As CFO, you routinely get requests for funding for various enterprise initiatives. Is your answer to these requests invariably a negative one? For example, when marketing asks to increase its spending to help boost revenue, you answer no. Or when IT recommends updating an outdated system, you respond not this year. And when sales or product development requests additional staffing, you reply we can’t afford that right now.

If this describes your current tenure as CFO, it looks and sounds like you’ve turned into a CFNo, which can be a bigger issue than you might think. But it’s one that can be fixed.

Why Being a CFNo Is a Problem

CFOs have to make hard decisions and turning down funding requests is a huge part of the job. But when the answer is typically an automatic no despite any request’s genuine merits because of poor cash flow performance, your fiscal caution may actually be doing more harm than good to the company you work for and to your own career.

The CFNo Effect on the Company

When the CFO repeatedly and predictably says no to everything, the company is bound to get stuck in an unpleasant status quo that involves one of more of the following features:

• Slow or stagnant revenue growth
• Zero or minimal innovation
• Frustrated attempts to attract quality talent
• Outdated and inefficient systems and processes
• Trouble meeting customers’ expectations
• Inability to pivot when conditions change

A CFNo’s Career Struggle

Likewise, being a CFO who always says no can potentially lead to unwanted career labels or conditions, such as:

• Reputation as a no-growth CFO
• Stagnant salary
• Lack of respect from colleagues
• Inability to transition to the CFO role at a larger company

What It Takes to Become a CFGo

If you want to be the opposite of a CFNo, in other words a CFGo who’s in a position to green light capital decisions, you need to make some changes that help you more easily and effectively view, forecast, and manage company cash, such as:

• Ditch outdated AR processes. Manual accounts receivable processes are costing you more than you think compared to automated AR.
• Take advantage of new technology: AI can transform cash flow performance in multiple ways, chief among them putting a comprehensive view of real-time information at your fingertips.
• Rely on more than an indirect cash flow forecast: The retrospective view of your quarter-end financial statements is important for the big picture, but adopting a direct cash flow forecast allows you to more closely monitor and manage the everyday cash situation.
• Strive to be positive: Implement smart accounts receivable and payable strategies that help the company achieve a free cash flow positive state rather than a negative one.
• Spread the word about cash flow: Help all employees understand how their everyday actions affect the company’s bottom line by cultivating cash flow literacy throughout the organization.

Tesorio’s AI-embedded Cash Flow Direct and Accounts Receivable CRM can give you the power as CFO to say yes to initiatives that will help you grow the company and your career. Contact us today for your Tesorio demo.