial and operational model.
  • Tighter, more regular performance cadence and forecasting discipline.
  • More focus on cash, leverage, covenants and exit options.
  • Greater expectation on transparency, responsiveness and scenario thinking.

I go deeper on this in: Why PE-backed finance functions need a different mindset.

How should finance support a value-creation plan?

Finance should translate the investment thesis into a small number of measurable drivers and then build the operating rhythm, reporting and forecasting around those drivers. That includes:

  • Clear KPI tree and data model.
  • Driver-based forecasts and scenarios.
  • Monthly and quarterly reviews that lead to decisions, not just presentations.
  • Capex and opex decisions linked back to returns and strategic relevance.

What is the difference between ZBB and Zero-Based Growth (ZBG)?

Traditional Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) focuses mostly on cost. Zero-Based Growth keeps the rigour, but shifts the question: from “what can we cut?” to “where does capital truly earn the right to stay or grow?”.

ZBG is about reallocating spend towards the few engines that drive earnings and enterprise value, while deliberately reducing or exiting low-return activities. See: From ZBB to ZBG: turning finance into a growth engine.

Finance operating model & scaling with complexity

What are the core building blocks of a scalable finance function?

Titles differ, but most mature finance functions are built around a few consistent blocks:

  • Transactional backbone (R2R, P2P, O2C, payroll, tax, statutory reporting).
  • Business control & FP&A (planning, forecasting, performance management).
  • Commercial finance (pricing, margin, customer and product profitability).
  • Tax & treasury (structure, funding, liquidity and risk management).
  • Data, systems & reporting (ERP, EPM, BI, data model and governance).
  • Governance & internal control (policies, approvals, risk and audit readiness).

The question is not whether you have all of them as separate teams, but whether these responsibilities are clearly owned and coordinated. I explore this in: Scaling the finance function with business complexity.

How do you know if your finance function has outgrown its current structure?

Common signals include:

  • CFO spending too much time in detail and firefighting.
  • Frequent reconciliation issues and conflicting numbers.
  • Little bandwidth for scenario work, integration or transformation.
  • Performance reviews that generate decks but few concrete decisions.
  • Slow implementation of agreed changes because ownership is unclear.

Centralised vs. local finance – what works best?

There is no single right answer. Pure centralisation can disconnect finance from operations; fully local structures can fragment reporting and governance.

Many organisations benefit from a hybrid model: centralised policies, systems and data; local business control and commercial finance close to operations; and a shared service centre or central team for transactional work. The key is to decide this deliberately, not inherit it.

Data, systems & integration

Why does data governance often become a bottleneck when scaling finance?

As businesses grow, they often accumulate multiple ERPs, CRMs, billing systems and spreadsheets. Without a clear data model and ownership, every new report or integration adds complexity.

Symptoms include:

  • Different teams using different definitions for revenue, margin or customers.
  • Heavy manual work to reconcile or prepare board materials.
  • Difficulty rolling out common dashboards or EPM solutions.

Data governance does not need to be glamorous, but it has to be intentional. I discuss this further in: Data governance: the hidden bottleneck in scaling finance.

What is finance’s role in integrations?

Finance is usually central to making integrations work – not only from a reporting point of view, but in terms of how quickly the combined business can be steered as one.

Key responsibilities typically include:

  • Designing the target finance operating model and organisation.
  • Aligning charts of accounts, data models and KPIs.
  • Planning and executing systems integration or migration.
  • Tracking synergies and one-offs transparently.

See also: Integration discipline: how finance turns M&A into value.

Leadership & operating rhythm

What is a leadership operating rhythm and why does it matter?

A leadership operating rhythm is the set of recurring meetings, reviews and decision points that keep a company aligned and moving. For finance, this typically means:

  • Weekly or bi-weekly updates on trading, cash and key KPIs.
  • Monthly performance reviews that link drivers to actions.
  • Quarterly value-creation reviews with the CEO and investors.
  • Annual (or rolling) planning that is updated as reality changes.

Without a clear rhythm, leadership ends up reacting to issues rather than systematically steering the business. I cover this in: Building a leadership operating rhythm.

How can finance influence behaviour without owning every decision?

Finance does not need to make every decision, but it should shape the frame in which decisions are made. That means:

  • Providing a clear, trusted view of performance and trade-offs.
  • Ensuring that major decisions have a financial and risk perspective.
  • Influencing incentives and performance measures.
  • Holding the line on data, definitions and financial integrity.

Glossary & key definitions

A short, practical glossary of terms that often come up in CFO, finance operating model and PE-backed conversations. Each definition links to relevant Insight articles where applicable.

CFO operating model

The structure that defines how finance delivers value: accounting backbone, FP&A/business control, commercial finance, tax/treasury, data/systems and governance. A strong operating model links reporting, forecasting and decision-making and aligns all finance activity with the value-creation plan.

Business control

The function that connects daily trading to financial performance. Includes forecasting, planning, performance reviews and KPI steering. A strong business control team turns numbers into actions and ensures that commercial decisions have financial rigour.

FP&A

Financial Planning & Analysis: forecasts, budgets, long-term planning and performance insight. In more advanced organisations, FP&A moves from historic reporting to driver-based forecasting and scenario analysis.

Commercial finance

Finance embedded with commercial teams to support pricing, margin, promotions, portfolio decisions, customer economics and growth trade-offs. Critical in FMCG, hospitality and marketplaces where mix and unit economics drive profitability.

Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB)

A budgeting method that starts from zero and requires every cost to be justified. Useful for productivity and cost resets, but often too narrow if used alone. Basis for more modern approaches like ZBG.

Zero-Based Growth (ZBG)

A value-creation method focused on reallocating spend rather than simply reducing it. It identifies which activities, categories or channels truly earn the right to grow and which should be reshaped or exited. See: From ZBB to ZBG.

Value-creation plan (VCP)

The financial and operational blueprint used in PE-backed businesses to track how enterprise value will grow. It defines the EBITDA, cash and operational drivers required to deliver the investment thesis and informs the finance operating rhythm.

Single source of truth (SSOT)

A unified, agreed set of financial and operational data definitions used across functions. This is the foundation for forecasting, integration, dashboards and operating rhythm. Without SSOT, performance reviews become debates about numbers instead of decisions.

Performance cadence / operating rhythm

The structured sequence of weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews that turn plans into actions. A strong cadence aligns leadership, clarifies priorities and ensures accountability for drivers, not just results. See: Leadership operating rhythm.

Post-merger integration (PMI)

The process of combining two companies into one operating model. Finance plays a central role: aligning data models, systems, KPIs, governance, reporting and synergy tracking. See: Integration discipline.

Shared Service Centre (SSC)

A centralised team responsible for transactional processes (P2P, O2C, R2R, payroll, tax). A well-run SSC improves accuracy, speed, compliance and frees up finance leadership to focus on performance and value.

Driver-based forecasting

A forecasting approach built on operational drivers (price, volume, mix, conversion, occupancy, labour, demand, etc.) rather than top-down assumptions. Essential for businesses with complexity, seasonality or large data sets (hospitality, FMCG, marketplaces).

Working capital discipline

The combined impact of inventory, payables, receivables and cash management. In PE-backed businesses, improving working capital is often one of the fastest ways to unlock cash and improve leverage/headroom.

When a short answer is not enough

Most of these topics only become interesting when applied to a specific company, ownership model and starting point. If you want to test your situation against these lenses – or sense-check a finance, CFO or value-creation question – we can do that in one focused conversation.

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