Your weekly go-to guide to transform your finance function into a strategic powerhouse.

Welcome CFO Techstack Community 👋,

It's issue 50 of our newsletter! We couldn’t have reached this milestone without you, our incredible community of tech-savvy finance leaders.

As we celebrate, let’s take a moment to reflect on the topics that resonated with you most, from career growth tips to essential apps. In this special edition, we’re highlighting the top 15 articles and apps that sparked the most buzz. Plus, you'll have the chance to share what topics you'd love to see more of.

Here’s to the next 50! Thanks for being part of the journey.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Celebrating 50 issues of CFO Techstack

A look back and what’s next for finance leaders

Wow—50 issues! As we reach this milestone, let’s reflect on the topics that resonated most with you, our community, and invite you to help us shape what comes next.

From career growth tips to the apps you can’t stop talking about, here’s a little trip down memory lane and a look at the road ahead.

Our top 15 most-read articles

You’ve been with us every step of the way—whether we’re exploring the latest tech trends or shining a light on inspiring finance leaders.

These are the 15 articles you’ve loved the most, covering everything from scaling with Xero to career growth, business partnering, and how tech is transforming finance. To make it easier to dive in, we’ve grouped them into 5 key themes:

Scaling with Xero

FLAC Xero insights

We shared insights from our Finance Leader Advisory Council (FLAC) on what’s working well with Xero, what improvements could support scaling, and how Xero can win over larger businesses.

The ultimate guide to the Xero app store

Navigating the vast Xero ecosystem isn’t easy. This article helped you make sense of it all with a comprehensive guide.

Tech-enabled growth & challenging the ERP myth

Think growing businesses need to switch to ERP? Not necessarily! We explored why sticking with Xero and its ecosystem could be a more efficient and affordable solution.

The truth about Xero transaction limits

We cleared up the confusion around Xero’s transaction limits with real-life stories and practical strategies.

Xero tracking category hacks
We revealed clever ways to maximise Xero’s tracking categories, enabling you to scale with Xero for longer.

Multi-entity with Xero

Is Xero right for groups?

A deep dive into how groups can maximise Xero and its app ecosystem for efficiency, straight from our ‘Xero for Groups’ APAC series.

Transform multi-entity finance ops with Xero HQ

We shared insights on how Xero HQ, initially designed for accountants, is now simplifying finance operations for multi-entity teams.

Finance leadership and development

6 critical roles the finance function must play

We broke down the essential roles finance teams need to master—and how to avoid getting bogged down in the day-to-day.

Unlock your professional potential

Catherine Marks, a finance leader turned mentor, shared her wisdom on breaking free from traditional roles and building a diverse, future-ready skill set.

How Stacked charted a new course for finance leaders

A recap of highlights from our very first Stacked conference, where in-house finance leaders came together to learn how to build a best-in-class tech stack and how to become a better finance leader. 

How to turn career risks into rewards

Corinne Thompson, CEO of Ecap Financial, shared her inspiring journey to becoming a tech-savvy finance leader.

Tech and automation

Tech's role in climbing the finance hierarchy

We explored how tech helps finance teams break free from routine tasks and climb the hierarchy of needs, while also acknowledging its limits.

How AI is shaping the future of finance

Tim Hamer, Co-Founder of Attelas, shared insights on AI’s role in finance.

Business partnering

Building trust across departments

Manisha Chana, a Fractional CFO, highlighted how finance teams can become effective business partners by fostering trust and communication.

Integrating finance into every department

Sophie Conaghan of CharlieHR revealed how to embed finance into the core of your organisation for smoother, more strategic operations.

Top 15 most-mentioned apps: How I stacked it

One of our favourite sections of this newsletter so far has been How I Stacked It, where finance leaders share the apps that power their tech stacks. Over the course of 50 issues, our finance leaders have mentioned over 90 different apps! 

These 15 apps came up time and time again:

1. Mayday
2. ApprovalMax
3. Dext
4. Joiin
5. Fathom
6. Pleo
7. Hubdoc
8. Employment Hero
9. Telleroo
10. Syft Analytics
11. Numeric
12. Cledara
13. Spendesk
14. Airwallex
15. Stripe

These tools cover everything from spend management to consolidation, powering the tech stacks of the tech-savvy finance leaders we feature.

Top 15 most-clicked apps: What got your attention?

Okay, so we know which apps are used the most by our featured finance leaders, but what about you? What’s caught your eye over the past 50 issues?

Here are the 15 apps you clicked on the most:

1. Mayday
2. Numeric
3. Spendesk
4. Joiin
5. Airwallex
6. G-Accon
7. Causal
8. Nook
9. Cledara
10. Pento
11. Fathom
12. ApprovalMax
13. Telleroo
14. Pleo
15. Weel

What’s next?

As we move into the next 50 issues, you can expect even more insights into the technology transforming finance teams. Whether it’s the rise of AI or new automation tools that give you more time for strategic thinking, we’re just getting started.

We’d love to hear from you! Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us on the topics you're interested in. Your feedback will help us shape future content.

Have your say >

COMMUNITY INSIGHTS

🎤 How I stacked it

Michael Rodgers, Head of Financial Control at Behavox, shares their tech stack

Behavox is a compliance technology company that uses Artificial Intelligence to monitor corporate communications, such as emails, chats, and audio systems, to detect misconduct. Its client base includes some of the world's largest financial institutions, which are required by regulators to monitor communications for both regulatory and non-financial misconduct, as well as large non-financial corporations focused on protecting their intellectual property and mitigating legal risks.

Michael told us, "As the Head of Financial Control, I oversee group accounting, payroll, financial reporting, audits, tax compliance, treasury, and accounts payable/receivable for our six legal entities across the UK, Canada, the US, Singapore, and Japan. Behavox is a high-growth company, with revenue increasing at around 40% annually, which means no two days are the same. There are always new challenges and projects to tackle. Since joining Behavox, my primary focus has been on rebuilding our financial processes from the ground up. This includes leveraging Xero’s connected apps to ensure our operations are as efficient as possible, scalable, and able to support our continued growth."

Here's what Michael and his team are using:

1. Mayday for Intercompany: Before implementing Mayday, transfer pricing recharges and intercompany revaluations were too time-consuming to complete monthly, so we only performed them at year-end. Mayday has completely streamlined this process, enabling us to handle these tasks monthly with minimal effort. Additionally, the Balancer tool simplifies reconciling intercompany accounts by easily identifying missing postings, saving considerable time that would otherwise be spent on manual reconciliations.
2. Nook for UK Payroll / AP Payments: Nook has been incredibly useful for our UK payments. Its automatic import of Xero payroll data and one-click payment feature saves us significant time compared to manual bank transfers. For AP, Nook simplifies supplier payments by showing invoices directly in the system and automatically reconciling payments with Xero, which has drastically reduced the time our management accountants spend on manual reconciliations.
3. Joiin for Consolidation: Joiin has been a valuable tool for consolidated reporting. It allows us to drill down into multi-entity transactional data, which has been beneficial for both the FP&A team and the financial control team. The ability to set exchange rates by TB code is a significant improvement over our previous system, Fathom, especially for equity translations at historical rates. However, we’re still hoping to see full automation for consolidating equity at historical rates.
4. Spendesk and Float for Credit Cards: We use Spendesk for virtual credit cards in the UK and US, helping us efficiently manage subscriptions and travel expenses without manual reconciliations. However, Spendesk doesn’t currently cover Canada, so we use Float, which offers similar functionality and seems to be the best product available in Canada. Ideally, we would like a single provider to cover all our entities globally.
5. Justworks for US Payroll: Justworks is an intuitive, user-friendly payroll system for our US employees. Its seamless integration with Xero saves us time by automatically posting payroll journals, and splitting expenses by department and category.
6. Expensify for Employee Expenses: With many employees travelling for business, we needed a more robust expense management solution than our previous manual process in Jira. Expensify has been a game changer, significantly improving the experience for both employees and the finance team. Its ability to issue reimbursements directly within the system across all our locations has been invaluable.

Keen to share how you stack it? Email to hein.vanzyl@getmayday.com.

NEW IN THE WORLD OF CFO SOFTWARE

🗞️ News from the stack-o-sphere

• Spendesk introduces Spendesk Procurement. Control spend from the start with this new procure-to-pay solution. Take a look.
• Stripe Billing upgrades include multiprocessor support, improved analytics and enhanced usage-based billing. Learn more.
• Xero Accounting app now lets you search, sort, and filter statement lines during bank reconciliation, making it easier to find information on the go. Check it out.

WHAT THE DATA SAYS

📊 Stat of the week

79% of finance leaders believe that to meet future needs they must play a significant role in owning business innovation and empowering transformation across the organisation.  

Research by Microsoft.

UPCOMING EVENTS

🗓️ Save the date

Preview Event: CFO Program

Thu 24 Oct, 4pm BST

Discover the CFO Program, designed for ambitious finance leaders aiming to build a valued, influential finance function. Explore the GrowCFO Platform for leadership development, connect with peers, and engage in insightful discussions in this dynamic community.

Virtual Summit: CFO Leadership Summit | Autumn

11-15 Nov

CONNECT CFO is a peer-led leadership-focused event that is complimentary for qualified professionals. Discover strategies from field experts, research new solutions, and meet like-minded peers on your path to professional growth.

Community Dinner: Pleo x CFO Techstack Dinner

Thu 21 Nov, 7pm GMT

This is your chance to dine, connect, and swap ideas with top finance leaders who are as passionate about tech as you are. Expect a great evening filled with fresh insights, lively conversations, and seriously good food. RSVP as soon as possible to secure your spot.

MORE OF THE GOOD STUFF

And lastly, our top picks!

🎧 Podcast: How to Communicate with Confidence with Susana Serrano-Davey, GrowCFO Mentor, ep. 198, GrowCFO Show

📝  Article: CFO Books: A reading list for modern finance leaders

😆  Joke: I love maths, it’s the only subject that counts!

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