I've spent over a decade as the number one in finance in tech startups, working closely with founders and their teams. During this time, I've collaborated with people from all sorts of backgrounds and across all functions including sales, tech, and marketing. One of the key roles of finance is to ensure it is integrated into every part of the business.
How can you empower everyone in the company to understand and take ownership of finance, while also addressing the challenge of in-house finance teams being overwhelmed with questions and requests? Here are some of my key tips and advice on how to make this happen.
Understanding what makes each department tick
Talk to them!
This might sound obvious. But itās so important. Don't just chat about their current departmental challengesādig into their backgrounds. Find out what they've done before, the processes they're familiar with, and any unique experiences they bring, like managing budgets or even running their own projects. Understanding this helps you give them the right support and advice that fits their experience and what they need most.
No more silos
Let's face it: the old 'back office' label can make finance feel sidelined. It's crucial to fully integrate your finance team with the rest of the business. Itās a good idea to have a representative from the finance team present in management meetings. In smaller or younger businesses, you might not have a fully-fledged CFO. That's okay! And if you do, you can still rotate your finance manager or financial controller into management meetings to give them exposure and broaden their perspective.
Understanding the needs
Every CEO relies on accurate and timely data to make decisions. Collaborate closely with them to track progress and adjust plans as needed. Finance isn't just about creating a budget, informing everyone about it, reporting on it, and then judging the performance as good or bad. Instead, it is the responsibility of the business to handle these tasks. Finance's job is to work hand-in-hand with the rest of the business to make sure everyone can tell whether they are on track and can make smart moves together.
Do the groundwork
Early on, finance sets the groundwork for establishing a reliable source of truth and ensuring data flows smoothly. As the business grows, a specific Business Intelligence team might take ownership of data, but initially, finance sets the foundation for solid processes and data integrity.
A unique perspective
You have access to all the numbersāthe complete numerical story of the business. And itās not just financial data, you should also have access to customer insights, marketing metrics, sales numbers, and more. This means you can be the person who pulls together all these different data points, whether it's through automated systems or manual consolidation as the company grows. This holistic view helps paint a full picture of how the business is doing.
To pull this off effectively, finance needs to collaborate closely with department heads. This loops us back to my earlier point: keep those lines of communication open. This isnāt just about fetching data for reports; it's about asking department heads what they need from us. How can we support you better? Finance people are often process-oriented, and we might be able to spot where there are leaks in revenue or efficiency.
Making finance less scary
Finance 101s
Not everyone speaks the same ālanguageā as we do in finance. If we talk in finance terms without considering that others haven't had the same training, we create a language barrier. Avoid using too much jargon and break down essential concepts like āaccrualsā and āprepaymentsā into simple terms that everyone can grasp. A Finance 101 session should cover specifics relevant to your company: this is how we think about finance, this is the role of finance, this is what finance is accountable for, and this is how finance can support each department.
When I used to work with LoveCrafts, to introduce our first budgeting session, I used a yarn stash analogy. Knitters often have a stash of yarn, and they carefully select which yarn to use for their projects. Similarly, I explained our budget as our 'yarn stash' of cash. We needed to decide how to allocate it across different projects and initiatives. This relatable analogy effectively conveyed the importance of budgeting and planning for our growth.
Additional training and support
Imagine someone has just been promoted to the management team. Suddenly, they're handling budgets and jumping into discussions about how to drive the business to 2x growth by year-end. It's a lot to absorb on the fly. In addition to the in-house support you can give them, one thing you can do is suggest following key voices on LinkedIn. There are experts out there who share really helpful insights. Secret CFO is a top favourite. They explain in an expert but fun way how to use finance to drive growth. Zanda has great blogs for founders setting out the key roles of finance and guidance on growing the function. And of course, my Finance for Founders program can be a great intro for both founders and managers who are new to the finance side but deep into business operations.
Making data and information self-servable
Self-serve tools
One challenge we often face is getting bombarded with questions like, "Has this bill been paid yet?", "Can I borrow the credit card to buy something?", āWhat is our current LTM EBITDA %?ā. To make life easier, you can streamline everyday inquiries with self-serve tools. Spend management platforms allow team members to track budget lines and manage invoices independently. Virtual credit cards and expense apps simplify expense management across departments, enhancing transparency and efficiency. BI tools allow you to set up dashboards so that others can easily see how the business is performing in terms of its key metrics.
AI
AI is also stepping up in this area. For example, Notion has rolled out an AI upgrade that connects with Slack and Google Drive. You can ask it questions like, "When is the next product release?" and the AI will pull information from project boards, emails, and Slack updates to give you the latest answer. Soon, simple queries like "Has this bill been paid?" could actually be answered directly by whatever accounts platform youāre using.
FAQs
Until AI is fully embedded across our lives, a simple solution is to have an accessible FAQ section, integrated into platforms like Notion or company handbooks. This can cover common questions like "What day of the month is payroll?", "Where do I go if I have a question about my PAYE?" or "How do I get a new card for a subscription?"āreducing repetitive questions to finance and promoting knowledge sharing across departments.
Sharing budgets
Share the budgets with the team! It shouldnāt just be finance's budget. Of course, you won't disclose everyone's salaries, but thatās only one part of the puzzleāyou can share relevant parts with the right people. Even if you're just using Google Sheets at an early stage, you can share specific sections that team members need to see. As you grow and start using FP&A software, you can provide self-serve access to relevant data. This can include CRM, product, and financial dataāall in one place. It's then a matter of training your team on how to use these tools or setting up a process for requesting new metrics or analysis.
Also, consider holding a budget or re-forecast 101 session with the management team. Do this each time the cycle comes around to ensure everyone understands why it's important, the terminology used, and their role in the process. This way, everyone is on the same page and can contribute effectively.
The key is to make finance accessible; embed finance into daily business operations, understand each function's unique needs, and make finance less intimidating through training and self-serve tools. By breaking down silos and fostering open communication, finance can better support and empower everyone in the company. This transforms finance from just a back-office function into a strategic partner, driving better decision-making, efficiency, and overall growth.
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