The Evolving Role of CFOs: From Financial Scorekeeping to Strategic Partnerships

The role of a CFO is becoming increasingly strategic, propelled by a globally disruptive and volatile environment. Longer-term perspectives are changing, as are broader information needs, thereby changing the disclosure and reporting requirements. The role of CFO is no longer just about financial scorekeeping.

Modern finance teams must now serve as strategic partners to businesses. They achieve this by leveraging data-driven insights obtained from predictive modelling and advanced analytics. Effective leaders require cutting-edge technology tools to maintain a competitive edge and make swift decisions. The role of integrated thinking and reporting has never been more important in pushing for business transformation and building resilience against future crises.

For instance, the pandemic revealed that many businesses were lagging in areas like cash positioning, forecasting, and agile scenario modeling. In an April 2020 survey by the UK Office for National Statistics, 30% of businesses reported they had less than 3 months of cash reserves, and 82% paused trading temporarily.

In the present day, innovative tech providers offer an array of solutions to empower small and medium-sized businesses. These solutions automate and integrate various aspects, from sales and purchases to warehouse management, accounting, and reporting. These systems are designed to seamlessly connect with Microsoft Excel, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and accounting software. This integration grants users access to real-time operational and financial reports across all modules.

However, the current solutions fall short of creating a comprehensive financial ecosystem. The absence of a developer-friendly application programming interface (API) prevents these systems from offering end-to-end business banking services to their clients. Let's delve into this issue further, using an example from one of our clients.

Our client is a SaaS-based technology provider, reselling an accounting solution to businesses to drive operational efficiency, transparency, and better business outcomes. The company’s reporting software gave users a simpler and faster way of creating reports, even if they didn’t have ERP. Small businesses could access advanced reporting using Excel sheets, across multiple data sources with automated consolidations and flexible report formatting.

Some advantages that the company’s proprietary tools offered included:

Accelerated Time-to-Value: Quick business reporting that provided valuable insights.

Centralised Data Access: Integration across systems, streamlining solution deployment..

Accurate Reporting: Getting rid of discrepancies and risk of missing deadlines.

End to Tedious Manual Reporting: Users could connect Microsoft Excel with ERP software to create complex reports in real-time. No more manual data entries.

However, the company recognized that its primary audience, SMEs, required more than intuitive reporting tools. They demanded improved business banking solutions. SMEs often dealt with multiple banks for different purposes. For instance, some of them were getting corporate cards issued from one bank and linking it to working capital provided by another.

This meant a nightmare for the accounts and finance teams during month-end reconciliation. The company’s clients were facing issues especially when transaction volumes were higher. The more their business grew, the more complex it was becoming, and the only way to tackle it was to recruit more people within the finance team. This made business banking expensive.

The company wanted to expand its offerings by helping clients to automate their reconciliations and linking their banking capabilities with the accounting solution. That way its clients would save precious time on accounts payables and receivables, without the need to increase their human resources.

Enter Fyorin—a solution enabling tech companies to provide comprehensive business banking to their clients. Here's how we elevated our client's offerings:

A Treasury Solution for Clients: Through Fyorin's solution, SME clients gain access to diverse financial products and services from multiple banks under one roof. Fyorin Network serves as a bridge, connecting various banks and financial providers within a unified network. Clients can utilize a developer-friendly API or web-based solution to access tailored financial products, effectively managing their cash flow.

Real-Time Reconciliation and Customized Reporting: Fyorin's Sub-Accounts feature empowers businesses to segregate receivables into distinct accounts automatically. These Sub-Accounts mirror the cost-centers in the accounting ledgers and enhances fund management. APIs facilitate seamless integration between Fyorin and clients' accounting solutions, simplifying reconciliations to a single click. This time-saving approach enables more strategic tasks.

Effortless Payables Facilitation: Fyorin enables clients to initiate supplier payments directly from the accounting solution, with payments automatically routed through Fyorin in the supplier's preferred method. This eliminates the need to access multiple bank accounts for payments.

Streamlined Payment Approval: By setting up multiple roles and permissions, the company and its clients can automate their payments. This not only ensures prompt and timely payments to various vendors, suppliers, and customers but also reduces operational overheads.

By leveraging Fyorin’s expertise, our client enhanced their offering and evolved into a comprehensive tech solutions provider. Beyond integration, they achieved a 360-degree approach, enabling them to reach new clients and deliver added value to existing ones.

In the post-pandemic landscape, fostering business agility takes center stage for CEOs and CFOs. Adaptable companies, such as accounting solution resellers, have the power to align their offerings with evolving customer needs, invigorating business growth. By providing flexible business banking tools, finance professionals can focus on strategic endeavors, free from mundane tasks. Moreover, the search for suitable financial products is simplified, saving time and resources.

In essence, the role of the CFO has transcended mere financial oversight to become a strategic partnership, driving long-term success and resilience in a rapidly changing world.