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

Welcome CFO Techstack Community 👋,

In today’s newsletter, we’re spotlighting the recent Finance and Business Synergy Report from Pleo, a leading spend management solution. This report highlights how finance teams and other departments work together—and why that collaboration is so crucial for success.

The report surveys over 2,800 finance decision-makers to explore how teams collaborate, the challenges they face, outdated stereotypes they’re breaking, and the solutions they see ahead. The results are eye-opening: without strong collaboration, businesses risk poor decisions, rash budget cuts, and missed opportunities to grow and thrive.

A huge thank you to Pleo for sponsoring this edition and our recent dinner event. Partnerships like these help us continue to bring valuable insights and connections to our community 🙏.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Breaking down barriers between finance and the rest of the company

Exploring Pleo's Finance and Business Synergy Report

For years, finance teams have been stuck with the stereotype of "bean counters"—balancing the books, chasing down receipts, and hunting for lost company credit cards. But this outdated view misses a key point: finance teams have the power to be real drivers of business success by working hand-in-hand with other departments.

At the heart of this shift is a simple but powerful idea: finance teams are more than just number crunchers—they’re strategic enablers. Pleo’s Finance and Business Synergy Report, showing how cross-functional collaboration can unlock exciting new levels of growth and efficiency.

Why collaboration matters

In today’s fast-paced world, no department can work in isolation. Collaboration between departments like finance, HR, IT, and marketing is essential to a business's success. Finance plays a key role by providing valuable insights that help other teams make better decisions and improve their performance.

When all departments work together, they create a more aligned and efficient approach to tackling challenges and seizing opportunities. With finance involved in the conversation, teams can make smarter decisions that benefit the business as a whole.

Here’s why this collaboration is so important:

1. Improved decision-making with accurate data
When finance collaborates with other teams, decision-making improves exponentially. Access to up-to-date financial information helps mitigate risks and align resources effectively.

In fact, the report found that "66% of respondents in the UK say that if they had better insights into other departments and had greater collaboration, they likely would have made better spending decisions in the past."*

2. Cost control and resource optimisation

Finance teams have unparalleled budget insights that can help departments like marketing or operations spend more wisely. Notably, "76% of organisations in the UK say that spend management platforms drive effective collaboration between the finance team and the other departments."*

Spend management systems don’t just streamline processes—they actively foster collaboration. This collaboration creates opportunities for savings and strategic investments, streamlining workflows to align with company goals.

3. Resilience through cross-functional teamwork

In today’s fast-changing business environment, adaptability is crucial. When finance teams collaborate across departments, the business becomes more resilient, able to adjust quickly to challenges and seize opportunities.

What's more, "72% of companies say collaboration between the finance team and other departments can make them a more financially successful company, and that it can help them become a more resilient company."*

This is because keeping finance isolated restricts visibility and leaves other teams unaware of critical insights, which may explain the rising priority of collaboration for finance teams as we approach 2025.

Getting started with better collaboration

So, what does it take to foster effective, positive communication and build stronger partnerships across departments? It all begins with creating a safe environment where people feel comfortable asking questions. A key part of this is cutting out the jargon, making communication clearer and more effective for everyone.

But strong collaboration doesn’t stop there. Digital tools play a critical role, enabling teams to work smarter, not harder. With accurate, real-time data readily available, teams can analyse information and communicate faster, uncovering insights that lead to improved, more timely decision-making—and ultimately, better business outcomes.

To get started, focus on fostering open communication, aligning around shared goals, and investing in tools that support transparency. By breaking down silos and working together, finance teams can transform into strategic enablers that help businesses thrive.

Download the Finance and Business Synergy Report here >

Supported Collaboration: Pleo

We’re thrilled to highlight the incredible support of our partners as we continue championing innovative solutions for in-house finance professionals. A special thank you to Pleo, the amazing spend management solution so many in our community swear by, for sponsoring today’s newsletter and our recent dinner event.

It was a fantastic evening where finance leaders came together to share ideas and insights about scaling with Xero and its ecosystem over great food and conversations. It was amazing to see the energy and the openness with which everyone shared their experiences. Take a look at the highlights reel below.

Partnerships like this underscore our dedication to sharing valuable insights with our community. Whether it’s through our weekly newsletters or events, we’re here to support you with practical content and meaningful connections with your in-house finance peers. 

*All statistics from The Finance and Business Synergy Report

COMMUNITY INSIGHTS

🎤 How I stacked it

Debbie Haddon, CFO at FirmCheck, shares their tech stack

Firmcheck is a complete AML management system designed specifically for accountancy firms. It transforms your AML compliance from a complex burden into a streamlined process. Beyond basic ID checks, the platform centralizes your entire AML operation—covering everything from risk assessments to ongoing monitoring—all within one intuitive system. Perfect for busy accountancy practices, Firmcheck ensures your firm stays compliant while saving you valuable time. Built for accountants, by accountants, it helps you say goodbye to compliance headaches and hello to peace of mind.

Debbie told us, "As CFO of Firmcheck for the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of working with an exceptionally effective leadership team to expand a New Zealand-based business into international markets, successfully establishing operations and a company structure in the UK. I’m deeply passionate about the synergy between operational excellence and strong financial discipline—foundations that are critical for identifying key milestones and driving business success. By automating and streamlining finance functions, we create the pathway to efficiency and precision, allowing high-quality software to deliver actionable financial insights seamlessly to the board and leadership team. While I haven’t yet perfected the ultimate tech stack for achieving peak efficiency and precision, I remain open-minded and continually experiment to drive improvements.”

Here’s what Debbie and her team are using:

1. Xero for General Ledger: I have used Xero in every finance role I’ve held (dating back to its launch in 2007!) and am a strong advocate for leveraging software add-ons and integrations to drive system efficiency.
2. Mayday for Intercompany: Although we currently manage just two companies (for now!), Mayday eliminates the manual pain of multicurrency intercompany accounts and expense recharging. Embedding this software early is laying the foundation for efficient scaling as we grow.
3. Google Sheets for Reporting: We export from Xero to Google Sheets and manually handle forex conversion and consolidation—a process that is the most painful part of our month-end close. Our unique budget and board reporting structure complicates things further–I haven’t found a tool that can fully meet our needs. The key requirements include a cash-based P&L budget, multicurrency conversion, tracking category consolidations across two Xero general ledgers, and a unified cashflow forecast. If anyone has suggestions to streamline this process, I’d love to hear them!
4. Cashbucket for Cashflow Forecasting and Financial Modelling: Cashbucket is a recent addition to our tech stack. It syncs seamlessly with Xero to generate a precise, day-by-day cashflow forecast, helping us manage working capital needs. At the same time, it can also consolidate this data into a long-term view of projected cash balances, complete with scenario modelling capabilities.
5. Chargebee/Stripe/GoCardless for Invoicing and Billing: Chargebee handles all the heavy lifting for our subscription-based invoicing, including metered billing, in-app self-service checkout, and VAT recognition on billing. We pair it with Stripe as our credit card payment gateway and GoCardless for direct debit payments, creating a hands-off invoicing and collections system. Together, Chargebee, Stripe, and GoCardless integrate seamlessly with Xero to manage contacts, invoices, VAT, and bank reconciliations. We love this invoicing and collections setup! However, we’ve recently encountered limitations in Chargebee’s configuration that impact the accuracy of our ARR reporting—a pain point we’re actively working to resolve.
6. Hubspot for CRM: Hubspot manages our lead and client information, as well as reporting on customer growth. It integrates seamlessly with Segment and Chargebee, providing us with a comprehensive view of our customer interactions.
7. Wise for FX Payments: We use Wise for our day-to-day UK bank account, FX payments, intercompany transfers, and employee expense cards. Wise enabled us to start trading in the UK at short notice without relying on a high street bank and has saved us significantly on expensive forex fees from a NZ bank. It also integrates with Xero bills, making bill payments simple and efficient.
8. Xero Bills Email Address for Bill Processing: With only a handful of ad-hoc bills each month, we haven’t yet needed additional automation here. Instead, our accounts email automatically forwards bills into Xero using the “Email bills to Xero” address or the Files inbox to attach them to our repeating bills. Most of our bills are recurring or subscription-based, and our biggest challenge lies in the oversight and management of these. I’ve found that Hudled might be able to help with this, but I need to revisit it and explore further.
9. Xero Expenses for Employee Expense Claims: This isn't a major area for us yet, but Xero Expenses works well for now. However, I can see that we may need approval workflows in the future as we grow.
10. Smartly for Payroll in NZ and BrightPay in the UK: Both payroll systems are standalone, with only a journal pushed into Xero. Smartly is a simple, light-touch payroll solution that handles all the heavy lifting for our NZ payroll. It calculates pay, direct debits the funds, pays staff, files the PAYE tax return, pays taxes to the revenue authority, and manages staff payslips and annual leave—all with the push of a button. BrightPay, on the other hand, is more cumbersome. It’s not cloud-based; instead, it’s an online portal where our UK accountant hosts the desktop software. Additionally, there’s no integration for making payments to staff, pension providers, or HMRC.
11. Goodsign for Electronic Signing: In a world full of costly subscription-based e-signature software, I discovered this gem. We don’t require a lot of e-signatures, and our needs are more ad-hoc than regular, so expensive subscriptions felt like a waste. Goodsign is a simple pay-per-sign e-signature tool that offers team and other lightweight features to get the job done—without the high cost of full-featured platforms.

THE STACK EXCHANGE

🧵 This week's top threads, from The Stack Exchange

1. Incorporating accounting data from non-Xero entities into group reports
2. Best practices and tools for AP & payment runs
3. QBO v Xero - Stripe integration
    

NEW IN THE WORLD OF CFO SOFTWARE

🗞️ News from the stack-o-sphere

• Mayday unveils a fresh, modern interface that elevates your experience without compromising the functionality you trust. Check it out.
• Calxa introduces Dynamic Column Reporting, a new way of building your templates that will add more flexibility to your reporting options. Learn more.
• Modulr acquires accounts payable automation disruptor Nook. Read all about it.

WHAT THE DATA SAYS

📊 Stat of the week

72% of survey respondents say improving collaboration between finance and other departments can make them a more resilient and financially successful company.

Research by Pleo.

UPCOMING EVENTS

🗓️ Save the date

Webinar: Structuring Finance Teams to Optimise Cash Management

Wed 4 Dec, 4pm GMT

As your organisation grows, specialised professionals are key to managing emerging cash challenges. This webinar, with Agicap, explores cash management roles in companies with revenues of £10M–£200M, detailing who handles it, their tasks, and their frequency.

Webinar: The Key Innovation Tactics That Deliver Business Growth

Thu 5 Dec, 3pm GMT

This webinar explores three of the most productive tactics when it comes to elevating innovation and delivering business growth. You’ll gain insight into innovation plans that deliver double productivity, disruption readiness and business growth. 

Webinar: Bad payers or bad processes? 7 strategies to prevent late invoice payments

Tue 10 Dec, 5pm AEDT / 10am GMT / 3pm EST

You have the power to drastically reduce late payments for your business by making a few simple process changes. See seven proven strategies that are helping businesses to stop late payments in their tracks, reduce days sales outstanding, and improve cash flow.

MORE OF THE GOOD STUFF

And lastly, our top picks!

🎧 Podcast: Beyond the Balance Sheet: Leveraging People and Data for Success | David Morris, CFO, Guardian Pharmacy, ep. 1049, CFO Thought Leader

📝  Article: Finance as a team sport: How to connect finance with every department

😆  Joke: How does a finance professional stay out of debt? He learns to act his wage.

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