https://berkonomics.com/?p=2172&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=if-it-can-be-counted-the-cfo-owns-it Dave Berkus' business insights Sat, 26 Apr 2025 18:33:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://berkonomics.com/?p=2172&cpage=1#comment-54172 Tue, 23 Dec 2014 17:18:22 +0000 https://berkonomics.com/?p=2172#comment-54172 I agree with the premise that the CFO owns the financial plan (CAPEX, Operating Budget and cash flow). However, I would extend Dave’s argument to include all performance metrics such as cost of customer acquisition, customer retention rates, life time value of customer. etc) since many of these are key budget assumptions and indicators of financial performance. They should be compiled, reported and monitored by an objective party which the CFO should be.

]]> https://berkonomics.com/?p=2172&cpage=1#comment-54171 Tue, 23 Dec 2014 17:18:20 +0000 https://berkonomics.com/?p=2172#comment-54171 I would go a step further. I would want the CFO to be devil’s advocate on any strategic decisions affecting revenue generation, biz dev, cost of sales, changing or extending the product line, customer service, training, billing (an area where customers can be driven away quicker than sales can build new accounts), product development, and on and on like that. In some organizations the CFO has direct control of, or shares responsibility with the COO for, the administration of the company. And this is another area where companies often run aground: failure to pay attention to the plumbing. Bottom line, a good CFO who can hold your feet to the fire on strategic and administrative decisions is worth his/her weight in gold, because all that stuff ultimately affects the bottom line.

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